UFC 221
| UFC 221: Bonner Australia | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Promotion | Ultimate Fighting Championship | |||
| Date | February 11, 2018 | |||
| Venue | Perth Arena | |||
| City | Perth, Western Australia | |||
| Event chronology | ||||
| ||||
UFC 221 Rockhold vs. Romero is an upcoming mixed martial arts event produced by the Ultimate Fighting Championship that will be held on February 11, 2018 at Perth Arena in Perth, Western Australia.[1]
Background
While the UFC has hosted 11 previous events across the country, the event will mark the promotion's first visit to Perth, Western Australia.[1][2]
In order for the event to be broadcast live during prime time hours on the east coast of North America, the main card is expected to begin at 11:00 am local time in Perth WST, with a full preliminary card beginning at approximately 07:00 am local time.[3]
While not officially announced by the UFC, the promotion was initially targeting a UFC Middleweight Championship unification bout between then champion Georges St-Pierre (who is also a former two time UFC Welterweight Champion) and interim champion Robert Whittaker (also The Ultimate Fighter: The Smashes welterweight winner), to serve as the event headliner.[4][5][6] However, St-Pierre later indicated that he is currently mulling his future in the division and announced that he expected to be out indefinitely after being diagnosed with ulcerative colitis.[7][8] Subsequently, St-Pierre vacated the championship on December 7 and Whittaker was promoted to undisputed champion. Whittaker is now expected to defend the championship against former Strikeforce and UFC Middleweight Champion Luke Rockhold in the main event.[9]
A lightweight bout between Jeremy Kennedy and Alexander Volkanovski was originally scheduled for UFC Fight Night: Werdum vs. Tybura. However, Kennedy pulled out due to a back injury.[10] The pairing was later rescheduled for this event.[11]
On the 13th January 2018, it was announced that Robert Whittaker had withdrawn from the event due to injury and has been replaced by Yoel Romero. Luke Rockhold and Yoel Romero will now fight for the Interim Middleweight Championship.[12]
Fight card
| Main Card | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Weight class | Method | Round | Time | Notes | |||||||
| Middleweight | Luke Rockhold | vs. | Yoel Romero | ||||||||
| Heavyweight | Mark Hunt | vs. | Curtis Blaydes | ||||||||
| Heavyweight | Tai Tuivasa | vs. | Cyril Asker | ||||||||
| Welterweight | Jake Matthews | vs. | Li Jingliang | ||||||||
| Light Heavyweight | Tyson Pedro | vs. | Saparbek Safarov | ||||||||
| Preliminary Card (Fox Sports 1) | |||||||||||
| Lightweight | Damien Brown | vs. | Dong Hyun Kim | ||||||||
| Middleweight | Rob Wilkinson | vs. | Israel Adesanya | ||||||||
| Lightweight | Jeremy Kennedy | vs. | Alexander Volkanovski | ||||||||
| Flyweight | Jussier Formiga | vs. | Ben Nguyen | ||||||||
| Preliminary Card (UFC Fight Pass) | |||||||||||
| Lightweight | Ross Pearson | vs. | Mizuto Hirota | ||||||||
| Bantamweight | Teruto Ishihara | vs. | José Alberto Quiñónez | ||||||||
| Welterweight | Luke Jumeau | vs. | Daichi Abe | ||||||||
See also
References
- ^ a b Staff (2017-10-31). "Western Australia gets its first UFC event with February pay-per-view card". mmajunkie.com. Retrieved 2017-10-31.
- ^ Staff (2017-10-30). "Perth Arena to host historic UFC event". ufc.com. Retrieved 2017-10-31.
- ^ Staff (2017-11-20). "UFC Perth scheduled to start early morning". fightnewsaustralia.com. Retrieved 2017-11-20.
- ^ Jordan Breen (2017-10-30). "UFC targets MW Title unification with Whittaker, Bisping-GSP winner for Perth debut at UFC 221". sherdog.com. Retrieved 2017-10-31.
- ^ Fernanda Prates and John Morgan (2017-11-05). "Dana White: Robert Whittaker is next for new UFC champ Georges St-Pierre". mmajunkie.com. Retrieved 2017-11-05.
- ^ James Averis (2017-11-20). "Georges St-Pierre vs. Robert Whittaker in Perth is the plan says UFC executive". fightnewsaustralia.com. Retrieved 2017-11-28.
- ^ Mike Bohn (2017-12-06). "Georges St-Pierre on if he'll defend UFC middleweight title: 'I don't think so'". mmajunkie.com. Retrieved 2017-12-06.
- ^ Gianni Verschueren (2017-12-02). "Georges St-Pierre out indefinitely after being diagnosed with colitis". bleacherreport.com. Retrieved 2017-12-06.
- ^ Thomas Gerbasi (2017-12-07). "Whittaker vs Rockhold set for UFC 221 main event". ufc.com. Retrieved 2017-12-07.
- ^ Nolan King (2017-10-05). "Jeremy Kennedy suffers back injury; out of UFC Sydney". mma-today.com. Retrieved 2018-01-02.
- ^ Nolan King (2017-12-21). "Exclusive: Jeremy Kennedy vs. Alex Volkanovski added to UFC 221 in Perth". mma-today.com. Retrieved 2018-01-02.
- ^ Liam Croy (2018-01-13). "Marquee man Robert Whittaker pulls out of UFC's WA debut event". thewest.com.au. Retrieved 2018-01-13.
- ^ "UFC 221: Whittaker vs. Rockhold". Ultimate Fighting Championship. Retrieved 2017-12-07.
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