UFC 273 has found its headliner.
Alexander Volkanovski will defend the featherweight championship on April 9 against Chan Sung Jung, better known as the ‘Korean Zombie’. Ariel Helwani of MMA Fighting reported the news and it was later confirmed by Iridium Sports Agency, the management firm of Jung. The location of the upcoming pay-per-view event has not been determined, but Damon Martin of MMA Fighting revealed that it could be moved from Brooklyn, New York to Jacksonville, Florida.
Volkanovski was scheduled to meet Max Holloway in a trilogy fight at UFC 272, but that was immediately canceled after Holloway suffered an undisclosed injury during his training camp. The promotion sought out replacements for Volkanovski, who made it very clear that he wanted Jung in his next Octagon appearance.
The ‘Great’ has successfully defended his title twice since winning it from Max Holloway over two years ago. Volkanovski bested Holloway again in an immediate rematch at UFC 251 and defeated Brian Ortega in a ‘Fight of the Year’ candidate at UFC 266.
Jung recently returned to the win column with a unanimous decision win over Dan Ige at UFC Vegas 29 this past June. Prior to that, the 34-year-old was on a two-fight win streak that included first-round knockouts of Renato Moicano and Frankie Edgar before he dropped a decision to the aforementioned Ortega. Jung has challenged for the title once before, losing via fourth-round technical knockout to then-champion José Aldo at UFC 163. Since then, he has gone 4-2 and claims the No. 4 spot in the official UFC rankings.
Also expected to be featured at UFC 273 is a bantamweight championship rematch between Aljamain Sterling and Petr Yan. Sterling and Yan were supposed to fight at UFC 272, but the bout was moved to another date for unknown reasons.