The Ultimate Fighting Championship returns to Salt Lake City, Utah on July 29, 2023, and this is a tournament you don’t want to miss!
The UFC 291 event is headlined by a lightweight bout between former interim champions Dustin Poirier (29-7) and Justin Gaethje (24-4).
There was also another interesting bout added to the lineup, as former UFC lightweight champ Jan Blasović (29-9-1) takes on former UFC middleweight champ Alex Pereira (7-2), who is presumed to be the main event entrant. .
Then, earlier on the main card, we have an epic middleweight showdown between former title challenger Paulo Costa (14-2) and Russian fighter Ikram Aliskerov (14-1). This is an exciting match for many reasons.
Many of us have wanted to see Khamzat Chimaev take on Paulo Costa, but it looks like we will end up with Costa vs. Aliskerov, the man who only lost to Chimaev.
Aliskerov was going 8-0 in that fight, and walked away from the cage that night after suffering the first defeat of his career.
Since then, he’s gone 6-0 with five finishes including three Kimura deliveries and two knockouts, most recently in his UFC debut earlier this month when he KO’d a talented kickboxer in Phil Hawes, and he did it. in just over two. minutes.
Then we have Costa, who lost to Israel Adesanya in a title fight in September of 2020. He went 1-1, losing by unanimous decision to no. In third place is Marvin Vettori at 205 pounds, and defeated former multi-organizational middleweight champion (Strikeforce & UFC) Luke Rockhold when he returned last year in August.
Who do you see coming out on top in this epic middleweight competition at UFC 291?
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I became a fan of combat sports when I was 12 years old. I was browsing channels and landed on Versus, which is where WEC was on TV. Uriah Faber fought Jens Pulver for the second time that night. This is the first fight I’ve ever seen, and I got addicted to it instantly. Eventually, I started covering the sport in the last quarter of 2018, and since then I’ve started writing about animals as well. If you’d like to see these pieces, be sure to check out learnaboutnature.com!