Ahead the first Fight Night event of 2024, the UFC officially announced three more main event bouts Saturday that’ll take place throughout the year.
The first of the three announced matchups will be between Tai “Bam Bam” Tuivasa (15-6-0) and Marcin Tybura (24-8-0). The heavyweight brawl between the division’s No. 9- and No. 10-ranked fighters was originally scheduled to be a part of UFC 298 but will now be the main event for Fight Night 239 on March 16 from the UFC Apex compound in Nevada.
Both fighters are coming off losses and will be looking to get back in the win column and work their way up the heavyweight ladder.
Tuivasa is on a three-fight skid with his last victory coming in February 2022, and all three of those contests since have finished via stoppage. That stretch began after the Australian had won five bouts in a row and found himself as high as No. 4 on the division leaderboard.
Tybura isn’t on that kind of a streak but his most recent entry into an octagon did end in disappointing fashion as he lost to current interim heavyweight champion Tom Aspinall via first-round TKO. It snapped a two-fight win streak for Tybura and that was also Aspinall’s last fight before winning the title a couple of months later against Sergei Pavlovich at UFC 295.
The second fight will also be an Apex main event, a women’s flyweight bout set between Amanda Ribas (12-4-0) and “Thug” Rose Namajunas (11-6-0) on March 23.
Ribas comes into the fight as a contender in both the strawweight and flyweight rankings, currently holding the No. 9 spot in both divisions. Traditionally a strawweight fighter, the Brazillian made her 125-pound debut in 2020. She’s fought as a flyweight four times total, holding a 2-2 record over that span. Ribas went back down to 115 in her most recent fight against Luana Pinheiro, a contest she ended in spectacular fashion by way of a spinning wheel kick that led to a TKO victory.
Meanwhile, former two-time strawweight champion Namajunas will be fighting in the higher weight class for just the second time. After ending her second title reign with a split-decision loss to Carla Esparza at UFC 274, the American decided to take on a new challenge. She took on current No. 3-ranked women’s flyweight contender Manon Fiorot in September but lost via unanimous decision. A win could earn her a spot within the top 15 in the division.
The final announced fight is for Fight Night 241 in Atlantic City, N.J., a welterweight bout between Sean Brady (16-1-0) and Vicente “The Silent Assassin” Luque (22-9-1) on March 30.
Brady will be headling a UFC main event for the first time since making his debut with the promotion in 2019. He’s 6-1 during that span and has earned himself the No. 7 ranking on the welterweight leaderboard. His latest fight was a victory via third-round submission against Kelvin Gastelum in December.
Luque was originally scheduled to fight Ian Garry at UFC 296 before Garry pulled out due to an illness. Despite speculation that the two would wait things out to later have their fight, it appears Luque is ready to get back in the cage before that.
The Brazilian recently snapped a two-fight skid when he beat Rafael dos Anjos via unanimous decision in August. Before his losing streak, Luque had won five fights in a row.
from Sportsnet.ca
via i9bet
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