On February 11 (February 10 in North America), the UFC will take over Perth, Western Australia with UFC 221.<\/p>\n
In the main event of the UFC’s anticipated return down under, UFC middleweight champion Robert Whittaker \u2013 who was promoted from interim champion when Georges St-Pierre<\/a> vacated the title \u2013 will attempt his first title defense opposite former champion Luke Rockhold.<\/p>\n Elsewhere on the card, we’ll see MMA legend Mark Hunt take on surging heavyweight contender Curtis Blaydes<\/a>, while Jussier “Formiga” da Silva and Ben Nguyen will collide in a flyweight contender bout, Tyson Pedro and\u00a0Saparbek Safarov will meet at light heavyweight, and Cyril Asker and\u00a0Tai Tuivasa will meet at heavyweight.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n While these bouts have been public knowledge for some time, the card has grown by two more bouts as\u00a0 of this week.<\/p>\n The first is a lightweight bout between Australia’s own Damien Brown and South Korea’s “Maestro” Dong Hyun Kim. This bout was announced by the UFC, via Australia’s Daily Telegraph<\/a>.<\/p>\n Brown will enter this fight on an unfortunate, two-fight streak, having recently been knocked out by Vinc Pichel, and decisioned by Frank Camacho in a thrilling slugfest. These losses were preceded by defeats of Jon Tuck and\u00a0Cesar Arzamendia, and a loss to Alan Patrick in his UFC debut.<\/p>\n Kim, meanwhile, will enter this fight on a two-fight streak, having recently decisioned Brandon O’Reilly and knocked out Japanese MMA legend Takanori Gomi in just 90 seconds.<\/p>\n In addition to this Brown-Kim fight, our own Tom Taylor has confirmed that a bout between surging Australian featherweight contender Alex Volkanovski and Canada’s Jeremy Kennedy is nearly finalized for the card.<\/p>\n Sources tell me a bout between Australia’s Alex Volkanovski and Canada’s Jeremy Kennedy is close to being finalized for #UFC221<\/a> in Perth, Australia. Fight was briefly scheduled to occur back at UFC Fight Night 121.<\/p>\n \u2014 Tom Taylor (@TomTayMMA) December 17, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n