Dana White with the big-boy moves.
The next few months are shaping up to be a blockbuster for the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) thanks to a couple of major developments. No less than UFC president announced these developments in a video posted on the UFC’s official Facebook page.
“We are starting 2023 off with a bang,” White proclaimed at the start of the video, before making his big announcements.
Among White’s notable announcements is the return of Jon Jones, the promotion’s former undisputed pound-for-pound king. Jones, who last fought in February 2020 against Dominick Reyes at light heavyweight, will finally be making his long-awaited heavyweight debut on March 5 at UFC 285. He will be matched up against the highly touted Ciryl Gane for the heavyweight belt, which had previously been vacated by the injured and now unsigned Francis Ngannou.
White also announced that former two-division champion Conor McGregor will be back as a coach in “The Ultimate Fighter” Season 31 opposite lightweight contender Michael Chandler. This means the two popular fighters will be scheduled to fight sometime after the conclusion of the reality TV series, which will run from May to August later this year. White did not mention a fight date yet, but promised to announce it “soon.”
In addition, White announced in the same video a pair of title fight rematches—Leon Edwards vs Kamaru Usman for the welterweight championship at UFC 286 on March 19 and Alex Pereira vs Israel Adesanya for middleweight gold at UFC 287 on April 9.
“It’s early in the year, but we have nothing but bad-ass events lined up. I’m pumped,” White concluded.
With a trio of title fights featuring the UFC’s very best and a potential slugfest between two fan favorites in McGregor and Chandler, UFC fans should be just as pumped.