UFC 264 - Poirier vs. McGregor 3 --- UFC on ESPN 27 - Sandhagen vs. Dillashaw
UFC on ESPN 26: Makhachev vs. Moisés (also known as UFC Vegas 31) is an upcoming mixed martial arts event produced by the Ultimate Fighting Championship that will take place on July 17, 2021 at the UFC Apex facility in Enterprise, Nevada, part of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Area, United States.
Fight card
Main Card (ESPN / ESPN+)
Lightweight Islam Makhachev vs. Thiago Moisés
Women's Bantamweight Marion Reneau vs. Miesha Tate
Lightweight Jeremy Stephens vs. Mateusz Gamrot
Middleweight Rodolfo Viera vs. Dustin Stolzfus
Featherweight Gabriel Benítez vs. Billy Quarantillo
Preliminary card (ESPN / ESPN+)
Welterweight Daniel Rodriguez vs. Preston Parsons
Women's Strawweight Amanda Lemos vs. Montserrat Ruiz
Bantamweight Khalid Taha vs. Sergey Morozov
Bantamweight Miles Johns vs. Anderson dos Santos
Flyweight Francisco Figueiredo vs. Malcolm Gordon
Heavyweight Alan Baudot vs. Rodrigo Nascimento
Middleweight Phil Hawes vs. TBD
Background
A featherweight bout between former UFC Featherweight Champion Max Holloway and The Ultimate Fighter: Latin America featherweight winner Yair Rodríguez was slated to serve as the event headliner. However, Holloway was pulled from the bout due to injury. The pair is expected to remain intact and the bout will be rescheduled to a future event. Subsequently, a lightweight bout between Islam Makhachev and Thiago Moisés was then promoted to serve as the new main event.
A women's bantamweight bout between former Strikeforce and UFC Women's Bantamweight Champion Miesha Tate and Marion Reneau is expected to take place at this event. It will be Tate's first fight since UFC 205, where she lost to Raquel Pennington via unanimous decision and decided to retire afterwards.
Guram Kutateladze and Don Madge were expected to meet in a lightweight bout at UFC Fight Night: Edwards vs. Muhammad four months earlier, but Kutateladze pulled out due to a knee injury that required surgery. They were then rescheduled for this event. However, the bout was scrapped after Kutateladze once again withdrew from the bout citing injury and visa issues.
A heavyweight bout between Rodrigo Nascimento and Alan Baudot was originally expected to take place at UFC Fight Night: Font vs. Garbrandt. However, they were rescheduled to this event after Baudot got injured.
Herbert Burns and Billy Quarantillo were expected to meet in a featherweight bout at this event. Burns eventually pulled out in early June due to a torn ACL and was replaced by Gabriel Benítez.
A flyweight bout between Ode Osbourne and Amir Albazi was originally linked to the event. However, Albazi pulled out of the fight in late June citing injury. In turn, Osbourne was pulled from the card entirely and rescheduled for a future event.
A middleweight bout between Phil Hawes and Deron Winn was scheduled to take place at the event. However, Winn was forced to pull out from the event citing a separated rib and torn cartilage. It is unclear if a replacement will be sought by UFC officials.
Abubakar Nurmagomedov was scheduled to meet Daniel Rodriguez in a welterweight bout. However, Nurmagomedov was forced to withdraw from the event citing injury. Rodriguez is now expected to face promotional newcomer Preston Parsons instead.
