Charles Oliveira and Rose Namajunas will put their respective lightweight and strawweight championships on the line in the feature matches of UFC 274, set for the Footprint Centre in Phoenix, Arizona on the morning of Sunday 8 May 2022.
Oliveira (32-8, 1 NC, 9 KO) will face Justin Gaethje (23-3, 19 KO) in the main event. The former was last in action in December of last year, submitting Dustin Poirier in the third round to make a first successful defence of the title he won by defeating Michael Chandler just under a year ago at UFC 262.
Gaethje, meanwhile, will have his second crack at the undisputed lightweight title. As interim champion he was defeated by Khabib Nurmagomedov in the Russian great’s final MMA match in October 2020. He has since put himself back in the title frame by beating Chandler via unanimous decision in November 2021.
Oliveira is expecting a “war” right from the start against his opponent: “He’s going to walk forward and so am I,” said the Brazilian. “We’ll see who has power. People say ‘You should take him down’. That’s cool. I know I have to because that’s what I do best, but I’m not concerned about that.
“I’m not just training to take him down or defend takedowns. I’m training MMA. When I say we’re going to clash, it’s because we are. I told Diego Lima [Gaethje’s coach]: ‘Brace yourself, because the first round will be a war’.
“I’m going to trade shots with that guy. People might call me stupid, but I’m not being stupid. I’m acting like an MMA fighter. He walks forward and so do I. We’ll see who has the heavier hands. Who can take a shot and get back up.”
The co-main event sees Namajumas (11-4, 2 KO) take on Carla Esparza (18-6, 4 KO) for the women’s strawweight belt. ‘Thug Rose’ is a two-time champion in this division and her last trip to the Octagon brought a split decision win over Zhang Weili at UFC 268 in November last year to defend the title she won off the Chinese woman seven months earlier.
Esparza, meanwhile, has put together a five-match winning streak, most recently knocking out Yan Xiaonan in May 2021 to put herself in line for a shot at reclaiming the title: the 34-year-old defeated Namajunas back in late 2014 to become the inaugural UFC strawweight champion. She lost the belt in her very next clash, against Joanna Jedrzejczyk, a few months later.
The rest of the main card features a lightweight battle between Michael Chandler and Tony Ferguson; Mauricio Rua v Ovince Saint Preux in the light heavyweight division; and veteran Donald Cerrone taking on Joe Lauzon in the lightweight category.
UFC 274 – Main card
Main event: Lightweight championship: Charles Oliveira v Justin Gaethje
Co-main: Women’s strawweight championship: Rose Namajunas v Carla Esparza
Lightweight: Michael Chandler v Tony Ferguson
Light heavyweight: Mauricio Rua v Ovince Saint Preux
Lightweight: Donald Cerrone v Joe Lauzon