Leaked: Adesanya vs. Cannonier & Chimaev vs. Diaz among plans for UFC 276
Dana White gave the Pivot podcast a tour of UFC offices, which included a whole bunch of yet to be announced possible fight bookings.
Just who will headline UFC’s International Fight Week? That’s been a tough question to answer for the past couple weeks, with recent reports that a hoped for bout between Stipe Miocic and Jon Jones is going to have to be pushed back until September.
A hand injury currently has Deiveson Figueiredo sidelined, Aljamain Sterling has talked about wanting to return to action in the fall. The lightweight title and women’s strawweight belts are both getting contested this weekend, with the light heavyweight and women’s flyweight titles on offer in early June. For a card that tends to be among the most stacked of the year, options have seemingly been dwindling.
On a recent episode of the Pivot podcast, however, Dana White accidentally gave fans a bit better look at just what the UFC has in mind. Notably, a series of mock-up fight cards at UFC offices—which include a planned middleweight title fight between champ Israel Adesanya and top contender Jared Cannonier, along with the return of Khamzat Chimaev against none other than Nate Diaz. Fans will also note that it looks like the UFC is hoping to make a bantamweight bout between Sean O’Malley and Pedro Munhoz.
Shortly after the video podcast aired, pictures of the cards started circulating throughout social media.
Se filtran posibles carteleras del UFC en un podcast donde entrevistaron a Dana White. No podemos confirmar que estas peleas ya esten pactadas pero vean que bombas! #UFC276
— Fanáticos del MMA GT (@fanaticosMMAGT) May 3, 2022
Izzy vs. Cannonier
Khamzat vs. Nate
Munhoz vs. O'Malley#UFC277
Jones vs. Stipe
¿Opiniones? pic.twitter.com/BHpI7bLRER
Strickland vs. Pereira was originally planned for UFC 277, but news of the re-booking to UFC 276 has already been confirmed. Likewise, another screenshot of the UFC 276 board shows a potential bout between Robbie Lawler and Bryan Barberena, which Barberena just announced as well.
Robbie Lawler vs. Bryan Barberena???
— Alex Behunin (@AlexBehunin) May 3, 2022
Omfg pic.twitter.com/1xXPHyMUTY
Obviously, none of this is set in stone. Even when the UFC does get all the contracts signed and fights made official, bookings have a way of regularly falling apart for the world’s larges MMA promotion. At the moment, however, it looks like the UFC has found a pretty thrilling lineup for their July 2nd PPV event.