Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) is finally giving “The Golden State” some more California Lovin.’
We haven’t seen a UFC event in California since a UFC on ESPN event in Aug. 2022. The last UFC pay-per-view (PPV) event was UFC 270, featuring Francis Ngannou vs. Ciryl Gane in Jan. 2022. It’s been a long while since the state has gotten a big deal event.
But, good things come to those who wait.
UFC 298, headlined by a Featherweight title fight between Alexander Volkanovski vs. Ilia Topuria, will go down at the Honda Center in Anaheim, Calif., on Sat., Feb. 17, 2024. Originally, the 145-pound battle was looking to happen at UFC 297 in Toronto, Canada, in Jan. 2024. But, that was before Volkanovski lost a last-minute Lightweight title fight to Islam Makhachev, taking a nasty head kick knockout in the process (watch highlights).
“Yeah, obviously, it was scheduled for January,” Volkanovski said earlier in November. “We just thought that would be a little bit too soon, you know what I mean? We want to follow all protocols and do everything right, obviously, after the last one and I’m lucky enough to have a great team around me, who’ve dealt with a lot of concussions in football and what-not.
“We thought that January was a little too soon and I was lucky enough to have UFC and other guys there make that happen and move things around for me, which I’m grateful for. I think the timing will be perfect. I’ll be back in there soon, but not too soon.”
As for Topuria, he’s become a sports star in his home of Spain, and there’s discussion regarding UFC coming to the country sooner rather than later. We assume those will only be accelerated should Topuria manage to defeat Volkanovski in Anaheim. Currently Volkanovski is a -192 favorite to +160 Topuria.
Remember that MMAmania.com will deliver LIVE round-by-round, blow-by-blow coverage of the entire UFC 298 fight card right here, starting with the early ESPN+ “Prelims” matches online, which are scheduled to begin at 6:30 p.m. ET (simulcast on ESPN at 8 p.m. ET), before the pay-per-view (PPV) main card start time at 10 p.m. ET (also on ESPN+).
To check out the latest and greatest UFC 298: “Volkanovski vs. Topuria” news and notes be sure to hit up our comprehensive event archive right here.
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