By Josh Lynnes
LAS VEGAS, NV – UFC 268 invades T-Mobile Arena Saturday night. Two Brazilian champions headline a card full of intriguing match-ups.
Lightweight champ Charles Oliveira rides a 9-fight winning streak into his first defense the lightweight belt. Oliveira looks to add another finish to his UFC record 17 finishes as he faces top ranked challenger and former interim champion Dustin Poirier in the main event. Poirier comes into this battle with a 3-fight win streak including back-to-back wins over former champ Conor McGregor.
Two-division champ Amanda Nunes aims to defend her bantamweight title for the sixth time as she faces third ranked Julianna Peña. Nunes has amassed 12 straight over the past 6 years including 5 bantamweight title defenses and 2 defenses of her featherweight title. Peña comes into this match-up 2-2 in her last four fights including securing a submission victory in a back-and-forth fight with Sara McMann in her last outing. Nunes and Peña were originally scheduled to face each other at UFC 265 in August but a positive COVID test for Nunes forced the bout to be rescheduled.
Santiago Ponzinibbio looks to move up the rankings as he faces Geoff Neal in a battle of top 15 welterweights. Former bantamweight champion Cody Garbrandt moves down a weight class to make his flyweight debut against sixth ranked Kai Kara-France. Kicking off the pay-per-view, favorite Sean O’Malley returns to face Raulian Paiva in a bantamweight tilt.
Fighting on the prelims Jordan Wright and Bruno Silva throw down at middleweight. Australian Tai Tuivasa looks to break into the heavyweight ranking as he tangles with eleventh ranked Augusto Sakai. Former bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz takes on Pedro Munhoz in a clash of top 10 bantamweights. In the prelim feature bout top featherweights Josh Emmett and Dan Ige collide.
Early prelims include:
Women’s Flyweight – Gillian Robertson vs. Priscilla Cachoeira*
Bantamweight – Randy Costa vs. Tony Kelley
Featherweight – Ryan Hall vs. Darrick Minner
Women’s Flyweight – Miranda Maverick vs. Erin Blanchfield
Middleweight – Andre Muniz vs. Eryk Anders
*Cachoeira missed weight(129lbs), will forfeit 30% of her fight pay
** a planned bout between Flyweights Alex Perez and Matt Schnell was cancelled due to medical issues for Schnell.
Early prelims start at 5:00PM CDT on UFC Fight Pass. Action then shifts to ESPN2 and ESPN+ at 7:00PM followed by the pay-per-view main card at 9:00PM on ESPN+ PPV.
