Several fights confirmed for stacked UFC Abu Dhabi fight card in July

The Ultimate Fighting Championship is setting up a big summer of fights, with UFC 317 and 318 being the two major pay-per-view cards coming up drawing the most attention.

However, Dana White’s announcement of the main fights for the UFC’s return to Abu Dhabi is making fans realize this Fight Night card could be just as good — and it will be free on ABC in the US.

Many of the fights had been rumored for some time, but now we have confirmation of high-level fights such as Robert Whittaker vs. Reinier de Ridder, Movsar Evloev vs. Aaron Pico, and Petr Yan vs Marcus McGhee.

Also on the card will be the widely scorned Bryce Mitchell’s debut at bantamweight against Said Nurmagomedov — no relation to Khabib — as well as the one-eyed Sharaputdin Magomedov vs. Marc-Andre Barriault and a ranked light-heavyweight matchup between Nikita Krylov and Bogdan Guskov.

The main event is a stylistic clash between an aging, but still elite, striker with famously good takedown defense, and a slick grappler who just revealed new depth on the feet with his knockout win over NCAA wrestling champion Bo Nickal.

Yet the fight with the most divisional implications is definitely the co-main event; Movsar Evloev should be the number one featherweight contender while Aaron Pico is the first major UFC signing from the now-defunct Bellator who is in his prime.

Pico holds the distinction of having some of the cleanest knockout shots in the game today, as well as being the former top-ranked high school wrestler in the nation who forewent college and the Olympics to focus on turning pro in mixed martial arts.

The bout should determine the next title challenger at 145-lbs in the UFC, though Evloev is already being passed over for that shot against Alexander Volkanovski.

Petr Yan is also close to earning a title shot, but faces an uphill battle due to a devastating past loss to the champ, Merab Dvalishvili, and thus will need to state his case with an impressive performance against #13 contender Marcus McGhee, who is undefeated in four UFC fights thus far.

The prelim bouts for the card have not been fully announced yet, although Amanda Ribas vs. Tabatha Ricci, Ibo Aslan vs. Billy Elekena, and Asu Almabayev vs. Ramazan Temirov are all confirmed as well.

With a week and one month left until UFC Abu Dhabi, the remaining three or four matchups should be announced in the near future.

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