Amanda Nunes defends her bantamweight championship against Irene Aldana in the main event of UFC 289 on Saturday in Vancouver, British Columbia.
The main card at Rogers Center will be on ESPN+ pay-per-view starting at 10 p.m. ET, with prelims on ESPN and ESPN+ at 8 p.m. and early prelims on the same outlets at 7 p.m.
Nunes (22-5), the UFC's only current two-division champion (she also reigns at featherweight), hasn't fought since last July, when she regained the 135-pound title from Julianna Peña, who had dethroned her in December 2021, ending a 12-fight winning streak. Nunes is No. 1 in the ESPN women's pound-for-pound rankings.
Aldana (14-6), who is not in the P4P top 10 but is No. 6 among bantamweight women, last fought in September, knocking out Macy Chiasson for her fourth victory in five fights.
In the co-main event, former UFC lightweight champion Charles Oliveira takes on Beneil Dariush. Oliveira is No. 2 and Dariush No. 3 in the ESPN rankings at 155 pounds.
What are the storylines behind the top fights at UFC 289? How are experts breaking them down? What do the fighters have to say? Here is the fight card, how to watch it and a collection of all of the UFC 289 essentials.
UFC 289 fight card
ESPN+ PPV, 10 p.m. ET
Women's bantamweight: Amanda Nunes (c) vs. Irene Aldana
Lightweight: Charles Oliveira vs. Beneil Dariush
Welterweight: Mike Malott vs. Adam Fugitt
Men's featherweight: Dan Ige vs. Nate Landwehr
Middleweight: Marc-Andre Barriault vs. Eryk Anders
ESPN/ESPN+, 8 p.m. ET
Middleweight: Nassourdine Imavov vs. Chris Curtis
Women's flyweight: Miranda Maverick vs. Jasmine Jasudavicius
Men's bantamweight: Aiemann Zahabi vs. Aoriqileng
Men's featherweight: Kyle Nelson vs. Blake Bilder
ESPN/ESPN+, 7 p.m.
Men's flyweight: David Dvorak vs. Stephen Erceg
Strawweight: Diana Belbita vs. Maria Oliveira
(c) = defending champion
Expert picks and best bets for Nunes-Aldana and Oliveira-Dariush
How Nunes wins: Utilize her range and avoid a firefight in the pocket with Aldana. Aldana is sound defensively, but she still has that willingness and power to stand in the pocket and trade. I don't think Nunes will want to do that with her. I see her engaging in the grappling aspect a lot more. Aldana's grappling isn't bad, but in her last fight it was evident that she still has some areas to grow there. And in Nunes's last fight, she really showed she does have the cardio for a high-pace, grappling-heavy fight.
How Aldana can pull off an upset of Nunes
Get ready to watch a striking battle. Aldana is a fighter who prides herself on her boxing, footwork and power. She's a technical fighter on the feet, both offensively and defensively.
When she's throwing her straights (jab and cross), they're snappy; when she's throwing her hooks or uppercuts, they are tight. No wasted motion. And after throwing those strikes, her hands come right back to her face, leaving little room to be countered. That technicality will help her against Nunes, who tends to punch wide.
Aldana also does well mixing in heavy leg kicks. Those could play in her favor against Nunes, who has shown improved mobility in recent years. The best way to slow down a quick opponent is to take the legs away.
UFC title matchup projections: What does our model think of Nunes-Aldana and Jones-Miocic?
The spring season brought fight fans a winner to a trilogy (Leon Edwards), one former champion reclaiming his old title (Israel Adesanya) and another former champion winning a new title in a different division (Jon Jones). Oh, and Aljamain Sterling defeated a future Hall of Famer to retain his title as well.
Spring was fun, but the summer schedule looks to be full of fireworks with big names squaring off for titles and history -- but what does analytics behind the fights suggest about these marquee matchups? Using predictive models agnostic of betting lines, we examined how each champion's matchup appears from a favorability view. Essentially, is this a good matchup for the champion or the challenger?