UFC 223 will take place on April 6, from the Barclays center in Brooklyn, New York. The card will be headlined by a lightweight title fight between Khabib Nurmagomedov and Al Iaquinta. The co-main event will be women’s strawweight title fight featuring champion Rose Namajunas and former champion Joanna Jędrzejczyk.
Despite several changes, the UFC 223 card appears to be finalized.
The main event was originally scheduled to be a lightweight title fight between Khabib Nurmagomedov and then interim champion Tony Ferguson. However, Ferguson was forced to withdraw due to a tripping indecent. Ferguson was orginally replaced with Max Holloway. Despite showing up to the weigh-inns Holloway was deemed medically unfit by the New York State Athletic Commission. Al Iaquinta was eventually named as a replacement.
Due to Iaquinta weighting in at 155.2 lbs for his originally scheduled bout with Paul Felder, Iaquinta will not be recognized at a champion if he were to be victorious. However, UFC president Dana White has stated that Iaquinta would be recognized at champion by the UFC.
In the co-main event, Rose Namajunas will defend her strawweight title against Joanna Jędrzejczyk. This will be Namajunas’ first title defense since ending Jędrzejczyk’s lengthily title run at UFC 217 in November 2017.
Three fights, including: Artem Lobov vs. Alex Caceres, Ray Borg vs. Brandon Moreno and Michael Chiesa vs. Anthony Pettis were scrapped due to Conor McGregor’s attack at the UFC 223 media day.
Here is the full current card:
FS1 Prelims
Light heavyweight Devin Clark(8-2) vs. Mike Rodriguez(9-2)
Lightweight #14Evan Dunham(18-6-1) vs. Olivier Aubin-Mercier(11-2)
Women’s flyweight Bec Rawlings(7-7) vs. Ashlee Evans-Smith(5-3)
Women’s strawweight #4Karolina Kowalkiewicz(11-2) vs. #8Felice Herrig(14-6)
Main Card (pay-per-view)
Lightweight Joe Lauzon(27-15) vs. Chris Gruetzemacher(13-3)
Featherweight Zabit Magomedsharipov(14-1) vs. Kyle Bochniak(8-2)
Featherweight #11Renato Moicano(11-1-1) vs. #13Calvin Kattar(18-2)
Women’s strawweight championship (c)Rose Namajunas(8-3) vs. #1Joanna Jędrzejczyk(14-1)
Lightweight championship #2Khabib Nurmagomedov(25-0) vs. #11Al Iaquinta(13-3-1)
NOW READ THIS: Rob M V’s Vlog: REACTING TO MMA MADNESS
Leave a Reply