After weeks of agonizing over the full Saudi Arabia card on June 22, Dana White has come out and announced a slew of scheduled fights. A middleweight title eliminator will headline the card with Robert Whittaker battling it out with Khamzat Chimaev. The Chechen/Swede has faced criticism over his UFC career but it’s no fault of his own as the US has sanctions against anyone associated with Chechen warlord Ramzan Kadyrov. This means that Chimaev cannot fight in the United States, which is why this contest is taking place in Saudi Arabia. Whittaker, meanwhile, is coming off a massive win against Paulo Costa which saw the former middleweight champion survive a scare in the early portions of the fight to come back and dominate the Brazilian for a unanimous decision win.
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The card will also feature a heavyweight contest with Alexander Volkov taking on bruiser Sergei Pavlovich. Former middleweight title challenger Kelvin Gastelum will also be taking on Daniel Rodriguez in a welterweight title while Brazilian madman Johnny Walker will take on Volkan Ozdemir in a light-heavyweight matchup. Another hyped prospect in Sharabutdin Magomedov aka Shars Bullet will be taking on Ihor Potieria in a light-heavyweight tilt. There will be more fights announced soon but for now, this is what we have. This marks the start of the UFC and Saudi Arabia relationship and after a bit of a rocky start, it looks like it’s full steam ahead.
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Dana White took to Instagram this morning to announce the fights. We’re assuming that there will be more matchups to be announced in the coming weeks. The UFC will head to Saudi Arabia on June 22 for a Fight Night card which will be headlined by Robert Whittaker taking on Khamzat Chimaev with a host of other important fights taking place on the undercard.
