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A year after watching his little brother take down Australia’s greatest UFC star, Aleksandre Topuria is now readying to head south and claim his own scalp from Down Under.
UFC 311: MAKHACHEV VS TSARUKYAN 2 | SUN 20 JAN | Order Now with Main Event on Kayo Sports. Main Event on Kayo Sports and Foxtel is the exclusive home of UFC Pay-Per-View.
UFC executives have this morning confirmed 28-year-old Topuria – the older brother of UFC featherweight king, Ilia – will finally make his anticipated Octagon debut at UFC 312 in Sydney.
The Spaniard will throw down against Western Australia’s Cody Haddon, who is himself looking for a big win at home and improve to two-zip after his successful UFC debut against Dan Argueta in October.
Hadden, 26, will also be looking to put a quick stop to the hype around ‘El Cazador’, who also boasts an impressive 100 per cent finishing rate across his five career victories.
The hyped February 9 event will come almost a year to the day since Topuria (5-1), and who signed with the company midway through last year, watched his brother become champion.
And within a blink, among the most hyped fighters in the UFC.
Hadden, meanwhile, is now on a run of six straight, with the only loss of his career coming against Perth native Steve Erceg four years ago when both UFC fighters were still in Eternal MMA.
Elsewhere, popular Chinese flyweight contender Wang Cong, who is best known for painting up as The Joker in fight week, has also been confirmed for the Qudos Bank Arena event against Bruna ‘The Special One’ Brasil.
And in a third confirmed bout, breakout Australian welterweight Jonathan Micallef will throw down against Frenchman Kevin ‘Air’ Jousset, who now trains out of the City Kick Boxing gym in New Zealand.
Initially, it was Ilia Topuria who many thought could be jetting into Sydney to headline Australia’s upcoming summer card in a rematch with Volkanovski, whose title he took via KO at UFC 298 last February.
Since upsetting Australia’s No.1 MMA star, the Spaniard has since doubled down, becoming the first man to finish Hawaiian legend Max Holloway in a hyped title defence at UFC 308 in October.
It is now suggested he will throw down again with Volkanovski in the first quarter of this year.
The Octagon returns Down Under this summer as part of a $16 million deal with the NSW Government.
UFC 312 will be headlined by a rematch between UFC middleweight champ Dricus du Plessis and American Sean Strickland.
The bout is the second straight in Australia for DDP, who defended his strap against New Zealand’s Israel Adesanya at UFC 305 in Perth last August.
In the co-main, UFC women’s strawweight champ Weili Zhang defends against Tatiana Suarez.
Other announced fights are:
· Justin Tafa vs. Tallison Teixeira
· Tom Nolan vs. Viacheslav Borshchev
· Jack Jenkins vs. Gabriel Santos
· Jimmy Crute vs. Marcin Prachnio
· Quillan Salkilld vs. Anshul Jubli
· Stewart Nicoll vs. Rei Tsuruya
