UFC 248

UFC 248

UFC 248: Adesanya vs. Romero was a mixed martial arts event produced by the Ultimate Fighting Championship that took place on March 7, 2020 at T-Mobile Arena in Paradise, Nevada, part of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Area

Background

A UFC Middleweight Championship bout between the current champion Israel Adesanya and former interim title challenger (as well as 2000 Olympic silver medalist and former world champion in freestyle wrestling) Yoel Romero is expected to headline the event.[4]

A UFC Women's Strawweight Championship bout between the current champion Zhang Weili and former champion Joanna Jędrzejczyk is expected to take place at the event.[5]

A middleweight bout between former champion Robert Whittaker (also The Ultimate Fighter: The Smashes welterweight winner) and Jared Cannonier was expected to take place at this event.[6] However on January 15, it was announced that Whittaker pulled out of the bout.[7] Subsequently, promotion officials announced that Cannonier would be on 'stand by' in the event that one of the main event participants were to pull out of that contest.[8] In turn, Cannonier indicated in mid-February that he had suffered chest muscle injury while training and would be sidelined for several months.[9]

A bantamweight bout between Sean O'Malley and The Ultimate Fighter: Latin America bantamweight winner José Alberto Quiñónez was originally scheduled to take place at UFC 229. However, it was scrapped after O'Malley failed a United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) drug test.[10] The bout was then expected to take place at UFC 247, but it was eventually moved to this event for unknown reasons.[11]

While not officially announced by the organization, a featherweight bout between Calvin Kattar and Jeremy Stephens was expected to take place at the event.[12] However, Stephens was removed from the card in mid-January with an injury.[13] The pairing is expected to be left intact and rescheduled for UFC 249.[14]

A featherweight bout between Douglas Silva de Andrade and Movsar Evloev was scheduled to take place at the event. However, de Andrade withdrew from the bout due to injury and was replaced by promotional newcomer Jamall Emmers.[15] Subsequently, Evloev pulled out of the fight in late February citing injuries sustained in a road accident.[16] He was replaced by Giga Chikadze.[17]

A middleweight bout between Derek Brunson and Edmen Shahbazyan was scheduled to take place at the event. However, on February 20, it was announced that the bout was moved to UFC Fight Night: Overeem vs. Harris.[18]

At the weigh-ins, Emily Whitmire weighed in at 117.5 pounds, 1.5 pounds over the strawweight non-title fight limit of 116. She was fined 20% of her purse and her bout with Polyana Viana was expected to proceed as scheduled at a catchweight.[19] Subsequently, Whitmire was hospitalized the day of the event and the fight was cancelled

Bonus awards

The following fighters received $50,000 bonuses:[22]

Fight of the Night: Weili Zhang vs. Joanna Jedrzejczyk

Performance of the Night: Beneil Dariush and Sean O’Malley