Charles Oliveira and Islam Makhachev top one of the deepest UFC cards of the year.
During Saturday’s UFC Vegas 61 broadcast, the promotion announced the official lineup for UFC 280, which takes place Oct. 22 in Abu Dhabi and airs live on ESPN+ pay-per-view. The card is headlined by Oliveira and Makhachev — No. 1 and No. 3 respectively in the MMA Fighting Global Rankings — battling for the lightweight title that “Do Bronx” lost on the scale this past May.
In the co-main event, Aljamain Sterling defends the bantamweight championship against two-time UFC champion T.J. Dillashaw.
Also set for the main card, former bantamweight champion Petr Yan faces top contender Sean O’Malley, Beneil Dariush meets Mateusz Gamrot in a battle of top 10 lightweights, and perennial flyweight contender Katlyn Chookagian looks to stop the championship charge of Manon Fiorot.
The preliminary portion of the Oct. 22 card has no shortage of star power as ranked fighters Belal Muhammad, Sean Brady, Volkan Oezdemir, and Muhammad Mokaev will all be in action, as well as fast-rising heavyweight threat Jailton Almeida.
See the announced UFC 280 lineup below.
Main Card (ESPN+ PPV, 2 p.m. ET)
Charles Oliveira vs. Islam Makhachev
Aljamain Sterling vs. T.J. Dillashaw
Petr Yan vs. Sean O’Malley
Beneil Dariush vs. Mateusz Gamrot
Katlyn Chookagian vs. Manon Fiorot
Preliminary Card (ESPN+ and ESPNews, 10 a.m. ET)
Makhmud Muradov vs. Caio Borralho
Volkan Oezdemir vs. Nikita Krylov
Zubaira Tukhugov vs. Lucas Almeida
Shamil Abdurakhimov vs. Jailton Almeida
Magomed Mustafaev vs. Yamato Nishikawa
Abubakar Nurmagomedov vs. Gadzhi Omargadzhiev
Muhammad Mokaev vs. Malcolm Gordon