Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) 271 goes down Saturday night (Feb. 12) and we have a title fight rematch set to close the show. Thursday we had the pre-fight press conference where the athletes on stage did their first staredowns once getting through all the questions.
185-pound Middleweight champion Israel Adesanya will do battle once more with the man he took the belt from, Robert Whittaker. UFC 243 in Oct. 2019 marked the first encounter between the two as they fought in front of a historic 57,127 in attendance.
Since then, both men have earned three Middleweight victories. Adesanya, however, attempted to go up in weight and capture the 205-pound Light Heavyweight title against Jan Blachowicz in Mar. 2021. Thus resulting in his lone defeat in 22 fights as Blachowicz took home a unanimous decision.
In the evening’s co-main event, Heavyweights will be on display when former title challenger Derrick Lewis collides with Australia’s Tai Tuivasa.
The 28-year-old “Bam Bam” started his career a perfect 9-0 with three of those coming inside the Octagon. A three-fight skid followed before getting back on track with a star-making four-fight winning streak consisting entirely of knockouts. Tuivasa’s last win was his biggest when he took out Brazil’s Augusto Sakai at UFC 269 in December (watch highlights).
For Houston’s Lewis, “The Black Beast” has remained a model of consistency having gone 5-1 in his last six. His last victory, a first-round knockout of Chris Daukaus (watch highlights), acted as a rebound off his interim title loss to France’s Ciryl Gane in Aug. 2021.
This one’s not going the distance @TheBeast_UFC vs @BamBamTuivasa is almost here
[ #UFC271 | Saturday | Live on ESPN+ PPV: https://t.co/K6X32sFKyB ] pic.twitter.com/y8jOR6fTZG
— UFC (@ufc) February 11, 2022
MMAmania.com will deliver LIVE round-by-round, blow-by-blow coverage of the entire UFC 271 fight card RIGHT HERE, starting with the ESPN+ “Prelims” matches at 6 p.m. ET, followed by the remaining undercard balance on ESPN/ESPN+ at 8 p.m. ET, before the PPV main card start time at 10 p.m. ET on ESPN+.
For more news and notes on UFC 271 be sure to visit our comprehensive event archive right here. For the updated, revised, and finalized “Adesanya vs. Whittaker 2” fight card and ESPN+ lineup click here.