The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) will return to the United Kingdom for the upcoming UFC 286 event next year.
The upcoming event will take place at the 20,000-capacity O2 Arena in London, as confirmed by the Mixed Martial Arts promotion team on Wednesday.
It will be the UFC’s third event in London in a year, but the first numbered event since UFC 204, when Michael Bisping successfully defended his middleweight title against Dan Henderson at the Manchester Arena in 2016.
Although there are no official bouts in the aforementioned event, however, there have been suggestions that reigning UFC welterweight champion Leon Edwards is expected to make his first title defense against former division champion Kamaru Usman in the card’s main event.
In August, Edwards became the second-ever British champion in UFC history as he shocked the MMA world by defeating “The Nigerian Nightmare” to claim the welterweight title.
In an interview with TMZ Sports, Usman showed interest in fighting Edward: “We will have to wait and see what date makes sense. It’s going to be top of next year and I want to go to England.
“I have been feeding to go to England. I feel like England is my second home. England is half-Africa.
“So, it’s time to go over there and entertain my English people, and what better people and what better story?
“I mean you could not write this any better. I am excited to see what’s next and we will definitely figure something out,” he said.
While speaking to Paddy Pimblett on Wednesday, UFC president Dana White said, “It’s going to be Usman vs. Edwards.
“Everybody was asking me about Cardiff…It’s going to be London…We looked into it.”
Other notable mentions on the UFC 286 fight card include women’s flyweight fighter Molly McCann and lightweight Paddy Pimblett, who is scheduled to face Jared Gordon at UFC 282 on Saturday.
