Saturday night, word started to go around that the two headlining fights set to top the bill at the UFC 306 MSG Sphere event on Sept. 14 were leaked by the French-Canadian UFC Denver RDS broadcast, including Sean O’Malley vs. Merab Dvalishvili for the bantamweight title.
Veteran MMA journalist Ariel Helwani credited the broadcast for being partially correct, as the other leak included Ilia Topuria’s first featherweight title defense opposite ex-champion Max Holloway, which has a different date in mind.
French-Canadian Broadcast Supposedly Leaks UFC 306 Title Fights For Sphere Debut
🚨 Ariel Helwani denies the rumours of Topuria vs Holloway and O’Malley vs Merab both being on the Sphere card.
He says the current plan for the Sphere is:
O’Malley vs Merab
Alexa Grasso title defenseAnd the plan for Utah in October is:
Topuria vs Holloway
Pennington vs Peña… pic.twitter.com/pBuPIdRmzQ— Championship Rounds (@ChampRDS) July 15, 2024
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To sum up, Helwani revealed the UFC brass will likely have two title fights during UFC 306. One could be Alexa Grasso vs. Valentina Shevchenko 3 or an entirely different opponent for Grasso if Shevchenko can’t make the fight. Helwani did not answer either way.
As per Helwani, the UFC has no immediate plans to headline Topuria in Spain as initially proposed. Therefore, the UFC’s unofficial date of Oct. 5 for UFC 307 in Salt Lake City, Utah will have to be the best bet for that fight as of now, along with newly minted women’s bantamweight champion Raquel Pennington taking on former champion Julianna Peña.
At press time, none of the fights discussed above have been signed, nor confirmed by the UFC. However, in an interview Monday with Pat McAfee, UFC CEO Dana White revealed that the Sphere event will only have 10 fights as opposed to the traditional 12 or 13.
It remains to be seen what additional announcements become official in the coming days or weeks, as Sept. 14 is two months away.
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