The UFC 271 pay-per-view has its main card lineup set.
On Saturday’s UFC 270 broadcast, the promotion announced the five-fight lineup for its upcoming Feb. 12 pay-per-view, which will be headlined by a rematch between middleweight champion Israel Adesanya — No. 1 in MMA Fighting’s Global Rankings — and former champion Robert Whittaker (No. 2).
UFC 271 takes place at Toyota Center in Houston.
In the co-main event, No. 4-ranked heavyweight Derrick Lewis competes in his hometown against No. 13 Tai Tuivasa
Rounding out the main card are a bout between middleweight contenders Jared Cannonier (No. 6) and Derek Brunson (No. 4), a bantamweight bout between Kyler Phillips and Marcelo Rojo, and a lightweight bout between Bobby Green and Nasrat Haqparast.
Adesanya goes for the third defense of his middleweight title. He defeated Whittaker at UFC 243 in October 2019 to become the promotion’s undisputed champion.
Since his loss to Adesanya, Whittaker has rebounded with three straight decision wins over Kelvin Gastelum, Cannonier, and Darren Till.
Lewis is coming off of a first-round knockout of Chris Daukaus in December, which put him back in the win column after losing an interim title fight to Ciryl Gane at UFC 265. On the other side, Tuivasa has emerged as a contender on the strength of four consecutive knockout victories.
See the updated UFC 271 lineup below:
Main Card
Israel Adesanya vs. Robert Whittaker
Derrick Lewis vs. Tai Tuivasa
Jared Cannonier vs. Derek Brunson
Kyler Phillips vs. Marcelo Rojo
Bobby Green vs. Nasrat Haqparast
Preliminaries
Andrei Arlovski vs. Jared Vanderaa
Casey O’Neill vs. Roxanne Modafferi
Carlos Ulberg vs. Fabio Cherant
Mana Martinez vs. Ronnie Lawrence
Alexander Hernandez vs. Renato Moicano