The UFC closed out its 2024 schedule with an exciting, finish-filled Fight Night card Saturday night in Tampa, Fla., after which Dana White teased what fight fans can expect to see next year once the organization resumes action following a three-week holiday hiatus.
“I anticipate a lot of big fights,” the UFC president told reporters at Amalie Arena following Joaquin Buckley’s big win over Colby Covington. “I got something in the works that you will never (expletive) see coming for 2025 that literally started to come together last night.
“We’ve got some fun stuff coming up.”
One specific matchup White mentioned that would be undoubtedly one of the most important fights in all of mixed martial arts is a heavyweight title unification bout between champion Jon Jones and interim titleholder Tom Aspinall.
Jones dismissed the unification bout following his recent title defence over Stipe Miocic at UFC 309 in November, however the 37-year-old longtime great did not rule it out entirely as long as he was well compensated.
White described a Jones vs. Aspinall matchup as “probably the biggest fight in heavyweight history and it’s a massive fight in the history of the company too.”
The UFC boss also dismissed any notion Jones is afraid to fight Aspinall and said behind the scenes Jones “is not the kind of guy that turns down fights” and then made the bold statement that “100 per cent” the blockbuster unification bout will happen at some point in 2025.
As for what’s already on the upcoming UFC schedule, the next event is a Jan. 11 Fight Night card from the Apex in Las Vegas followed by UFC 311 one week later.
UFC 311 takes place Jan. 18 at the new Intuit Dome in Inglewood, Calif., featuring two title fights — a lightweight championship match between Islam Makhachev and Arman Tsaruykan, plus a bantamweight championship clash between Merab Dvalishvili and Umar Nurmagomedov.
UFC 312 on Feb. 9 in Australia also features a double dose of title bouts with Dricus du Plessis defending his middleweight belt in a main event rematch with Sean Strickland and strawweight champ Weili Zhang facing undefeated challenger Tatiana Suarez in the co-main event.
As of the conclusion of UFC Tampa, the organization already has 11 events scheduled from January through to the end of March.
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