2023 has been off to a very hot start for the UFC. The first pay-per-view of the year was sensational witnessing Brandon Moreno and Jamahal Hill become undisputed champions as well as the culmination of Glover Teixeira's career. We know this weekend, UFC 284, is one of the most historic matchups in the history of the UFC with the top two pound-for-pound fighters and champions of the Feather and Lightweight divisions, Alexander Volkanovski vs Islam Makhachev. Then for UFC 285, we get the return of the GOAT, Jon "Bones" Jones vs Ciryl Gane for the Heavyweight Title at the beginning of March. Valentina Shevchenko vs Alexa Grasso for the Women's Flyweight Championship. On March 18th Leon Edwards takes on Kamaru Usman in their trilogy fight for the Welterweight Championship. Justin Gaethje vs Rafael Fiziev will co-main UFC 286. Finally, at UFC 287 in Miami on April 8th is Adesanya vs Pereira 2 for the Middleweight Title with Gilbert Burns vs Jorge Masvidal as the co-main. There are also a ton of exciting fight nights in between including Chito Vera vs Cory Sandhagen and Petr Yan vs Merab Dvalishvili. These cards are also stacked from top to bottom, even with such exciting co-mains and main events. So why am I about to look ahead to UFC 288?
With such an exciting year of fights ahead there are still so many fighters who need fights. Rumor has it Charles Oliviera vs Beneil Dariush has been talked about by UFC to be featured on the 288 card on May 6th. Yet, nothing is confirmed. The Bantamweight Title picture is currently a triangle with a couple of fighters one win away from the title. The triangle is Champion Aljamain Sterling, number-one-ranked "Suga" Sean O'Malley, and former UFC Champion Henry Cejudo. It's very unclear who will be fighting for the title considering Sterling claims to need surgery on his arm, Cejudo claims he is fighting for the title, and most would say O'Malley earned his shot when he beat Yan. UFC 288 seems like a reasonable card to feature the Bantamweight title as the main event due to the current booking landscape.
Sean O'Malley was recently seen on the Pat McAfee show and he had a pitch for UFC 288. Since Arizona has been a featured city in the Spring for the UFC for the last couple of years hosting UFC 274 and UFC 263 it seems like perfect timing to come back to Phoenix. Since Sterling probably needs more time off and Cejudo and O'Malley both fight out of Arizona, why not let the two of them duke it out for the Interim Bantamweight Title in Arizona?
It feels like a no-brainer, the crowd in Arizona would have a field day and will probably be completely split. Hopefully, the UFC considers this. The interim title fight, in the battle for Arizona's heart alongside Charles Oliviera vs Beneil Dariush, feels like a potential card of the year. Especially if you were to add Khamzat Chimaev vs Robert Whittaker on that card. Khamzat said that his next opponent is Bobby Knuckles, the UFC has been breaking their own news lately. I feel like we're going to hear about this fight in the next announcement and it might as well be for 288. If the card does get booked like this and in Phoenix, it'll be Oliviera's second fight in Phoenix in the last two years. At UFC 274 Oliviera defeated Justin Gaethje in what should have been his second title defense. However, Oliviera missed weight by half of a pound and was forced to relinquish the belt. I could see Oliviera not wanting to fight in Phoenix because many argue there was suspicious activity with his weigh-in that day. Regardless, that would be a great card and if the Bantamweight Title fight is going to be Cejudo vs O'Malley there is no reason to not have it at the Footprint Center in Phoenix. I can hear Dana saying it right now "The rumors are true, UFC 288 is gonna feature Charles Oliviera vs Beneil Dariush in a number one contender fight.The co-main event is going to be a bad-ass fight when Khamzat Chimaev takes on Robert Whittaker in Khamzat's official Middleweight debut. For the main event 'Suga' Sean O'Malley will face Henry Cejudo for the Interim Bantamweight Championship on May 6th in Phoenix, Arizona at the Footprint Center!" You heard it here first!
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