Outside Source
The organization released the partial lineup of UFC 324 on Thursday, which included the entirety of its main card. Atop the numbered event kicking off the seven-year Paramount contract that eliminates pay-per-views, Justin Gaethje and Paddy Pimblett will throw down for the interim lightweight title. In the co-main attraction, Kayla Harrison puts her belt on the line against all-time great Amanda Nunes.
The promotion also added a heavyweight contest between Waldo Cortes-Acosta and Derrick Lewis to the billing as well. Additionally, in the bantamweight division, former champ Sean O’Malley (18-3, 1 NC) takes his first non-title fight in years when he faces Yadong Song (22-8-1, 1 NC).
This will be O’Malley’s first three-round engagement since his contentious win over Petr Yan in 2022. He claimed the bantamweight strap in 2023 by knocking out Aljamain Sterling, and then defended it the year later. In a rematch with Marlon Vera, the only man to beat him, “Suga” outworked the Ecuadorian en route to a decision. When facing Merab Dvalishvili in his second defense, things did not go his way as “The Machine” outworked him to take his belt. A rematch in June saw the Georgian hand O’Malley his first career submission defeat.
In February, China’s Song picked up arguably the biggest win of his career when he beat Henry Cejudo via technical decision. The two battled it out for 15 minutes in February, with an eye poke suffered by Cejudo ending their headliner after three rounds. Rather than run it back, the organization moved on for Song, who bounced back from a loss to Yan by beating Cejudo.
The Almighty Faces the Lord?
Rounding out the UFC 324 main card will be a ranked featherweight battle initially reported on Wednesday. The UFC confirmed today that Arnold Allen (20-3) will make his long-awaited comeback against Brazilian bomber Jean Silva (16-3). This will be Allen’s first walk to the cage since July 2024, and the Brit has since considered a move to 155 pounds to relieve some of the weight-cutting pressure.
Allen bounced back from a two-fight skid—decision losses to Max Holloway and Movsar Evloev—by outhustling Giga Chikadze. “Almighty” started his UFC run with 10 straight wins, all at featherweight, to climb the ladder and face Holloway. Noteworthy victories include a decision over Sodiq Yusuff as well as technical knockouts of Dan Hooker and Calvin Katter, the latter via injury.
Fighting Nerds standout Silva saw his five-fight finish streak in the Octagon come to a screeching halt in September. He battled Diego Lopes atop Noche UFC, and their barnburner earned them “Fight of the Night.” Lopes ultimately succumbed to a spinning back elbow and follow-up strikes to suffer his first stoppage loss. “Lord” only has left one win of 16 in the hands of the judges.
This article first appeared at Recent News on Sherdog.com
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