Leon Edwards and Kamaru Usman will be completing their trilogy with the welterweight title on the line in the main event of UFC 286, UFC president Dana White announced.
The event will take place on March 18 in London, England at the O2 Arena which will be hosting its 14th event for the promotion with the first being UFC 75 in 2008.
Edwards won the title by knocking out Usman in the fifth round of their UFC 278 main event bout in August in their second bout with each other. Usman had beaten Edwards in their first bout in a non-title fight in December of 2015 by unanimous decision.
Edwards is unbeaten in 11 straight ironically going back to the loss to Usman eight years ago. Edwards pulled off the knockout of the year by many people’s accounts at UFC 278. He scored a head kick knockout in the fifth round after being down on all three judges’ scorecards heading into the final round.
Usman had a 15-fight winning streak snapped by Edwards in their last bout. A win in that bout would have tied him with Anderson Silva (16) for the UFC record winning streak. The former Ultimate Fighter winner had five successful welterweight title defenses, tying him for second-most ever in the UFC 170-pound division with Matt Hughes.
On top of all those records he was missing, it was believed Usman was the pound-for-pound champion at the time and was seeing his image peak in value almost. He had called out Canelo Alvarez for a boxing bout among other ventures outside the UFC.
Other bouts have been announced for UFC 286 but prior to Usman versus Edwards being announced everyone learned the UFC is finalizing a lightweight bout. Justin Gaethje and Rafael Fiziev will serve as the co-main event at UFC 286, Dana White announced.
Gaethje is looking to rebound from a loss to Charles Oliveira for the UFC’s lightweight title at UFC 274. For Fiziev, he is riding a six-fight win streak. Most recently, he knocked out former champion Rafael dos Anjos in the final round of his first main event last July at a UFC Apex fight night.
Other notable bouts on the UFC 286 card include:
– Marvin Vettori vs. Roman Dolidze
– Jennifer Maia vs. Casey O’Neil
– Daniel Rodriguez vs. Gunnar Nelson
