The UFC will be ending its two-year drought in Southern California.
The premier MMA promotion returns to Honda Center in Anaheim with a featherweight title fight between champion Alexander Volkanovski and surging challenger Ilia Topuria on Feb. 17.
Tickets go on sale at 10 a.m. Friday at ticketmaster.com.
The last time the UFC graced the region was with UFC 270 on Jan. 22, 2021, at Honda Center. That main event featured heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou, in his first title defense, earning a decision over interim champion Ciryl Gane.
In two months, it will be two of the top 145-pounders in the world in the main event.
While Volkanovski has twice been unsuccessful in his recent pursuit of the lightweight title, losing a hotly contested unanimous decision to 155-pound champion Islam Makhachev at UFC 284 in February and then getting knocked out by Makhachev via first-round head kick at UFC 294 in October, he has been unstoppable at 145 pounds.
The 35-year-old Australian went 7-0 in the UFC before dethroning Max Holloway four years ago at UFC 245. Volkanovski has followed that with five successful title defenses, his last one via third-round TKO over Yair Rodriguez at UFC 290 in July.
Topuria (14-0) has been on a fast track to the top of the bantamweight division. The 26-year-old Georgian, fighting out of Spain, has gone 6-0 since debuting in the UFC in 2020, with his last victory via unanimous decision over Josh Emmett in June.
The co-main event ought to be a grapplers’ delight when Merab Dvalishvili takes on Henry Cejudo in a potential bantamweight title contender bout.
Dvalishvili (16-4) has rattled off nine consecutive victories after starting 0-2 in the UFC. The 32-year-old Georgian, who fights out of Long Island, New York, defeated former champion Petr Yan via unanimous decision in his last fight in March.
Cejudo (16-3), known as Triple C after he won an Olympic gold medal in wrestling in the 2008 Olympics and then became a two-division UFC champion, continues his quest to add to his legacy. The 36-year-old Los Angeles native came up short in May when he came out of retirement for his first fight in three years. The Phoenix resident challenged 135-pound champion Aljamain Sterling at UFC 288, only to lose by split decision.
Another former local fighter is also on the card in a clash with possible title implications. Covina native and former Northview High wrestling star Tatiana Suarez puts her 11-0 record on the line against Amanda Lemos in a battle of highly ranked strawweights.
Long touted as a potential champion, Suarez, 32, has dealt with several injuries throughout her career. After a nearly four-year layoff, she emerged victorious with submissions of Montana De La Rosa in February and former champion Jessica Andrade in August.
Lemos (13-3-1) is looking to right her career and return to title contention. The 36-year-old Brazilian is coming off a lopsided unanimous-decision loss to 115-pound champion Weili Zhang at UFC 292 in August.
UFC 298 will be the promotion’s 10th show at the Anaheim venue since it debuted with UFC 59 – with Tim Sylvia knocking out heavyweight champion Andrei Arlovski in the main event – on April 15, 2006, at the then-Arrowhead Pond.
UFC 298
Main event: featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski vs. Ilia Topuria
When: Feb. 17
Where: Honda Center
Tickets: ticketmaster.com
