UFC 273 card announced; notably misses rumored Khamzat Chimaev vs. Gilbert Burns fight
UFC has announced the fight card for the UFC 273 event that is scheduled to take place on April 9 in Jacksonville, Florida.
First look at #UFC273 👀 https://t.co/T28y7oGFRE
UFC 273 will be headlined by a featherweight title fight between Chan Sung Jung aka 'The Korean Zombie' and current champion Alexander Volkanovski.
The co-main event will also feature a championship bout as Aljamain Sterling and Petr Yan compete to unify the bantamweight title.
Other notable fighters that will feature on the card include Kelvin Gastelum, Nassourdine Imavov, Ian Garry, Mackenzie Dern, Tecia Torres and Jairzinho Rozenstruik.
One notable omission for the fight card was of a welterweight scrap between Khamzat Chimaev and Gilbert Burns. The omission comes as a surprise as there was talk of the UFC targeting the fight for the April 9th card.
MMA journalist Aaron Bronsteter took note of the same in his tweet and hoped for the welterweight scrap to be added soon to the Jacksonville, Florida card.
UFC 273 officially announced for Jacksonville.
Notably absent is the rumoured bout between Khamzat Chimaev and Gilbert Burns. Hoping to see that one added! https://t.co/pJOOky9MJX
Khamzat Chimaev and Gilbert Burns are willing to fight each other at UFC 273
@GilbertDurinho 9 April 🤫😴 https://t.co/eU5gd3fc4M
Gilbert Burns and Khamzat Chimaev have gone on social media to express interest in fighting each other. Both are targeting for the fight to take place on the UFC 273 card in April.
👀 @GilbertDurinho and @KChimaev eying up a fight in April! https://t.co/yPjaqzWKWG
Former UFC champion Michael Bisping is also interested in seeing the scrap as he believes 'Borz' needs a real test now in the UFC.
"I think Chimaev is more than capable of handling that. He’s had four fights in the UFC and smoked everybody. So, now it’s like, well, we’ve got to give him someone good. I don’t mean good. Pardon me. He’s beaten very, very good competition. But I mean, we’ve got to step it up. We’ve got to give him a real test, and Gilbert Burns is. And Gilbert Burns seems down for it. And Chimaev seems down for it.” Bisping added, “And when he’s been as popular and successful as he has, now it’s time to start giving him serious fights.”
Watch Michael Bisping address a potential Chimaev-Burns matchup in the video below:
Chimaev is undefeated in his MMA career and another win should take him closer to challenging Kamaru Usman for the title. Burns, on his part, defeated Stephen Thompson in his previous fight but lost to Usman prior to that.