UFC 296, the final PPV of 2023, features two title fights along with fan-friendly matchups even at the prelims and early prelims. With many trash talkers present, the event is expected to garner a substantial number of PPV buys.
Colby Covington, Ian Garry, and Paddy Pimblett, known for their exceptional trash-talking skills, are anticipated to provide excitement at the pre-fight press conference. Garry is expected to be targeted by Covington and Pimblett, given the recent controversy he has been subjected to lately.
UFC 296 venue, date, time
UFC 296 will be held at the T-Mobile Arena in Paradise, Las Vegas, Nevada. The UFC has a contract with the Arena from 2016 in which the UFC hosts a minimum of 4 events at the venue in a calendar year. The most recent event at the venue was UFC Noche headlined by Alexa Grasso and Valentina Shevchenko.
Moreover, T-Mobile Arena regularly hosts the PPV coinciding with International Fight Week. UFC 296 is scheduled for December 16, 2023, in USA. It needs to be noted that the date of the event is December 17 in Asia due to the timezone difference.
Early Prelims for the event start from 6 PM ET / 3 PM PT which is 3:30 PM in IST and 4 PM in BST. Prelims start at 8 PM ET / 5 PM PT which is 5:30 PM IST and 6:00 PM in BST. Main Card starts from 10 PM ET / 7 PM PT which is 7:30 PM IST and 8:00 PM BST.
UFC 296 match card, title fights
UFC 296 is a stacked PPV card. The event is headlined by a welterweight title bout between Leon Edwards and Colby Covington. In the co-main event, the flyweight title is on the line between Alexandre Pantoja and Brandon Royval. Moreover, the featured bout of the main card of the PPV is a matchup between top-ranked welterweights, Shavkat Rakhmonov and Stephen Thompson.
The main card also has another welterweight clash between Ian Machado Garry and Vicente Luque. Moreover, the main card opener is a lightweight bout between Paddy Pimblett and Tony Ferguson, the former interim champion. Even the prelims of UFC 296 feature a former champion and two title challengers.
The main event of the prelims is a featherweight bout between Josh Emmet and Bryce Mitchell, who replaced the Giga Chikadze on short notice. Former bantamweight title challenger Irene Aldana faces Karol Rosa in the prelims in addition to a bantamweight bout between former champion Cody Garbrant and Brian Kelleher.
Casey O’Neill vs. Ariane Lipski is another fight on the prelims. In the Light Heavyweight division, Alonzo Menifield faces Dustin Jacoby. A Flyweight bout features Tagir Ulanbekov against Cody Durden, while a Featherweight clash includes Andre Fili against Lucas Almeida. Additionally, a Heavyweight bout between Martin Buday and Shamil Gaziev, along with a Welterweight matchup between Randy Brown and Muslim Salikhov, rounds up the early prelims.
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