The UFC will placed on its first occasion in Saudi Arabia on June 22 with a card headlined by a middleweight bout between Khamzat Chimaev and Robert Whittaker, Dana White, the promotion’s president, introduced Wednesday evening.
The UFC Battle Evening card will air at no cost on ABC.
Chimaev and Whittaker will struggle to find out the No. 1 contender for middleweight champion Dricus Du Plessis, White mentioned.
Chimaev (13-0) hasn’t fought since he defeated former welterweight champion Kamaru Usman at UFC 294 in October.
He had pushed for a title bout with Du Plessis at UFC 300 in April, however Du Plessis injured each legs when he took the championship from Sean Strickland of their January UFC 297 struggle. Du Plessis instructed ESPN earlier this month that he’s anticipating to be prepared by mid-2024.
Whittaker (26-7), a former middleweight champ, is coming off a unanimous-decision win over Paulo Costa in February. It was his first struggle since a TKO loss to Du Plessis in July 2023.
White introduced 4 different fights on the Saudi Arabia card: Sergei Pavlovich vs. Alexander Volkov, Kelvin Gastelum vs. Daniel Rodriguez, Johnny Walker vs. Volkan Oezdemir and Shara Magomedov vs. Ihor Potieria.