This Summer Has the Potential to be the UFC's Most Loaded Season Ever... and Here's Why

 THE UFC'S LOADED SUMMER SLATE

Up to this point in the UFC's 2022 schedule, the fans have been treated with many great title fights and stacked cards. However, it seems as if the spring season of fights was just an appetizer for an all-time great summer slate. 

Many fans have been upset with the way the UFC schedules their weekly fights. The first 5 pay-per-views of the year have been very top-heavy, with many fights being scrapped at the last moment along with subpar UFC Fight Night cards. 

For example, with UFC 270 headlined by heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou against interim champion Cyril Gane, it appeared as if the UFC
under-stacked that card due to the ongoing contract negotiations with Ngannou. Ngannou has made it clear that he wants the flexibility to box within his
contract along with increased pay, but UFC president Dana White has been openly against that idea.
Francis Ngannou has shown in his last two pay-per-view headliners that he isn't as big of a draw as he believes to be. Typically the pay-per-view numbers are released about two weeks after the event, and til this day (May 12) the UFC 270 numbers haven't been released. You be the judge. 

 There could be other reasons as to why the spring season for the UFC has been underwhelming, including the holidays and fighters not wanting to begin training camps during Christmas. But the UFC has shown to have a plan, and based off the reported fights for the summer, there is a lot of reasons to be excited as a fan of combat sports.

International Fight Week: UFC 276 (July 2nd) -- Las Vegas, NV

The month of July is celebrated annually with International Fight Week, where the UFC has several interactive fan events, the 2022 Hall of Fame induction ceremony, and capped off with a stacked pay-per-view card with multiple title fights and many stars on display. 

This year's International Fight Week is headlined by middleweight champion Israel Adesanya looking to make his fifth title defense against #2 ranked contender Jared Cannonier. 

Adesanya is coming off an unanimous decision win against Robert Whittaker in the main event of UFC 271 this past February. That fight was razor close and could've gone either way but Adesanya's knockdown in the first round seemed to give him the edge. 

In the feature fight of UFC 271, Jared Cannonier sparked Derek Brunson out cold with vicious elbows to secure his first title shot at age 37.  






This is a fight that Adesanya has been looking for since 2020, saying “He’s the dark horse in the division. He’s the guy everyone is sleeping on but you can’t sleep on him because you’ll get put to sleep. I think he’s the guy, the second most dangerous guy in the division behind myself. I look forward to fighting him after his next fight.” 

In the co-main event of UFC 276, featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski will fight #1 contender Max Holloway in a highly anticipated trilogy between the pair. Volkanovski won both of their first two matchups, with the ladder being by split decision in July of 2020. 


Since then, Volkanovski has defended his belt twice against Brian Ortega and The Korean Zombie. The Ortega fight was a war in which the champ had to escape two submissions in order to defend his belt. The Korean Zombie fight was pure domination from start to finish ending with a technical knockout in the 4th round.

Holloway has had two tremendous performances since his last title fight. The first being against rising contender Calvin Kattar in which Holloway landed 445 significant strikes across five rounds. Many fans still believe that Holloway won the second fight against Volkanovski, making the upcoming trilogy bout that much more exciting. 


The rest of the main card consists of ranked matchups including Sean Strickland vs Alex Pereira. Strickland is on a six fight winning streak at middleweight and Pereira has a knockout victory against the champion Israel Adesanya back in their Glory Kickboxing days in 2017. The winner could very easily get the next title shot.

Lastly, to open up the main card, the bright young prospect Sean O'Malley makes his return against #10 ranked Pedro Munhoz. O'Malley has been a highlight reel throughout his young UFC career and Munhoz has never been finished before. This is a big test for O'Malley and it'll be interesting to see how he deals with adversity. 

UFC 277: Pena vs Nunes 2 (July 30) -- Dallas, TX.


The month of July will serve as the first month to hold two UFC pay-per-events since March of 2021 (UFC 259, 260). 

It appears that the main event will be a rematch of one of the biggest upsets in a championship fight in UFC history. Julianna Peña will defend her bantamweight championship against one of the most decorated female fighters to ever compete, Amanda Nunes. 

Before their first fight this past December at UFC 269, no one was picking Peña to knock off Nunes. But she took on the challenge and was able to submit Nunes in the second round. 

The two have been serving as the coaches on the 30th season of the Ultimate Fighter and will meet on July 30th to settle the score. 

As recently reported by Ariel Helwani, the UFC has decided to make an interim flyweight championship bout between former champion and #1 contender Brandon Moreno and #2 contender Kai Kara-France. This comes after news of a hand injury to champion Deveison Figeureido ultimately forcing the UFC to go with the interim belt. 

The Figeureido injury is terrible news for the Flyweight division but sets up an amazing rematch between Moreno and Kara-France. 

The rest of the card consists of massive fights between ranked contenders including: 

Derrick Lewis vs Sergei Pavlovich

Anthony Smith vs Magomed Ankalaev

Paulo Costa vs Luke Rockhold






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