What will UFC 289 look like & where will it be?

[JoeRowe]

Any insight or guesses? The June ppv is less than 3 months with no venue or fights. The only Champs available that haven't fought recently are Amanda & Zhang. Others stars like Khamzat, Colby, & Costa are available as well. The date will likely be June 10th as June 3rd is a FN currently.

I see 2 opportunities here for the UFC. The first being a PPV with no titles on the line like Khamzat/Nate(planned), Colby/Mas, or recent Conor ppvs. By doing this they can use 2 to 3 belts on each of the following 3 to 4 ppvs, & they have the star power to do it.

Khamzat vs Whittaker
Colby vs Belal
Costa vs Strickland
Token wmma fight
Dober vs MJ

Option 2, which most hardcore fans will hate, and most of the media(particularly ESPN) will love is the first ever all WMMA PPV maincard.

Nunes vs Aldana
Zhang vs Lemos
Suarez vs Rose
Blanchfield vs Fiorot
Andrade vs Xiaonan(moved from 288)

Not sure that's a good enough card though without Grasso/Shevy 2, & June is too soon for that rematch.

So, we'll probably something in the middle like:

Nunes vs Pena 3
Zhang vs Lemos
Khamzat vs Costa

Thoughts?

 

[LindyBrah]

Jamahal Hill vs Jiri
Nunes vs Aldana
Belal vs Shavkat
Strickland vs Costa
Some bum ass heavyweight bout

 

[Paulsp]

Chicago or Toronto imo for location

nunes headliner
Khamzat vs Whittaker co-main

 

[CC27]

could see something like

289 June
Islam/Dustin
zhang/

290 July
Jones/Stipe
Volk/Yair

291 Aug
Jiri/Hill
WW title

292 Sept (If its Mexico)
Moreno/Pantoja
Nunes/Aldana
Grasso/Val

The Sept rumored Mexico event holds things up cause if its happening then you kind of need to get atleast 2 title fights there so maybe Nunes could slide back to a summer PPV in July/Aug. You also have to look at is Jiri ready for a summer fight?


Who knows about Conor. Its possible they go back to Abu Dhabi in Oct then Conor fights at MSG in Nov? Unless they waive that USADA 6 month clause the time is ticking to get back for a Sept PPV.

 

[RockyLockridge]

Option 2, which most hardcore fans will hate, and most of the media(particularly ESPN) will love is the first ever all WMMA PPV maincard.

Nunes vs Aldana
Zhang vs Lemos
Suarez vs Rose
Blanchfield vs Fiorot
Andrade vs Xiaonan(moved from 288)

UFC 289: Ladie's night

 

[JoeRowe]

could see something like

289 June
Islam/Dustin
zhang/

290 July
Jones/Stipe
Volk/Yair

291 Aug
Jiri/Hill
WW title

292 Sept (If its Mexico)
Moreno/Pantoja
Nunes/Aldana
Grasso/Val

The Sept rumored Mexico event holds things up cause if its happening then you kind of need to get atleast 2 title fights there so maybe Nunes could slide back to a summer PPV in July/Aug. You also have to look at is Jiri ready for a summer fight?


Who knows about Conor. Its possible they go back to Abu Dhabi in Oct then Conor fights at MSG in Nov? Unless they waive that USADA 6 month clause the time is ticking to get back for a Sept PPV.

Islam/Dustin would be cool but maybe too soon after Ramadan. The sooner they do that fight, of they're going to, the better.

As for Jiri I can't assume he will be back any sooner than Nov/Dec. Torn rotator cuffs generally take 12-14 months, see Cain, Woodley, Ortega, etc. Ank/Hill winners Jiri in DEC/JAN seems most likely if history is any indication.

Also we could be looking at 2 ppv in July(8th & 29th) again or August (5th & 26th), with SEP being 16th & OCT 14th. Maybe not tho since they did 2 in March. Or maybe if 2 March ppvs do well it emboldeneds them to do it again this summer.