Deiveson Figueiredo and Joseph Benavidez will fight for the vacant UFC Lightweight title on Saturday night at the Flash Forum on Fight Island in Abu Dhabi.
The two fighters met earlier this year before the coronavirus outbreak in February, and Figueiredo won via a second-round TKO but was inelgible to win the title after missing weight. The pre-fight buildup has been just as dramatic this time around, as Figueiredo tested positive for COVID-19 on July 11th – in what his camp believes false positive, as he already had COVID-19 – but Figueiredo has since received multiple negative results and has been cleared to fight.
The huge prelim card will be free to watch on ESPN before the main card kicks off on ESPN+. Here’s the full list of fights:
Prelim card (5:00 p.m. ET, ESPN and ESPN+):
Light Heavyweight: Roman Dolidze vs. Khadis Ibragimov
150-pound catchweight: Grant Dawson vs. Nad Narimani
Lightweight: Joe Duffy vs. Joel Alvarez
Bantamweight: Brett Johns vs. Montel Jackson
Flyweight: Malcolm Gordon vs. Amir Albazi
Lightweight: Davi Ramos vs. Arman Tsarukyan
Heavyweight: Carlos Felipe vs. Serghei Spivac
Main card (8:00 p.m. ET, ESPN+):
UFC Flyweight Championship: Deiveson Figueiredo vs. Joseph Benavidez
Middleweight: Jack Hermansson vs. Kelvin Gastelum
Lightweight: Marc Diakiese vs. Rafael Fiziev
Women’s Flyweight: Ariane Lipski vs. Luana Carolina
Flyweight: Alexandre Pantoja vs. Askar Askarov
