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One of these two combatants will leave UFC 300 with a guaranteed title shot.

That’s according to UFC CEO Dana White, who recently told the combat sports community that former lightweight champion Charles Oliveira and red-hot Russian bruiser Arman Tsarukyan will collide in a No. 1 contender fight on Sat., April 13, 2024 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.

That means reigning champion Islam Makhachev will either compete in March in Saudi Arabia against an opponent to be named, or simply wait for the winner of Oliveira vs. Tsarukyan as he prepares to take several weeks off for Ramadan.

Oliveira (34-9, 1 NC) dropped the strap to Makhachev in the UFC 280 headliner back in late 2022. After disposing of Beneil Dariush at UFC 289 to get himself back into the lightweight title hunt, a late cut in training camp bounced “Do Bronx’ from his Makhachev rematch at UFC 294.

The champion went on to retain by knocking out late-replacement Alex Volkanovski.

Tsarukyan (21-3) dropped a decision to Makhachev in his UFC debut back in early 2019. In the years that followed, “Ahalkalakets” compiled an 8-1 record, which includes his first-round destruction of the aforementioned Dariush at UFC Austin just last month. That performance was good enough to land Tsarukyan at No. 4 in the official lightweight rankings.

UFC 300 does not yet have a main event; however, several bookings have recently been made official. Among them are Jiri Prochazka vs. Aleksandar Rakic (light heavyweight), Calvin Kattar vs. Aljamain Sterling (featherweight), and Cody Brundage vs. Bo Nickal (middleweight).

Stay tuned for more UFC 300 fight card announcements in the coming weeks.

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

Dustin Poirier makes his long awaited return to action when he clashes with rising star Benoit Saint Denis in the five-round co-main event at UFC 299 on March 9 from Miami.

UFC CEO Dana White announced the pairing on Sunday night while revealing that both fighters asked for a five-round fight so he granted their request.

Poirier makes his first appearance since suffering a head kick knockout loss to Justin Gaethje this past July, which put him at 4-2 overall in his past six fights. Of course, Poirier scored a pair of wins over Conor McGregor in 2021 and later submitted Michael Chandler, but fell short in a title fight opportunity to Charles Oliveira.

Now the 34-year-old former interim champion attempts to get back on track while facing one of the top prospects in the entire 155-pound division.

Following a loss in his octagon debut back in 2021, Saint Denis has gone undefeated with five straight wins without a single opponent making it past the second round. Most recently, Saint Denis vanquished Matt Frevola with a vicious head kick knockout at UFC 295, which earned him a Performance of the Night bonus.

Now Saint Denis takes a decided step up in competition while facing one of the most established veterans in the lightweight division.

Poirier vs. Saint Denis serves as the co-main event with bantamweight champion Sean O’Malley defending his title against Marlon “Chito” Vera in the headliner in March.

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UFC CEO, Dana White has claimed he is ready to “destory” both this month and 2024 as a whole ahead of his return from vacation – as the fanbase continue to seek out any information they can regarding April’s much-anticipated UFC 300 pay-per-view card.

Slated to make their return this next weekend following a month-long hiatus, the Octagon touches down in Las Vegas for the first event of the year, with former vacant title challenger, Magomed Ankalaev marking his return in a light heavyweight rematch with Johnny Walker at UFC Vegas 84.

And then a week later, the Octagon makes a return to ‘The Great White North’ – with UFC 297 slated for Canada, featuring a championship doubleheader as Sean Strickland headlines in a middleweight title affair opposite Dricus du Plessis.

In the night’s co-main event, the first undisputed bantamweight since the June retirement of Amanda Nunes will be determined, as her compatriot, Mayra Bueno Silva returns in a co-headlining clash against Raquel Pennington.

Dana Whites vows to “destroy” 2024 schedule 

And promising more fight announcements regarding the highly-scrutinized and clamoured-for UFC 300 card in April, organizational leader, White claimed he will “destroy” 2024 with a seemingly massive schedule of fights.

“Truth!!!” Dana White posted on his official Instagram Stories. “I have had a ton of them while on vacation. I get home tomorrow and I am going to DESTROY January and 2024.”

Fans have speculated in recent months regarding the potential main event bracket for what promises to be a massive UFC 300 card in April, while the turn of the year also brought with it the monumental revelation from Conor McGregor that he will return to fighting in June.

Claiming he is set to headline an earmarked UFC 302 card on June 29. during International Fight Week, McGregor has plans to fight Michael Chandler at the middleweight limit at the event, which the UFC nor the above-mentioned, Dana White have confirmed at the time of publication. 

LowKickMMA.com

Take a look back at some of the times that fighters made UFC commentators go ballistic during 2023.  Joe Rogan, Daniel Cormier, Jon Anik, Laura Sanko, Michael Bisping and Paul Felder get animated in the commentator booth with screams, yells, grabs and show their knockout faces to some of the best finishes of 2023.

Best UFC Commentator Reactions of 2023

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

Charles Oliveira and Arman Tsarukyan are putting it all on the line at one of the year’s biggest shows.

UFC CEO Dana White announced Sunday that Oliveira faces Tsarukyan in a lightweight bout at UFC 300 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. He added that the winner of the April 13 bout will become the No. 1 contender for champion Islam Makhachev, who White expects to return in the summer after recovering from an injury.

Oliveira was originally set to fight Makhachev at UFC 294 this past October, but a last-minute cut suffered in training forced him out of that main event spot (he was subsequently replaced by featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski, who lost to Makhachev via first-round knockout). “Do Bronx” first fought Makhachev at UFC 280 for a vacant lightweight title, which Makhachev won by submitting Oliveira in the second round.

In his most recent outing this past June, Oliveira scored a first-round TKO win over Beneil Dariush to earn a second crack at Makhachev. Now the former champion has to overcome an elite contender to regain that rematch opportunity.

Tsarukyan seeks his own rematch with Makhachev after losing a hard-fought decision to the current champion in his debut five years ago. Since that encounter, Tsarukyan has won eight of his past nine fights, including finishes of Dariush, Joaquim Silva, and Joel Alvarez.

UFC 300 is still yet to have an official headliner, with Jiri Prochazka vs. Aleksandar Rakic, Calvin Kattar vs. Aljamain Sterling, and Bo Nickal vs. Cody Brundage currently advertised for the event.

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

Referee Tony Weeks has become a boxing storyline for the wrong reasons once again.

Weeks was the official for the Virgil Oritz vs. Frederick Lawson boxing match on Saturday night in Las Vegas, which served as the first fight for Ortiz since August 2022. Ortiz would pick up a first-round TKO win over Lawson, but the stoppage seemed to be way too early — even including the play-by-play commentator asking after Weeks stopped the fight, ‘and that is it?’

Check out video of the stoppage below.

Ortiz looked to have had Lawson in trouble before throwing a barrage in the corner, although it certainly didn’t look like a lot of damage was being done before Weeks called the fight off.

Weeks, who is also a longtime judge of MMA fights and can be seen regularly scoring UFC bouts, has recently been under scrutiny for early stoppages, which includes one of the more controversial fight endings in recent memory during Rolando Romero’s TKO win over Ismael Barroso this past May.

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