It’s official, there will now be two titles on the line at UFC 273 this April. Alexander Volkanovski will defend his featherweight title against “The Korean Zombie” Chan Sung Jung, while the co-main event will feature a rematch between Petr Yan and Aljamain Sterling for bantamweight gold.
The announcement concludes some schedule juggling on the UFC’s part, as the bouts were originally slated to be part of the UFC 272 card. Max Holloway was initially scheduled to complete his trilogy with Volkanovski but had to pull out of the fight due to injury. Rather than force Jung to go through a condensed training camp, Dana White & Co. elected to push the fight back a month.
This left a hole on the UFC 272 PPV, one that the organization elected to fill with a non-title fight between Jorge Masvidal and Colby Covington. While no championship will be on the line that night, many fight fans will tune in to see the grudge match between the former top welterweight contenders.
Volkanovski has rattled off 20 straight victories, 10 of which have come in the UFC. His latest win was a unanimous decision over Brian Ortega last September. Meanwhile, Jung has won 3 of his last 4 fights, his most recent being a win over Dan Ige in June of 2021. While there was a bevy of fighters clamouring for the opportunity to replace Holloway in the title fight, the UFC ultimately went with Jung owing to the amount of time he’d been off and lack of other viable options.
The number 4 ranked contender at featherweight, Jung previously had a shot at the featherweight title back in 2013 but fell to Jose Aldo at UFC 163. With Holloway (number 1 ranked contender) out due to injury, Ortega (number 2) having been soundly beaten in their last fight by Volkanovski, and Yair Rodriguez (number 3) coming off a loss to Holloway this past November, Jung seemed like a logical choice to step in against the champion.
Jung will also be turning 35 this March, meaning this is likely his last shot at a UFC title before he hangs it up.
At bantamweight, Sterling won the title off Yan via disqualification in March of 2021. Yan threw an illegal knee on a downed opponent resulting in the loss of his championship belt. Since then the Russian born fighter defeated Cory Sandhagen at UFC 267 to set up the rematch with the current champ.
UFC 273 takes place on April 9th in Jacksonville, Florida.
-Kyle Skinner
Twitter: @JKyleSkinner