BREAKING: Middleweight fight added to UFC Jacksonville in June 2023
A middleweight matchup in the form of Punahele Soriano vs. Sedriques Dumas has been added to the UFC Jacksonville event, scheduled to take place on June 24. The event will be held at the VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena in Jacksonville, Florida.
Punahele Soriano (@puna185) will fight Sedriques Dumas (@SdUnbroken) at #UFCJacksonville on June 24th. (first rep. The Real Heckelberry @MikeHeck_JR) #UFC #MMA #UFCESPN #UFC2023 https://t.co/Y6uFS1Bkvo
The last UFC event to take place in Jacksonville was UFC 273 which was headlined by a featherweight title bout between Alexander Volkanovski and 'The Korean Zombie'. A title fight rematch between Aljamain Sterling and Petr Yan served as the co-main event that night. The thrilling back-and-forth affair between Khamzat Chimaev and Gilbert Burns also took place on that card.
Punahele Soriano is currently six-fights old in the UFC but has only won three of those encounters. 'Puna' has failed to secure a win in three out of his last four bouts and lost his last outing via TKO in January 2023.
Sedriques Dumas, on the other hand, has only had one fight in the UFC. After scoring a submission victory in Dana White's Contender Series, 'The Reaper' made his UFC debut in March 2023. Dumas took on Josh Fremd in a middleweight scrap but ended up on the losing side via second-round submission.
Come June 24, both fighters will be looking to turn things around and return to winning ways.
UFC Jacksonville will be headlined by a featherweight banger
The main event for the upcoming UFC Jacksonville event will be a featherweight scrap between Josh Emmett and Ilia Topuria.
Emmett is coming off a loss against Yair Rodriguez in an interim featherweight title fight at UFC 284. Before that, the 38-year-old was riding a five-fight win streak that included victories over fighters like Calvin Kattar, Shane Burgos, Dan Ige and Jeremy Stephens.
Topuria, on the other hand, has been running through his competition in the UFC. The 26-year-old is undefeated in his professional MMA career and holds a record of 13-0. Topuria has won all five of his fights in the UFC and four of them have been finishes. 'El Matador's winning resume includes names like Ryan Hall, Jai Herbert and Bryce Mitchell.
In his last two outings, Topuria has earned two 'Performance of the Night' bonuses worth $50,000 each.
The two featherweights pack a lot of power in their punches. So, there is a good chance the fight may not go the distance at UFC Jacksonville.