UFC 273: Let The Focus For The Event Begin A Week Early

The UFC will take a week off before returning with a bang at UFC 273.

Set from the VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena in Jacksonville, Florida, two titles will be on the line. 

In the main event, Alexander Volkanovski defends his featherweight title against Chan Sung Jung, better known as “The Korean Zombie.”

The co-main sees Aljamain Sterling put the bantamweight gold on the line vs. Petr Yan. 

Gilbert Burns, a former title contender, meets Khamzat Chimaev, while Mackenzie Dern battles Tecia Torres. 

Rounding out the main card live on pay-per-view will be Alexey Oleynik vs. Jared Vanderaa and Kelvin Gastelum vs. Dricus du Plessis.

Before we divulge into that, the prelims feature Aspen Ladd battling Raquel Pennington along with Marcin Tybura, Mickey Gall and several others. 

Volkanovski will be making his third title defense since winning the belt from Max Holloway in 2019. The two were set for their third meeting, but Holloway was forced out with an injury. 

Along with defending vs. Holloway, Volkanovski also topped Brian Ortega this past September to improve to 23-1 in his career. 

Jung had a shot at the title back in 2013, coming up short vs. Jose Aldo. Since, he has gone 4-2 including a recent decision win over Dan Ige. 

Sterling captured the title last March when Yan was disqualified for an illegal knee. Yan, the champion at the time, was winning the fight when the DQ happened. 

This will be his first defense and first fight since while Yan won the interim title with a victory over Cory Sandhagen in October. 

All four fighters involved in the championship matches are sure to be in fine form. They are true athletes and fight fans around the world will be in for quite the night if we get the kind of action we should expect. 

However, many, many eyes are going to be focused on Chimaev. The 27-year-old from Russia has been a tidal wave since arriving in 2020.

He has finished all four of his opponents, including a technical submission of Li Jingliang in October to improve to 10-0.