UFC Fight Night 178 - Covington vs. Woodley --- UFC on ESPN 16 - Holm vs. Aldana
UFC 253: Adesanya vs. Costa is an upcoming mixed martial arts event produced by the Ultimate Fighting Championship that will take place on September 26, 2020 at the Flash Forum on Yas Island, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.
Fight card
Main card
Middleweight Israel Adesanya (c) vs. Paulo Costa Middleweight Championship
Light Heavyweight Dominick Reyes vs. Jan Błachowicz Vacant Light Heavyweight Championship
Flyweight Kai Kara-France vs. Brandon Royval
Women's Bantamweight Ketlen Vieira vs. Sijara Eubanks
Featherweight Hakeem Dawodu vs. Zubaira Tukhugov
Preliminary Card (ESPN2 / ESPN+)
Lightweight Brad Riddell vs. Alex Da Silva
Welterweight Diego Sanchez vs. Jake Matthews
Featherweight Shane Young vs. L'udovít Klein
Light Heavyweight William Knight vs. Aleksa Camur
Early Preliminary card (ESPN 2 / ESPN+ / UFC Fight Pass)
Heavyweight Juan Espino vs. Jeff Hughes
Light Heavyweight Khadis Ibragimov vs. Danilo Marques
Background
The event was originally expected to take place on September 19, but it was moved to September 26. UFC Fight Night: Covington vs. Woodley is now expected to take place on the former date.
While not officially announced by the organization, a UFC Lightweight Championship unification bout between current champion Khabib Nurmagomedov and interim champion Justin Gaethje (also former WSOF Lightweight Champion) was briefly linked to the event. However, the date did not materialize and their manager, Ali Abdelaziz, indicated that his clients would still face each other before the end of the year. The pairing has now been scheduled for UFC 254.
Without fans in attendance, the promotion does not have to worry about the local timing of the event, so the plan is to proceed with normal timing for prime time hours on the east coast of North America. The main card is scheduled to begin at 6:00 am (September 26) local time in Abu Dhabi, with a full preliminary card beginning at approximately 2:30 am Gulf Standard Time.
A UFC Middleweight Championship bout between current champion Israel Adesanya and Paulo Costa is expected to serve as the event headliner. The bout was originally targeted for UFC 248, but Costa was unable to compete on that card due to injury. In turn, Adesanya defended his title against former title challenger (as well as 2000 Olympic silver medalist and former world champion in freestyle wrestling) Yoel Romero.
A UFC Light Heavyweight Championship bout for the vacant title between former title challenger Dominick Reyes and former KSW Light Heavyweight Champion Jan Błachowicz has been scheduled for the event. Former two-time champion Jon Jones vacated the belt on August 17, citing issues with the UFC over salary negotiation and the desire to compete at heavyweight.
A heavyweight bout between Ciryl Gane and Shamil Abdurakhimov was expected to take place at this event. The pairing was originally scheduled for UFC 249, but Gane was forced to pull out of the event after he was struck by a pneumothorax in training. Subsequently, the pairing was rescheduled for UFC 251 and cancelled a second time as Abdurakhimov was removed from the bout for undisclosed reasons. In late August, the bout was shifted from this event to UFC Fight Night: Covington vs. Woodley a week earlier.
A strawweight bout between former UFC Women's Strawweight Championship challenger Cláudia Gadelha and Yan Xiaonan was expected to take place at this event, but a knee injury sustained by Gadelha ruled her out of the bout. The pairing was rescheduled for UFC Fight Night 182 instead.
A flyweight bout between Jordan Espinosa and David Dvořák was expected to take place at this event, but was later rebooked for UFC Fight Night: Covington vs. Woodley due to undisclosed reasons.
A women's bantamweight bout between Marion Reneau and Ketlen Vieira was scheduled for the event. However, Reneau was pulled from the bout on September 16 citing an undisclosed injury and was replaced by Sijara Eubanks.
Nate Landwehr was expected to face Shane Young in a featherweight bout at this event. However, Landwehr was pulled from the event after testing positive for COVID-19 and replaced by promotional newcomer Ludovit Klein.
A bantamweight bout between Heili Alateng and Casey Kenney was originally expected to take place at this event. However, it was moved to UFC on ESPN: Holm vs. Aldana a week later due to undisclosed reasons.
