UFC 253: Adesanya vs. Costa will be held on Saturday, September 26 at the Flash Forum on Fight Island, Yas Island, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. Undefeated middleweight champion Israel Adesanya defends vs. undefeated Paulo Costa in the main event. In the co-main Jan Blachowicz and Dominick Reyes fight for the title vacated by Jon Jones, who is moving up to heavyweight.
The last event in which both fighters in a UFC title bout were undefeated was UFC 205 on November 12, 2016, when then women’s strawweight champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk beat Karolina Kowalkiewicz at Madison Square Garden. They were a combined 23-0 heading into that fight. Going back, at UFC 193 on November 15, 2015, in front of 55,000 fans at Etihad Stadium in Melbourne, Australia, then bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey lost to Holly Holm. The pair were a combined 21-0 before the fight.
The last time a title fight was held between undefeated male fighters was at UFC 98 on May 23, 2009, in Las Vegas, Nevada, when Rashad Evans lost his light heavyweight championship to Lyoto Machida. The two were a combined 27-0-1 heading into the fight. Adesanya and Costa are a combined 32-0, and someone’s 0 has got to go.
The official weigh-ins will stream live on The UnderGround at 9:00 a.m. ET on Friday, September 25.
UFC 253 weigh-in results:
Main Card (Pay-per-view, 10 p.m. ET)
Champ Israel Adesanya (184) vs. Paulo Costa (185)
Dominick Reyes (205) vs. Jan Blachowicz (205) for the LHW belt
Kai Kara-France (126) vs. Brandon Royval (126)
Ketlen Vieira (136) vs. Sijara Eubanks (136)
Hakeem Dawodu (145) vs. Zubaira Tukhugov (150)*
Late Prelims (ESPN2, ESPN+, 8 p.m. ET)
Brad Riddell (156) vs. Alex da Silva Coelho (156)
Diego Sanchez (170) vs. Jake Matthews (170)
Shane Young (146) vs. Ludovit Klein (150)*
William Knight (205) vs. Aleksa Camur (206)
Early Prelims (ESPN2, ESPN+, 7 p.m. ET)
Juan Espino (255) vs. Jeff Hughes (258)
Khadis Ibragimov (206) vs. Danilo Marques (206)
*Both fighters will forfeit an as yet undisclosed percentage of purse, but the fights will go on.
