Taking place at the Prudential Center, in Newark, New Jersey, UFC 316 opens up the month of June with an entertaining fight card from top to bottom, including two championship contests featuring two of the top male and female competitors in the sport. Seeking to take back his throne in impressive fashion, former bantamweight apex Sean O’Malley will take on Merab Dvalishvili for a second time in the UFC 316 main event. Also, two-time women’s bantamweight gold standard Julianna Peña takes on previous Professional Fighters League (PFL) lightweight champion Kayla Harrison in the UFC 316 co-main event.
UFC 316 Main Event
Hot off the heels of a thrilling first title defense over the then undefeated Umar Nurmagomedov at UFC 311, Dvalishvili is enjoying his reign as the top 135-lb fighter in the world. Presented with the opportunity to put to bed his biggest rivalry in the promotion in UFC 316, “The Machine” is amped up to log another successful retention of his strap and widen the gap between him and the other contenders.
Having not competed since dropping the strap to his Georgian nemesis last September, O’Malley has remained outside of the cage tending to some nagging injuries and working on his overall skillset ahead of UFC . Now appearing to be more rejuvenated than ever, “Suga” can make UFC history as the first man to score bantamweight gold twice, behind only divisional titan Dominick Cruz.
UFC 316 Co-Main Event
Coming off a championship-winning performance over fellow Ultimate Fighter alum Raquel Pennington at UFC 307, Peña is looking to kick off her second tenure as a company belt-holder with her first ever defense of her throne. Not wasting any time in competing after being out for over two years due to injuries, “The Venezuelan Vixen” has the chance to attain a monumental win over a fellow female star in the surging Harrison.
Although some fans and pundits were skeptical about just how far Harrison could go in the UFC, the twice PFL 155-lb queen has cemented her place in the promotion with two stellar victories over Holly Holm and Ketlen Vieira. Should she manage to rip the title away from opponent this weekend, the Olympian standout can solidify her position as arguably the greatest female combat sports athlete of all time.
Here’s how to watch UFC 316
Online Streaming: You can catch the entire card on ESPN+, but you will need to subscribe in order to do so. Right now, the company is offering a monthly or yearly subscription of $11.99 and $119.99 respectively. For those who want to get more bang out of their buck, there is also the monthly Disney Bundle Deal, which offers ESPN+, Hulu, and Disney+ for $16.99 with included commercials, or $26.99 for no commercials at all.
Start Time and Date: The Early Preliminaries will begin at 6:00pm ET, followed by the Preliminaries at 8:00pm ET, followed by the Main Card at 10:00pm ET on June 7th.
Bout Order For UFC 316
Main Card:
Merab Dvalishvili vs. Sean O’Malley (Bantamweight Main Event)
Julianna Peña vs. Kayla Harrison (Women’s Bantamweight Co-Main Event)
Kelvin Gastelum vs. Joe Pyfer (Middleweight)
Mario Bautista vs. Patchy Mix (Bantamweight)
Vicente Luque vs. Kevin Holland (Welterweight)
Preliminaries:
Bruno Gustavo da Silva vs. Joshua Van (Flyweight Featured Bout)
Azamat Murzakanov vs. Brendson Ribeiro (Light Heavyweight)
Serghei Spivac vs. Waldo Cortes-Acosta (Heavyweight)
Khaos Williams vs. Andreas Gustafsson (Welterweight)
Early Preliminaries:
Ariane da Silva vs. Wang Cong (Women’s Flyweight)
Jeka Saragih vs. Yoo Joo-sang (Featherweight)
Quillan Salkilld vs. Yanal Ashmouz (Lightweight)
MarQuel Mederos vs. Mark Choinski (Lightweight)
