UFC CEO Dana White shared important updates on upcoming UFC events through his official X account on Thursday.
The first announcement was a short-notice switch-up in the co-main event of UFC Austin on December 2, where Jalin Turner stepped in on short notice to face Bobby Green. Originally slated for five rounds, the match will now be a three-round showdown.
The shift in the lineup occurred due to Dan Hooker's withdrawal from the bout, citing an arm injury. Turner, who faced Hooker in July and suffered a loss, has agreed to take on the challenge with just nine days' notice.
On another front, the location for UFC 298, scheduled for February 17, has been unveiled. At the Honda Center in Anaheim, Calif, featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski will defend his title against Ilia Topuria in the headlining match of the promotion's second pay-per-view of 2024.
Lastly, Dana announced that Las Vegas' February 10 Fight Night event would be headlined by a middleweight clash between 10th-ranked Jack Hermansson and the rising Joe Pyfer.
Hermansson will return to the octagon after an over-year hiatus following his second-round TKO loss to Roman Dolidze at UFC Orlando in December. "The Joker" has faced setbacks, including a split decision loss to current middleweight champ Sean Strickland, but boasts notable victories over elite fighters like Jacare Souza, Kelvin Gastelum and Edmen Shahbazyan throughout his career.
Meanwhile, Pyfer currently holds a professional record of 12-2 and a 3-0 record in the UFC. The Philadelphia native's recent second-round submission victory over Abdul Razak Alhassan in October adds to his clean UFC resume, featuring knockout triumphs against Gerald Meerschaert and Alen Amedovski.
PFL: White concerned about Bellator acquisition
In light of the PFL's recent acquisition of Bellator MMA, PFL chairman and co-owner Donn Davis responded to White's previous dismissal of the PFL, emphasizing the promotion's exponential growth and its new status as a co-leader in the MMA market.
In an interview on The MMA Hour, Davis suggested that White's tendency to dismiss certain developments is indicative of concern. According to him, the UFC CEO tends to downplay entities when he perceives them as a threat.
"Everybody knows Dana well enough that he only dismisses things that worry him or else he just doesn't comment," he said.
"What specifically worried him about Bellator was the metrics we put on the press release. 30 percent of that roster ranked in the top-25 Fight Matrix rankings."
Davis also commented on White's statement that he'd make the UFC as big as or even bigger than the NFL. Davis suggested that turning the UFC into something like the NFL is not possible anymore following Bellator's acquisition by PFL.
"UFC ain't the NFL. We're not the XFL, but he wants you to think that. And it's just a matter of time before that starts to get more well-known, and we're not number two; we're a co-leader. They don't want that, that's what's going on," Davis said.
The PFL, which debuted in 2018 as World Series of Fighting before rebranding, has been making waves in the MMA scene. This year, they signed several high-profile free agents, including Francis Ngannou, Amanda Serrano and Jake Paul.
