Dana White Announces 3 Title Fights To Kick Off UFC’s 2024 Schedule

It’s not even December, but UFC President Dana White continues announcing the promotion’s most significant fights in engaging social media videos.

On Monday, White announced the headliner bouts for UFC 297, 298 and 299.

• UFC 297 (Jan. 20, Toronto) – (c) Sean Strickland vs. Dricus Du Plessis – UFC Middleweight Title

• UFC 298 (February, TBA) – (c) Alexander Volkanovski vs. Ilia Topuria – UFC Featherweight Title

• UFC 299 (March, TBA) – (c) Sean O’Malley vs. Marlon Vera – UFC Men’s Bantamweight Title

Strickland will be making the first defense of his 185-pound title against Du Plessis. The latter was rumored to be on a collision course with Israel Adesanya.

However, Strickland pulled off the upset over Adesanya in September to throw a monkey wrench in those plans. There was talk that Khamzat Chimaev would get the first crack at Strickland after he defeated Kamaru Usman at UFC 294.

Chimaev suffered a torn ligament in his hand during that fight, which will require rehab, and even without the injury, the decision might have been to move toward Du Plessis. Volkanovski will be defending his 145-pound title for the sixth time, but he’ll be coming off a loss.

Volkanovski suffered a KO loss at the hands of Islam Makhachev at UFC 294 in the former’s second attempt to become a two-division champion. After the loss, Volkanovski pleaded with the UFC to keep him busy, and they have obliged.

Topuria, 14-0, is currently ranked fifth in the UFC’s featherweight division, and he is one of two men in the Top 5 that Volkanovski hasn’t already defeated. O’Malley will make his first defense of his 135-pound title after scoring a KO victory over Aljamain Sterling in August.

Vera owns the only victory over O’Malley as a professional, having scored a disputed TKO win over the champion in August 2020. Sterling and his training partner, No-ranked Merab Dvalishvili, campaigned for the opportunity to be O’Malley’s first challenger. Still, the UFC went with the Vera grudge match, allowing the champion to avenge his only defeat. This weekend, the UFC heads to New York.

UFC 295 was supposed to be headlined by Jon Jones vs. Stipe Miocic, but the former suffered a torn pectoral muscle, and the fight was scrapped. The main event is now a battle for the vacant light heavyweight title between Jiri Prochazka and Alex Pereira.

The co-main event is an interim heavyweight title match between Tom Aspinall and Sergey Pavlovich.