Two championship belts will be on the line at Saturday’s UFC 267 pay-per-view event on Yas Island in Abu Dhabi.
Light heavyweight champion Jan Blachowicz (28-8) of Poland will defend his title against a fellow ageless wonder in Glover Teixeira (32-7) the card’s main event. The co-feature will determine an interim bantamweight champion, as Russia’s Petr Yan squares off against Colorado’s Cory Sandhagen.
Jan Blachowicz aims to defend his title a second time at UFC 267
The winner of five straight bouts, the wielder of “Polish-Power” Blachowicz looks to make the second defense of his 205-pound belt. He last competed at UFC 259, when he earned a unanimous decision victory over middleweight titleholder Israel Adesanya in a champion vs. champion bout.
Teixeira, who turns 42 on Thursday, is on a remarkable run. He’s been with the UFC since 2012 and previously contested for the division in 2014 against then-champ Jon Jones. Teixeira has won five consecutive matchups in a streak that dates back to 2019. Three of those wins have also come by submission.
Petr Yan in pursuit of redemption at UFC 267
In the co-main event, Yan (15-2) will look to regain a version of the bantamweight title he lost in March by disqualification.
The former champion from Russia became the first UFC fighter ever to lose a title by DQ when he walloped a downed Aljamain Sterling in the head with an illegal knee, in the fourth round of a fight Yan was winning handily at UFC 259.
Yan and Sterling were scheduled to rematch on this card, but Sterling pulled out after rehab from neck surgery went longer than expected.
The UFC has been criticized for being too fast with the trigger on interim belts, but in this case, with no real timeline for a return, the call seems correct. Yan will face Sandhagen (14-3), who has won two of his past three.
The main card will air exclusively on ESPN+ beginning at 2 pm ET.
–Field Level Media
Join the discussion on this topic…