Dana White announces three headliners for early 2024

UFC president Dana White announced three headlining matches for the first quarter of 2024 via social media.  

“What’s up everybody.  I’m going to hit you with three more pay-per-view headliners.  In January, we’re doing Sean Strickland versus Dricus du Plessis.  In February, we’re doing Volkanovski versus Topuria, and in March, we’re doing O’Malley versus Vera.  Busting into the new year with some fun fights,” said White on the social media site formerly known as Twitter.  

BREAKING…… pic.twitter.com/eW9Q23FVmI

— danawhite (@danawhite) November 6, 2023

The fight with Dricus du Plessis will be Strickland’s first title defense.  Strickland earned the middleweight championship by defeating former two-time titleholder Israel Adesanya at UFC 293 in September.   Du Plessis became a 185 title contender by defeating former champion Robert Whittaker at UFC 290 in July.  

The bout between featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski and Ilia Topuria was originally scheduled to take place in January, but Volkanovski accepted the UFC 294 rematch with lightweight champion Islam Makhachev on short notice.  He was defeated via first round TKO after going the distance with Makhachev in their first meeting.  

Makhachev was originally slated to take on former champion Charles Oliveira, but Oliveira was forced out of the match due to a nasty cut received in training.  

Bantamweight champion Sean O’Malley taking on Marlon Vera in March is a rematch.  Vera defeated O’Malley via TKO when they first fought at UFC 252 in August, 2020.  O’Malley wants to avenge his only career loss.  The buildup to the rematch should include some epic verbal exchanges.     

The fight promotion has one pay-per-view event left in 2023.  UFC 295 takes place this weekend at Madison Square Garden in New York City.  The fight card is headlined by a light heavyweight title bout between former titleholder Jiri Prochazka and former middleweight champion Alex Pereira.  

UFC 295 was originally headlined by a heavyweight title match between champion Jon Jonesand former two-time titleholder Stipe Miocic but Jones was forced out of the bout due to an injury.  The fight promotion plans to rebook that matchup when Jones has healed up and is ready to fight.