Fight cards announced for UFC 267 at Fight Island III, tickets now on sale

Written by:
Miles Buckeridge
2nd September 2021

Clashes of Blachowicz vs. Glover Teixeira and Aljamain Sterling vs. Petr Yan will headline UFC267…

Welcome to Fight Island III, the first rule of Fight Island is you do not try to predict fight cards (although, brag disclaimer, we did and scored 100 per cent). Training injuries are a real professional hazard in UFC; there’s the fact that we’re still in the middle of a pandemic, and even cage fighters aren’t immune to the virus; and as you may have noticed — spontaneous retirement from combat sports seems to be in vogue this season.

But fortunately, with the announcement of the UFC267 fight card, the key athletes have stayed fit and MMA fans have got the headline clashes they wanted.

Taking place at Yas Island’s glittering Etihad Arena on October 20, following an event-crammed Showdown Week leading up to it, UFC267 will feature the deferred Light Heavyweight UFC266 clash between Jan Blachowicz and Glover Teixeira.

Into the octagon

Straight outta Warsaw, Blachowicz is the current UFC Light Heavyweight Champion and he is on monstrous form at the moment. The Pole sent Dominick Reyes for technical nap time to gain the belt back in September of 2020, and successfully defended it against current UFC Middleweight Champion Israel Adesanya, in another spectacular fight.

A hugely exciting prospect in the light heavyweight game Teixeira is a skilled Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt with a samurai mind and a body count that includes multiple UFC notables (Thiago Santos, Anthony Smith, Rashad Evans and Quinton ‘Rampage’ Jackson).

We’re also getting treated to a UFC 259 rematch between Aljamain Sterling and Petr Yan. And it’s likely that Yan, who famously knoced out UFC legend Jose Aldo, feels he has a score to settle after being disqualified in that fight for an illegal knee to the head. Reigning UFC Bantamweight champion Sterling will not be an easy opponent, the grappling wizard climbed a mountain to get where is, with decisive victories over Cory Sandhagen, Pedro Munhoz and Jimmie Rivera.

UFC and Showdown Week returning to Abu Dhabi for UFC 267

It’s going to be a big night.

Other fights on the card include

No. five ranked lightweight contender Islam Makhachev (20-1, fighting out of Makhachkala, Russia) vs. No. seven Rafael Dos Anjos (30-13, fighting out of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil)
No. seven ranked Light Heavyweight Magomed Ankalaev (15-1, fighting out of Makhachkala, Russia) vs. No. 8 Volkan Oezdemir (17-5, fighting out of Fribourg, Switzerland)
No. five heavyweight Alexander Volkov (33-9, fighting out of Moscow, Russia) vs. No. eight Marcin Tybura (22-6, fighting out of Uniejow, Poland)
No. 12 ranked welterweight Li Jingliang (18-6, fighting out of Beijing, China) vs. Khamzat Chimaev (9-0, Stockholm, Sweden by way of Chechnya, Russia)
No. 11 ranked strawweight Amanda Ribas (10-2, fighting out of Varginha, Minas Gerais, Brazil) vs No. 12 Virna Jandiroba (17-2, fighting out of Feira de Santana, Bahia, Brazil)
Featherweight Ricardo Ramos (15-3, fighting out of Campinas, Sao Paulo, Brazil) vs. Zubaira Tukhugov (19-5-1, fighting out of Grozny, Chechen Republic, Russia)
Featherweight Makwan Amirkhani (16-6, fighting out of Turku, Finland by way of Kurdistan) vs. Tristan Connelly (14-7, fighting out of Vancouver, BC, Canada)
Middleweight Hu Yaozong (3-2, fighting out of Beijing, China) vs. Alen Amedovski (8-2, fighting out of Rome, Italy)
Flyweight Tagir Ulanbekov (13-1, fighting out of Makhachkala, Russia) vs. Allan Nascimento (18-5, fighting out of Sao Paulo, Brazil)
Light Heavyweight Shamil Gamzatov (14-0, fighting out of Makhachkala, Russia) vs. (15-4 1NC, fighting out of Leczna, Poland)

The time, the place

UFC267 will take place at Etihad Arena on October 20. The first preliminary bout is scheduled to take place at 6.30pm, with the main card likely to kick off around 10pm.