UFC 302 News: Full Fight Card Confirmed for New Jersey Event
The UFC will return to Newark for another stacked PPV event.
The UFC has officially confirmed the full fight card for its return to the Prudential Center in Newark, NJ on June 1 for UFC 302.
Last May, the Prudential Center hosted a UFC 288 card that saw Aljamain Sterling defend his bantamweight belt against Henry Cejudo and Yan Xiaonan lock up an eventual strawweight title shot by knocking out Jéssica Andrade, and the venue will host an even bigger PPV event this year with UFC 302.
UFC CEO Dana White announced after UFC 300 that UFC 302 would be headlined by a lightweight title bout between Islam Makhachev and Dustin Poirier with middleweights Sean Strickland and Paulo Costa fighting in the co-main event, and the promotion officially confirmed the full 13-fight card today via press release.
Islam Makhachev will defend his lightweight title in the main event of UFC 302.
Jasmin Frank-USA TODAY Sports
#1-ranked Arman Tsarukyan revealed after his win over Charles Oliveira at UFC 300 that he was forced to decline a quick-turnaround to face Makhachev at UFC 302, but Tsarukyan has already declared that he intends to challenge the winner of that lightweight title bout.
The co-main event for UFC 302 will see Strickland return to action for the first time since he lost the middleweight belt to Dricus Du Pessis at UFC 297, and the main card also features another huge middleweight bout between top contenders Roman Dolidze and Anthony Hernandez.
The event will also include a heavyweight clash between Jailton Almeida and Alexandr Romanov as well as some action-packed prelims that feature a number of well-matched bouts, and UFC 302 will also be the first event where fighters will use the new gloves that were unveiled during UFC 300 fight week.
The UFC 302 main event will mark Poirier’s third attempt at claiming undisputed lightweight gold when he faces Makhachev, and that highly-anticipated matchup will close out a card that currently looks like this:
• Main Event: Islam Makhachev vs. Dustin Poirier – For the UFC Lightweight Championship
• Co-Main Event: Sean Strickland vs. Paulo Costa
• Roman Dolidze vs. Anthony Hernandez
• Jailton Almeida vs. Alexandr Romanov
• Joselyne Edwards vs. Ailin Perez
• Mickey Gall vs. Bassil Hafez
• Grant Dawson vs. Joe Solecki
• Phil Rowe vs. Jake Matthews
• Hyun Sung Park vs. André Lima
• Sumudaerji vs. Joshua Van
• Roman Kopylov vs. César Almeida
• Randy Brown vs. Elizeu Zaleski
• Niko Price vs. Alex Morono
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