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UFC 299 is locked and loaded.

The full lineup for the March 9 pay-per-view in Miami was announced during Saturday’s UFC 298 broadcast, with Sean O’Malley’s bantamweight title defense against longtime rival Marlon “Chito” Vera closing out the show. In the co-main event, perennial lightweight contender Dustin Poirier takes on the fast-rising Benoit Saint Denis.

Also on the main card, Kevin Holland welcomes former Bellator star Michael “Venom” Page to the octagon in a welterweight bout, one-time welterweight title challenger Gilbert Burns faces knockout artist Jack Della Maddalena, and former bantamweight champion Petr Yan takes on Song Yadong.

The stacked card also features a number of ranked contenders on the prelims, including Curtis Blaydes, Jailton Almeida, Katlyn Cerminara (formerly Chookagian), Maycee Barber, Mateusz Gamrot, and Rafael dos Anjos among other standouts.

See the finalized UFC 299 lineup below.

Main Card (ESPN+ PPV, 10 p.m. ET)

Sean O’Malley vs. Marlon Vera

Dustin Poirier vs. Benoit Saint Denis

Michael Page vs. Kevin Holland

Gilbert Burns vs. Jack Della Maddalena

Petr Yan vs. Song Yadong

Preliminary Card (ESPN and ESPN+, 8 p.m. ET) and Early Preliminaries (ESPN+, 6 p.m. ET)

Curtis Blaydes vs. Jailton Almeida

Katlyn Cerminara vs. Maycee Barber

Mateusz Gamrot vs. Rafael dos Anjos

Pedro Munhoz vs. Kyler Phillips

Michel Pereira vs. Michal Oleksiejczuk

Robelis Despaigne vs. Josh Parisian

CJ Vergara vs. Assu Almabayev

Joanne Wood vs. Maryna Moroz

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UFC CEO Dana White announced the UFC 300 main event on Saturday ending months of speculation.  

Light heavyweight champion Alex Pereira will put his title on the line against former titleholder Jamahal Hill on April 13 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.  White made the announcement via a video post to social media.  

“I am here in the Honda Center in Anaheim, California and I’m going to announce the main event for UFC 300 now,” White said in the video.  “It will feature Alex Pereira defending his light heavyweight title against Jamahal Hill.

“Alex Pereira is the first fighter to become a champion in both the middleweight and light heavyweight divisions of the UFC.  It took him the shortest period of time in the history of the organization to win his middleweight title and it took him the fewest number of bouts to win a championship in a second weight class.  He’s an all-action striker with incredible power and seven of his nine MMA wins have come by knockout.  He is violent.  He is scary and he will be taking on Jamahal Hill.  Who is the former light heavyweight champion who never lost hist title but vacated it after tearing his achilles last year,” White continued.  

“In his last bout defeating former champion Glover Teixeira he landed 232 strikes which is the most strikes ever landed in a UFC light heavyweight fight.  He is the first Dana White’s Contender Series alum to win a world title.  Like Pereira, he is a world class kickboxer with serious power.  He has won a performance bonus in each of his last four fights, and four of his last five UFC wins have come by knockout.  I can guarantee this fight is going to be an absolute drag-our war between two massive world champions that are also two of the nastiest fighters on the roster,” White said.  

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Add UFC middleweight Paulo Costa to the list of fighters confused by MMA scoring after UFC 298.

Costa released a statement on his X account after fighting ex-champ Robert Whittaker to a unanimous decision loss at Honda Center in Anaheim, Calif., vowing to change his approach for his next fight.

“Hey mtfks you’re amazing,” he wrote on X. “Thank you all for support. During the fight I felt like I was winning, pressuring him back, and hurt his face, but judge thought different. Anyway I’m back no injuries and next I gonna pressure even more until finish. Lov u all.”

Costa included a clip that appeared to be shot by a fan of his most emphatic work in the fight, a wheel kick that badly hurt Whittaker at the end of the first round. The kick likely stole the frame on two of three judges’ scorecards, though one gave Whittaker the clean sweep, 30-27. According to UFC stats, Whittaker outlanded Costa in significant strikes (95 to 67).

Later, Costa showed a side-by-side comparison of his face next to Whittaker’s after the fight.

“Damage or touching?” he captioned the photo. “Congrats Rob was a great fight. Enjoy.”

To the surprise of many, the middleweight co-main event of UFC 298 did not receive a bonus for “Fight of the Night,” though UFC CEO Dana White said Whittaker and Costa would get some kind of extra reward.

White praised Costa’s performance and heart during the fight. The UFC exec hasn’t always been so positive about the middleweight, who’s withdrawn from announced fights and once showed up grossly overweight for a fight with Marvin Vettori.

“I thought they both looked good,” White said. “Costa…so big, so durable. That front leg, it was almost disfigured, it was so nasty. He stayed in there, kept swinging, kept getting kicked in the leg. …

“We’ve had some weird history with Costa. But when you look at the [Luke] Rockhold fight, and then you look at the fight tonight, Costa comes to fight. When you can get him in there, he comes to fight.”

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No Rematch?
| BJPenn.com

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The UFC only asked Jamahal Hill if he could headline UFC 300 on Friday, and left the confirmation until he arrived at UFC 298 on Saturday to watch the fights.

On Saturday night, the UFC finally announced Alex Pereira vs. Jamahal Hill for the light heavyweight title as the main event for their big 300th pay-per-view event. Based on comments from UFC CEO Dana White, it was clear the company was rolling through a number of options until the last minute. So how last minute was Pereira vs. Hill?

In a new interview with Sportsnet’s Aaron Bronsteter, Jamahal Hill shared the timeline from being asked to fight Pereira to getting word that he was officially headlining UFC 300.

“I found out for sure for sure that it was locked in since I been in this, since I got to the [UFC 298] venue,” Hill said. “We talked about it and I agreed to it yesterday.”

“Everybody wants to be on UFC 300, but realistically it didn’t really come on my radar and didn’t really happen until like yesterday,” he expounded later in the interview. “I’m not even gonna lie. Like, yesterday. When he called me, and he let me know the situation … well, basically the situation was they needed a main event. They had some things lined up but they preferred it be me and Alex.”

“It’s the first option, it’s what they really wanted. The people definitely wanted it, it’s what people have been asking me for months now, all week. Yeah, it made sense.”

Maybe it wasn’t the UFC’s first option overall, but hopefully it was the first option out of the options they were left with on Saturday night. And let’s be clear: Pereira vs. Hill is a great fight. Two violent men at the top of the division in a bout guaranteed to deliver fireworks. But when the booking is thrown together last minute because a month’s worth of other options don’t work out, it’s always going to feel a bit like a consolation prize.

Blame the UFC for how they handled everything, not Alex Pereira or Jamahal Hill.

As for “Sweet Dreams,” he’s painfully aware he’s got endless doubters out there and is excited to show them what’s up when he fights “Poatan” on April 13th.

“I’m looking forward to the challenge,” Jamahal said. “The challenge of Alex has become huge, you know? He’s done incredible things, two division champion in the UFC in seven fights, quickest to ever do it. So I just wanna get in there and see how I match up with him.”

“It means a lot, even just being considered for it and them asking me to do it is huge,” he said about the fight’s placement on UFC 300. “It’s putting a lot of trust in my abilities and how I’m able to show up to put me at the helm of a card like that, and I appreciate that.”

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Sean O’Malley won’t put a lot of thought into a future matchup against Merab Dvalishvili just yet – he’s still got business to handle with Chito Vera at UFC 299.

That said, the reigning UFC bantamweight champion still kept a close eye on Dvalishvili’s unanimous decision victory over Henry Cejudo at UFC 298, which marked the Georgian fighter’s 10th consecutive win. Dvalishvili wasted no time calling for a future fight with O’Malley, who sat cageside just a few feet away.

“It’s interesting watching fights live compared to on the TV,” O’Malley said addressing Dvalishvili vs. Cejudo on the UFC 298 post-fight show. “I’d like to watch it back on the TV to really give full input. It was decent.

“I heard rumors that Henry had some injuries going into the fight. He looked a little winded, but Merab looked good. Decent little fight from a couple little dudes.”

Following a back-and-forth opening round, Dvalishvili took over in the final 10 minutes, landin multiple takedowns on the 2008 Olympic gold medalist in wrestling and pushing a relentless pace that tested Cejudo’s conditioning. When it was over, there was no doubt Dvalishvili did enough for the win, and all three judges scored the fight in his favor.

As much as UFC CEO Dana White hates to make fights after an event, he confirmed that Dvalishvili has cemented himself as the No. 1 contender at bantamweight.

That matters a lot to Dvalishvili, but not so much for O’Malley, who has a different challenge still standing in his way on March 9 in Miami.

“Three weeks, UFC 299, everything’s going so good,” he said. “I’ve got to get through Chito before I can start saying I might fight him, I might fight him, I might fight this guy.”

The upcoming pay-per-view card serves as O’Malley’s second headliner after he took out Aljamain Sterling to become bantamweight champion at UFC 292 this past August.

This time around, O’Malley serves as the main event in Miami as the UFC returns to the popular Florida destination for the first time since UFC 287 in April 2023. On that night, Israel Adesanya capped off the card with a stunning finish against Alex Pereira to avenge several past defeats to the Brazilian – including the night he lost the UFC middleweight title.

O’Malley couldn’t help but notice similarities with Adesanya vs. Pereira 2, considering he’s about to headline a card in Miami against the only person to hold a win over him in his career.

“I’m pretty sure Israel Adesanya knocked out Alex Pereira in the rematch [in Miami]. Am I right?” O’Malley said. “Interesting.”

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