Top-ranked middleweights Robert Whittaker and Paulo Costa will square off in the latest big bout added to UFC 298 on Feb. 17 in Anaheim, California, company CEO Dana White announced Thursday on Instagram. White also said the welterweight bout between Geoff Neal and Ian Machado Garry, which was announced as being in Miami, Florida, at UFC 299 in March, had been moved to UFC 298.
Those two bouts will deep an already strong card, which is headlined by a featherweight title fight by champion Alexander Volkanovski and unbeaten challenger Ilia Topuria.
Previously announced for that card is a bantamweight bout between No. 2 bantamweight Merab Dvalishvili and No. 3 Henry Cejudo, a former champion; Tai Tuivasa will face Marcin Tybura in a heavyweight bout; unbeaten strawweight Tatiana Suarez squares off against Amanda Lemos; and middleweights Anthony Hernandez and Ikram Aliskerov will do battle.
That, though, wasn't all. White announced that on UFC 300 on April 13, former light heavyweight champion Jiri Prochazka, now ranked No. 2 in the division, will face No. 5 Alexander Rakic. Former bantamweight champion Aljamain Sterling makes his featherweight debut on that card, facing No. 7 Calvin Kattar. And 5-0 uber prospect Bo Nickal will face his biggest test when he takes on Cody Brundage.
On Feb. 24, the UFC will return to Mexico City, where the main event between Brandon Moreno, the former flyweight champion, and Amir Albazi was already announced. But White added that the co-main will be a five-round featherweight rematch between Brian Ortega and Yair Rodriguez.
On March 30, the UFC will put on a fight night in Atlantic City, N.J., and No. 2 Erin Blanchfield will face No. 3 Manon Fiorot in an important flyweight bout.