Charles Oliveira may not officially be the lightweight champion, but he’s still getting top billing for UFC 280.
Oliveira will face Islam Makhachev for the vacant UFC lightweight title on Oct. 22 at the Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi, and an official poster for the event was released on Tuesday, with the bantamweight title fight between Aljamain Sterling and T.J. Dillashaw and the marquee bantamweight matchup between Petr Yan and Sean O’Malley also being featured on the poster.
Your official #UFC280 poster has dropped
This card is INSANE pic.twitter.com/EjxUodV0o5
— UFC on BT Sport (@btsportufc) August 9, 2022
In the main event, Oliveira looks to reclaim the lightweight title he lost on the scale against Justin Gaethe at UFC 274, when he came in a half-pound over the 155 pound weight limit. Oliveira went on to defeat Gaethje by first-round submission, maintaining his place as the top lightweight in the world. Makhachev is the friend and training partner of former lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov. He is on a 10-fight winning streak in the division and currently holds the No. 3 position in the MMA Fighting Global Lightweight Rankings.
In the co-main event, bantamweight champion Sterling puts his title on the line against two-time champion T.J. Dillashaw. Sterling is on a seven-fight winning streak, and coming off a split decision win over Petr Yan in their rematch at UFC 273. Dillashaw has only won one fight since his return to the cage following a two-year suspension for EPO, a split decision win over Cory Sandhagen in July of 2021.
While there are two title fights above it, the featured bantamweight bout between Yan and O’Malley is arguably the most anticipated bout of the three. Yan is the former 135-pound champion who lost his belt to Sterling via DQ and then came up short in their rematch with past April. He’s looking to rebound with a win over O’Malley, one of the the most popular fighters in the sport, who is coming off of a No Contest against Pedro Munhoz at UFC 276.
See the updated UFC 280 pay-per-view card below. The bout order is still to be finalized.
Charles Oliveira vs. Islam Makhachev
Aljamain Sterling vs. T.J. Dillashaw
Petr Yan vs. Sean O’Malley
Belal Muhammad vs. Sean Brady
Beneil Dariush vs. Mateusz Gamrot
Zubaira Tukhugov vs. Lucas Almeida
Marina Rodriguez vs. Amanda Lemos
Katlyn Chookagian vs. Manon Fiorot
Makhmud Muradov vs. Caio Borralho
Muhammad Mokaev vs. Malcolm Gordon
Volkan Oezdemir vs. Nikita Krylov
Abubakar Nurmagomedov vs. Gadzhi Omargadzhiev
