The Octagon is headed to Australia for UFC 284 in February.
A pair of title fights will take place on February 12 from Perth, Australia and the RAC Arena.
In the main event, Alexander Volkanovski takes on Islam Makhachev for the lightweight title. Volkanovski, a native of Australia, is the reigning featherweight champion.
This will be the first UFC pay-per-view since 2018 when Yoel Romero and Luke Rockhold met at UFC 221.
Yair Rodriguez and Josh Emmett will meet for the interim featherweight title with the winner likely to meet Volkanovski in 2022 to unify the belts. Robert Whittaker is also set to fight, as he faces Paulo Costa.
With the time difference, the card is expected to air in the morning in the United States.
Below is the current fight card and more information on the three featured bouts:
Volkanovski (25-1, fighting out of Windang, NSW) will attempt to make history yet again by becoming the first Australian to reach double champ status. Volk is set to take on Makhachev (23-1, fighting out of Makhachkala, Russia) who claimed an impressive submission win over Brazilian Charles Oliveira to gain the undisputed lightweight championship title only last month.
Rodriguez (14-3, 1 NC, fighting out of Chicago, IL) is coming off a victory over Brian Ortega at UFC Long Island this past July. The Mexican-born striker has just one loss in his past five fights. Californian native, Emmett (18-2, fighting out of Sacramento, CA), currently ranked No.5 UFC featherweight, has five straight wins and is coming off a split decision win over Calvin Kattar in June.
Whittaker (25-6-0, fighting out of Sydney Australia) will take on No.6 ranked middleweight Costa (14-2-0, fighting out of Contagem, Minas Gerais, Brazil) in the three round middleweight bout. The beloved Bobby Knuckles was originally due to face the Brazilian powerhouse in April 2021, however, Costa withdrew due to illness, leaving Whittaker to finally face Californian, Kelvin Gastelum. Whittaker has been on an absolute tear since his loss to Adesanya, keeping him at that No.1 spot and no doubt ready to put on another showstopper for the fans.
* Making his return to the Octagon, UFC heavyweight Justin Tafa (5-3, fighting out of Brisbane, Australia) will face American, Parker Porter (13-7, fighting out of Hartford, Connecticut)
* UFC light heavyweight and Western Sydney fan favorite, Tyson Pedro (9-3, fighting out of Sydney, Australia) will take on debutant Zhang Mingyang (16-6, fighting out of Qingdao, China) coming off UFC’s Road to UFC
* UFC light heavyweight, Jimmy Crute (12-3, fighting out of Melbourne, Australia) making his return to the Octagon post injury to go for the win against Alonzo Menifield (13-3, fighting out of Dallas, Texas)
* Sydney’s Josh Culibao (10-1-1, fighting out of Sydney, Australia) will take on Melsik Baghdasaryan (7-1, fighting out of Glendale, California) in a three round featherweight bout
* Also joining his fellow Aussies and making his UFC debut, Gold Coast’s Shannon Ross (13-6, fighting out of Gold Coast, Australia) will take on Kleydson Rodrigues. (7-2, fighting out of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) Ross fought through a ruptured appendix to win a UFC contract on Dana White’s Contender Series earlier this year
* Melbourne boy Jack Jenkins (10-2, fighting out of Melbourne, Australia) will make his UFC debut after winning a contract on Dana White’s Contender Series earlier this year. Jenkins will face Don Shainis (12-4, fighting out of Stoughton, Massachusetts) at featherweight
