UFC schedule 2023: Every fight happening this year

Another year of UFC action is coming towards its end, as fans come to terms with Conor McGregor’s long-awaited return being delayed until 2024.

McGregor has not fought since breaking his leg in July 2021 and was due to fight Michael Chandler this spring or summer, but the bout is still without a date, location and weight class – all we know is that it won’t take place in 2023. Thankfully for the UFC, new stars have emerged elsewhere to keep audiences engaged.

In one of the biggest fights of 2023, lightweight champion Islam Makhachev retained his title against featherweight king Alexander Volkanovski in February – and later repeated the trick in October. In March, light-heavyweight icon Jon Jones moved up to heavyweight after three years away, submitting Ciryl Gane to win the title vacated by Francis Ngannou, when the latter left the UFC. Next up for Jones was meant to be heavyweight ‘GOAT’ Stipe Miocic at Madison Square Garden, but an injury to Jones opened the door for Tom Aspinall to win the interim belt against Sergei Pavlovich.

Elsewhere, Britain’s Leon Edwards retained the welterweight belt against Kamaru Usman in London, seven months after taking the title from the “Nigerian Nightmare” with a stunning head kick. April then kicked off with Israel Adesanya finally beating longtime rival Alex Pereira, the “Last Stylebender” knocking out the Brazilian to regain the middleweight belt that he lost to Pereira last year. However, Adesanya would drop the title again in September, suffering a stunning upset loss to Sean Strickland. Meanwhile, Pereira moved up to light-heavyweight and won the belt within two fights.

Elsewhere, “Sugar” Sean O’Malley completed his swift rise through the bantamweight rankings by taking the belt from Aljamain Sterling in August, knocking out the Jamaican-American in the second round. There are plenty more huge fights to come, too. Here is every bout and event announced by the UFC for the remaining weeks of the year (cards subject to change):

Saturday 2 December – UFC Fight Night – Moody Center, Austin, US

(Getty Images)

Main card

Beneil Dariush vs Arman Tsarukyan (lightweight)

Jalin Turner vs Bobby Green (lightweight)

Rob Font vs Deiveson Figueiredo (bantamweight)

Sean Brady vs Kelvin Gastelum (welterweight)

Punahele Soriano vs Dustin Stoltzfus (middleweight)

Prelims

Clay Guida vs Joaquim Silva (lightweight)

Miesha Tate vs Julia Avila (women’s bantamweight)

Zach Reese vs Cody Brundage (middleweight)

Drakkar Klose vs Joe Solecki (lightweight)

Steve Garcia vs Melquizael Costa (featherweight)

Rodolfo Bellato vs Ihor Potieria (light-heavyweight)

Wellington Turman vs Jared Gooden (welterweight)

Veronica Hardy vs Jamey-Lyn Horth (women’s flyweight)

Saturday 9 December – UFC Fight Night – UFC Apex, Las Vegas, US

Song Yadong vs Chris Gutierrez (bantamweight)

Anthony Smith vs Khalil Rountree Jr (light-heavyweight)

Saturday 16 December – UFC 296 – T-Mobile Arena, Las Vegas, US

(PA Wire)

Main card

Leon Edwards (C) vs Colby Covington (welterweight title)

Alexandre Pantoja (C) vs Brandon Royval 2 (flyweight title)

Shavkat Rahkmonov vs Stephen “Wonderboy” Thompson (welterweight)

Tony Ferguson vs Paddy Pimblett (lightweight)

Vicente Luque vs Ian Machado Garry (welterweight)

Prelims

Josh Emmett vs Giga Chikadze (featherweight)

Irene Aldana vs Karol Rosa (women’s bantamweight)

Cody Garbrandt vs Brian Kelleher (bantamweight)

Casey O’Neill vs Ariane Lipski (women’s flyweight)

Early prelims

Alonzo Menifield vs Dustin Jacoby (light-heavyweight)

Martin Buday vs Shamil Gaziev (heavyweight)

Tagir Ulanbekov vs Cody Durden (flyweight)

Randy Brown vs Muslim Salikhov (welterweight)

Saturday 13 January – UFC Fight Night – UFC Apex, Las Vegas, US

Magomed Ankalaev vs Johnny Walker 2 (light-heavyweight)

Saturday 20 January – UFC 297 – Scotiabank Arena, Toronto, Canada

(Getty Images)

Sean Strickland (C) vs Dricus Du Plessis (middleweight title)

Raquel Pennington vs Mayra Bueno Silva (vacant women’s bantamweight title)

Jan Blachowicz vs Aleksandar Rakic 2 (light-heavyweight)

Arnold Allen vs Movsar Evloev (featherweight)

Charles Jourdain vs Sean Woodson (featherweight)

Neil Magny vs Mike Malott (welterweight)

Serhiy Sidey vs Ramon Taveras (bantamweight)

Dominick Reyes vs Carlos Ulberg (light-heavyweight)

Chris Curtis vs Marc-Andre Barriault (middleweight)

Brad Katona vs Garrett Armfield (bantamweight)

Gillian Robertson vs Polyana Viana (women’s strawweight)

Yohan Lainesse vs Sam Patterson (welterweight)

Malcolm Gordon vs Jimmy Flick (flyweight)

Saturday 10 February – UFC Fight Night – UFC Apex, Las Vegas, US

(Getty)

Jack Hermansson vs Joe Pyfer (middleweight)

Saturday 17 February – UFC 298 – Honda Center, Anaheim, US

Alexander Volkanovski (C) vs Ilia Topuria (featherweight title)

Saturday 9 March – UFC 299 – TBA

Sean O’Malley (C) vs Marlon “Chito” Vera 2 (bantamweight title)

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