The Big Apple will receive two massive title fights for UFC 322 on November 15 in Madison Square Garden while Jack della Maddalena defends his goodweight title against Islam Makhachev in the main event.
In the Co-Main event, Valentina Shevchenko will defend her flight weight title against Weili Zhang in New York.
UFC CEO Dana White made the announcement on social media on Thursday.
Makhaachev (27-1) dropped his lightweight title when he announced that he would move to good weight. He immediately steps into a world title fight against Maddalena for his first UFC match at 170 pounds.
Maddalena (18-2) comes from the title of Belal Muhammad on UFC 315 in May. He takes on Makhachev who dominated the lightweight division that defended his belt 4 times before he went to goodweight.
The Co-Main event sets up the current flight weight champion against the former Strawweight champion in a fighting fans who have wanted to see for a while.
Shevchenko (25-4-1), the double UFC champion flight weight, her title defends her title for the second time in her second stint at Queen of the 125ers. She defended her title 7 times in her first run at champion before she dropped the title against Alexa Grasso on UFC 285.
She got the throne back on UFC 306 by beating Grasso in the Rematch. Manon Fiorot challenged her for the belt on UFC 315, but was short.
Weili (26-3) has left her title to challenge Shevchenko at flight weight. She comes from her third title defense in her second run as a stream weight champion and is a total of 4 title defense.
With both Makhachev and Weili who leave their titles before they go up, it seems that the UFC wants to leave double champions and go back to fully active divisions.
Also added to UFC 322 is a welterweight fight between Carlos Prates and former Weltergeweight Champion Leon Edwards. Prates, who hoped a victory over UFC 319 in Chicago, had hoped for that fight in Brazil, but instead to NYC.
#Islam #JDM #Weili #Valentina #set #UFC #MSG