The new UFC 314 main card has now been revealed after some shuffling was required following an injury suffered by Geoff Neal that scrapped his fight against Carlos Prates.
While Prates quickly moved on to book a main event against Ian Machado Garry at UFC Kansas City in a few weeks, the UFC 314 card on Saturday didn’t have to look too far to find a worthy matchup to open the pay-per-view.
Two-time light heavyweight title challenger Dominick Reyes, who has suddenly rattled off back-to-back knockouts in his past two appearances, takes on Nikita Krylov in an intriguing bout at 205 pounds. Both fighters are well known finishers so it’s tough to imagine Reyes and Krylov don’t start the show off with a bang when they clash at UFC 314.
From there, former Bellator champion Patricio Pitbull finally makes his long awaited octagon debut when he faces Yair Rodriguez in a pivotal matchup at featherweight. Pitbull has long wanted to compete among the best in the world in the UFC and now he gets his chance while facing an incredibly tough test with Rodriguez awaiting him on Saturday.
Also on the main card, Jean Silva gets his wish when he faces Bryce Mitchell in a fight that should produce fireworks both inside and outside the cage. Some bad blood has formed between these two and they’ll look to settle the score at UFC 314.
In the co-main event, Michael Chandler returns to action and provides the toughest test of Paddy Pimblett’s UFC career as the popular fighter from Liverpool attempts to take out an always exciting Fight of the Night machine to catapult himself up the lightweight ranks.
The featherweight title fight between Alexander Volkanovski and Diego Lopes caps off the night as they battle for a vacant belt after Ilia Topuria vacated the title to make a new home in the lightweight division.
The UFC 314 main card kicks off at 10 p.m. ET on Saturday night on ESPN+ pay-per-view.
