For the first quarter of 2024, the organization has three pay-per-view major events scheduled, according to UFC CEO Dana White, including the Sean O’Malley vs Marlon Vera fight.
In order to reveal the three championship bouts that will highlight the three different pay-per-views that will kick off the new year, Dana White uploaded a video on social media on Monday: January will see Sean Strickland defend his middleweight championship against Dricus Du Plessis; February will see Alexander Volkanovski challenge Ilia Topuria for the featherweight title; and March will see Sean O’Malley, the bantamweight champion, take on Marlon Vera.
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Dana White: Sean O’ Malley vs Marlon Vera, Sean Strickland vs Dricus Du Plessis, and Alexander Volkannovski vs Ilia Topuria To Take Place On March
ESPN reports that the only fight with a confirmed date is Strickland vs. Du Plessis, which is scheduled for January 20 at UFC 297 in Toronto. In his video release, White omitted any information on the precise dates and places of Volkanovski vs. Topuria and O’Malley vs. Vera.
The revelation that Du Plessis (20-2 MMA, 6-0 UFC) will earn the championship chance at 185 pounds is a break for the South African, since Khamzat Chimaev suffered a ruptured hand ligament in his fight against Kamaru Usman at UFC 294 last month. The victor of Usman-Chimaev would be the next in line to face Strickland (28-5 MMA, 15-5 UFC), according to White’s statement before to UFC 294. It was a majority decision for Chimaev.
After stopping former champion Rober Whittaker in July of last year, Du Plessis was scheduled to take on Israel Adesanya, the middleweight champion at the time, but an injury prevented him from recovering in the allotted eight weeks. Consequently, Strickland was given the opportunity to defend the championship at UFC 293 and defeated Adesanya after dominating him for five rounds.
After losing to Islam Makhachev last month in his second try to win the lightweight championship, Volkanovski (26-3 MMA, 13-2 UFC) will move back down to featherweight. At UFC 294 Volkanovski accepted the rematch with Makhachev with less than two weeks’ notice and was taken out by a head kick in the opening frame. Makhachev at lightweight is the opponent he has only lost to twice in the UFC. When Volkanovski takes on unbeaten Topuria (14-0 MMA, 6-0 UFC), who is fresh off a five-round unanimous decision victory over Josh Emmett in the UFC on ABC 5 main event this past June, he will want to make his sixth consecutive defense of his featherweight title.
In August 2020, “Chito” won their battle by first-round TKO. O’Malley (17-1 MMA, 9-1 UFC) vs. Vera (23-8-1 MMA, 15-7 UFC) is a rematch of that fight. Sean O’Malley has always maintained that his career is untarnished by this one incident because he was hurt during the concluding sequence. After taking the title from Aljamain Sterling at UFC 292 in August of last year, O’Malley is seeking to make his first defense of the title. On that particular evening, Vera emerged victorious from his previous six bouts, triumphing over Pedro Munhoz by unanimous decision.
