UFC’s Return To Anaheim Receives A Quartet Of Fascinating Bouts
For UFC’s first visit to California since August 2022 for UFC 298: Volkanovski vs Topuria, the Anaheim fans will receive a treat of a card top to bottom. While most eyes will be trained toward Alexander Volkanovski’s featherweight title defense against the undefeated Ilia Topuria as well as Robert Whittaker’s bout against Paulo Costa. Fun fights are abundant in the organization’s second pay-per-view of 2024, including four more just added to the slate.
Road to UFC winner Rinya Nakamura returns for his second official UFC bout against Carlos Vera. The Japanese bantamweight tallied six of his eight wins via finish and hopes to pick up his first official UFC stoppage after his decision win over Fernie Garcia in Singapore. Carlos Vera comes into the organization having just competed on the most recent season of The Ultimate Fighter during which he lost to eventual tournament winner Brad Katona. He steps in hoping to have a successful UFC debut.
Welterweights Josh Quinlan and Danny Barlow feature on the card as well. Quinlan, a Dana White’s Contender Series alumnus split his first two UFC bouts to Jason Witt and Trey Waters, and after injuries and a cancelled bout kept him out of the Octagon since his lost to Waters, he hopes to get a bounce back win over Barlow. A fellow DWCS alumnus, Barlow earned his contract with a first-round knockout of Raheam Forest In September 2023. The undefeated Barlow racked up four knockouts and one submission on his climb to the organization, and he hopes to stretch his undefeated record to 8-0 on February 17.
Another welterweight contest goes down as Oban Elliott and Val Woodburn lock horns. Woodburn is hoping to bounce back after suffering a knockout loss to Bo Nickal at UFC 290, which was his first professional loss in mixed martial arts. Meanwhile, Elliott aspires to become one of the best Welsh mixed martial artists after competing on at Cage Warriors and Dana White’s Contender Series, the latter of which he won a fight via majority decision in August 2023. “The Welsh Gangster” has proven durable, and the two are surely desperate to get their hands raised in Anaheim.
Finally, two middleweights hoping to finally get their breakout moment square off as DWCS alumnus AJ Dobson and The Ultimate Fighter graduate Tresean Gore are set to fight. Dobson came into the organization with high expectatioins, and after dropping his first two bouts, he earned his first UFC win over Tafon Nchukwi in August 2023. The Ohio-bred grinder believes he now has the right things around him and in place to climbt he division’s ladder. He’ll be hard pressed against Gore, however. One of the highest touted prospects on his season of The Ultimate Fighter, Gore couldn’t parlay that into wins in his first two trips to the Octagon. That said, he bounced back with a viscious submission win over Josh Fremd in October 2022. He was originally slated to fight Bo Nickal at UFC 290 before injuries prevented that matchup, so he is in search of momentum ahead to once again chase his championship aspirations.
Stay tuned to UFC.com for any updates or changes to all events.
