[Event] UFC 279 - Diaz vs. Ferguson - Sep 10

Dent · **Posted:** Sat Sep 10, 2022 1:04 pm

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UFC 279: Diaz vs. Ferguson is an upcoming mixed martial arts event produced by the Ultimate Fighting Championship that will take place on September 10, 2022, at the T-Mobile Arena in Paradise, Nevada, part of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Area, United States.

Fight card

Main card

Welterweight Nate Diaz vs. Tony Ferguson
Catchweight (180 lb) Khamzat Chimaev vs. Kevin Holland
Catchweight (180 lb) Li Jingliang vs. Daniel Rodriguez
Catchweight (140 lb) Irene Aldana vs. Macy Chiasson
Light Heavyweight Johnny Walker vs. Ion Cuțelaba

Preliminary card (ESPN / ESPN+)

Catchweight (149.5 lb) Hakeem Dawodu vs. Julian Erosa
Catchweight (220 lb) Jailton Almeida vs. Anton Turkalj
Middleweight Denis Tiuliulin vs. Jamie Pickett
Catchweight (267.5 lbs) Jake Collier vs. Chris Barnett

Early preliminary card (ESPN / ESPN+ / UFC Fight Pass)

Women's Featherweight Norma Dumont vs. Danyelle Wolf
Bantamweight Chad Anheliger vs. Alateng Heili
Women's Strawweight Melissa Martinez vs. Elise Reed
Welterweight Darian Weeks vs. Yohan Lainesse

Background

A welterweight bout between former UFC Lightweight Championship challenger The Ultimate Fighter 5 lightweight winner Nate Diaz and former Interim UFC Lightweight Champion and The Ultimate Fighter 13 winner Tony Ferguson is expected to headline the event. The original main event was planned to be Khamzat Chimaev vs. Nate Diaz, but that bout was cancelled day of the weigh-ins when Chimaev missed the welterweight limit by 7.5 pounds, weighing in officially at 178.5 pounds. Chimaev will face Kevin Holland in the co-main event at a 180-pound catchweight, while Li Jingliang will now face Daniel Rodriguez in a 180-pounds catchweight bout. The promotion originally targeted to headline the event a UFC Bantamweight Championship bout between current champion Aljamain Sterling and former two-time champion T.J. Dillashaw as the main event, but opted to change plans and move it to UFC 280.

A trio of bouts was originally scheduled for this date, but they were eventually pushed back a week to UFC Fight Night: Sandhagen vs. Song as the promotion adjusted its schedule in June: lightweight bouts featuring Trey Ogden vs. Daniel Zellhuber and Nikolas Motta vs. Cameron VanCamp; as well as a welterweight bout between Louis Cosce and Trevin Giles.

A women's strawweight bout between Hannah Cifers and Melissa Martinez was expected to take place at the event. However, Cifers pulled out due to undisclosed reasons and was replaced by Elise Reed.

A middleweight bout between Jamie Pickett and Denis Tiuliulin was expected to take place at UFC on ESPN: dos Anjos vs. Fiziev, but it was moved to this card due to Tiuliulin suffering an injury during the week of the fight.

A heavyweight bout between Shamil Abdurakhimov and Jailton Almeida was expected to take place at the event. However, Abdurakhimov was forced to withdraw due to visa issues and was replaced by Anton Turkalj at a catchweight of 220 pounds.

The organization usually holds a pre-fight press-conference two days before numbered events, but this edition's was cancelled mid section. All fighters in the last three bouts of the event were expected to participate, however after a lengthy delay, UFC President Dana White showed up only with Kevin Holland and Daniel Rodriguez. He announced that fighters would be brought in pairs, but cancelled the press-conference after their participation instead for "everybody's safety". He later revealed that an altercation involving four fighters and their teams took place backstage. It initiated with Chimaev and Holland, with Diaz eventually getting involved.

In addition to Chimaev missing weight, featherweight Hakeem Dawodu, and heavyweight Chris Barnett both missed weight also. Dawodu weighed at 149.5 pounds, 3.5 pounds over the non-title featherweight limit, while Barnett weighed in at 267.5 pounds, 1.5 pounds over the non-title heavyweight limit. The women's bantamweight bout between Irene Aldana and Macy Chiasson was also changed to a 140-pound catchweight bout on the day of the weigh-ins, but was not due to a weight miss.

Following an egregious weight missed by Chimaev, the UFC changed a few matchup in the event. Chimaev will face Kevin Holland, who weight in at 179.5 pounds for a scheduled catchweight bout with Daniel Rodriguez, in a 180-pound catchweight five rounds bout in the co-main event.. Rodriguez will fight Li Jingliang in 180-pound catchweight bout which had some disparity in weight during the weight-in day as Rodriguez weighed in at 179 pounds and Li came in at 170.5 ib. The winner of The Ultimate Fighter 5 Nate Diaz will fight the The Ultimate Fighter 13 and the former interim UFC Lightweight Championship Tony Ferguson for main event.

Sep 10 - Updated fight card and everything basically

[Event] UFC 279 - Diaz vs. Ferguson - Sep 10

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