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Former Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) middleweight champion, Robert Whittaker, will make his return to the Octagon at the upcoming UFC 248 pay-per-view (PPV) event in March when he battles No. 4-ranked title contender, Jared Cannonier, inside T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.
This will be the first appearance for Whittaker (20-5) since coughing up his middleweight title to newly-crowned division kingpin, Israel Adesanya, in October. Prior to that, “The Reaper” went on a nine-fight winning streak that dates back to early 2014, which includes a pair of victories over Yoel Romero.
As for Cannonier (13-4), he’s looking to capture his fourth straight after dropping down from the light heavyweight division roughly one year back. All three wins for “Killa Gorilla” have ended by way of technical knockout, including last September’s second-round destruction of Jack Hermansson.
Also featured on the UFC 248 fight card will be the women’s strawweight title fight pitting current 115-pound champion, Weili Zhang, opposite ex-division titleholder, Joana Jedrzejczyk. In addition, Neil Magny and Jingliang Li hook ‘em up at 170 pounds.