UFC London 2023: Date, rumoured fight card and more

The UFC had some absolutely massive Fight Night events from London in 2022, but what do we currently know about the 2023 return of the biggest promotion in MMA?

Paddy Pimblett, Molly McCann and Tom Aspinall were the home country heroes at the events this year, but could we be seeing a massive PPV event taking place from England in 2023?

The main event of the fight card has now been confirmed, and British star Leon Edwards will be defending his Welterweight Championship against Kamaru Usman in a huge rematch from their bout at UFC 278 in August 2022.

Here is everything that we currently know about UFC London 2023, including the predicted Date, rumoured Fight Card and more.

Date

Leon Edwards knocked out Kamaru Usman with a stunning head kick — Aug 20, 2022; Salt Lake City, Utah, USA; Kamaru Usman (red gloves) fights Leon Edwards (blue gloves) during UFC 278 at Vivint Arena. Mandatory Credit: Jeffrey Swinger-USA TODAY Sports

UPDATE 10th January 2022: It has been confirmed that UFC London 2023/UFC 286 will be taking place on Saturday, March 18th 2023!

ORIGINAL: Speaking back in October 2022 (via The Mirror), UFC President Dana White revealed that he expects the event to be held in England in early 2023:

"We're coming back to England with the rematch. Leon Edwards, in his home country, I'm getting goosebumps just talking about this, it's been so long since we brought a big title fight back to the UK. We're going to make that card look like this card [UFC 280]. I'm so excited because you know how much I love the fans in England and the UK.

"I'm f***ing pumped, yes we will be back in England! The fight's going to be in January or February, we can't be screwing around in England [with an open-air stadium]. You can't screw around in England without a roof anywhere doing fights, it rains most of the time there and it's freezing.”

It’s more likely however that the event will be taking place in March 2023, with the January PPV event set to take place in Brazil (via UFC.com).

Fight Card

UPDATED 14th March 2023:

The following bouts have been confirmed for the UFC London 2023 fight card (correct as of writing on Tuesday, March 14th 2023):

Early Prelims

Juliana Miller vs Veronica Macedo - Women’s Flyweight bout
Jai Herbert vs Ludovit Klein - Lightweight bout
Joanne Wood vs Luana Carolina - Women’s Flyweight bout
Jake Hadley vs Malcolm Gordon - Flyweight bout
Christian Leroy Duncan vs Dusko Todorovic - Middleweight bout
Lerone Murphy vs Gabriel Santos - Featherweight bout

Prelims

Muhammad Mokaev vs Jafel Filho - Flyweight bout
Sam Patterson vs Yanal Ashmoz - Lightweight bout
Chris Duncan vs Omar Morales - Lightweight bout
Jack Shore vs Makwan Amirkhani - Featherweight bout

Main Card

Marvin Vettori vs Roman Dolidze - Middleweight bout
Jennifer Maia vs Casey O’Neill - Women’s Flyweight bout
Gunnar Nelson vs Bryan Barberena - Welterweight bout
Justin Gaethje vs Rafael Fiziev - Lightweight bout
Leon Edwards vs Kamaru Usman - UFC Welterweight Championship Main Event bout

ORIGINAL: As noted by White, we’re expecting to see Leon Edwards defending his UFC Welterweight title on the card, likely against former champion Kamaru Usman.

Beyond that, we don’t really have much more information to go off of, except for perhaps Justin Gaethje making his return to the octagon on the card.

Speaking to MMAFighting (via LowKickMMA), Gaethje revealed that he would like to fight in the first quarter of 2023, perhaps in London:

“They got a fight for the title [at UFC 280], so somebody’s got to fight the loser. Michael Chandler and Dustin Poirier are going to fight, somebody’s got to fight the winner. I’ll be ready next year, ideally in January, February, or March, whatever they want to do. I’m not sure when Kamaru [Usman] is going to London [for the Leon Edwards rematch], but I wouldn’t mind fighting in London.”

Live Stream

Fight fans in the UK will be able to watch all of the action live via two different subscription services.

Both the Early Prelims and Prelims will be available for fans to watch live via the UFC FIGHT PASS subscription service.

UPDATE 8th March 2023: It has now been confirmed that the event will be shown on BT Sport Box Office for £19.95.

ORIGINAL: The Main Card for the event will be streaming live on BT Sport 1, and if you do not already have a subscription to BT Sport, then you can get all of the main channels for only £25 per month.

Combat sports fans can watch BT Sport on their television, the BT Sport app, or on the web player, so there are a lot of choices when it comes to how you see all of the action live.

UK Start Time

UPDATE 14th March 2023: As confirmed by the official UFC site, the Early Prelims for the event are scheduled to start at around 5:00 PM GMT on Saturday, March 18th 2023.

The Prelims are then scheduled to be taking place at around 7:00 PM GMT on Saturday, March 18th 2023. Finally, the Main Card is expected to be starting at around 9:00 PM GMT on Saturday, March 18th 2023.