The Ultimate Fighting Championship has formalized
its return to Music City on the first weekend of August.

According to the promotion
on Thursday, the UFC will be returning to Tennessee on Aug. 5. The
fight card, currently an unnumbered
Fight Night show due to the uncertainty of its broadcasting
destination, will be headlined by a bantamweight barnburner between
Cory
Sandhagen (16-4) and Umar
Nurmagomedov (16-0). This will be the UFC’s first event in
Nashville since UFC Fight Night 148 in March 2019, which saw
Anthony
Pettis take on Stephen
Thompson. It will be held inside of the Bridgestone Arena.

Sandhagen is currently riding high after two victorious main events
against Yadong Song
and Marlon Vera
the last few months. This will be Sandhagen’s fifth five-round bout
in a row, despite only vying once for the bantamweight title.
Before forcing the doctors to intervene to protect Song’s health,
Sandhagen had fallen short by decision to former champs T.J.
Dillashaw and Petr Yan.

While Sandhagen is no stranger to the spotlight, this will be the
Dagestan native’s first main attraction with the promotion.
Nurmagomedov has once engaged in a 25-minute match, where back in
2019 he tapped Braian
Gonzalez in the first round to secure the Gorilla Fighting
strap. The unbeaten bantamweight introduced himself to the
organization in 2021 by putting Sergey
Morozov to sleep with a rear-naked choke. Three subsequent
wins, including two first-round stoppages, have propelled him into
the top 15 of the UFC’s rankings.

The UFC Fight Night event on Aug. 5 will go down at the Bridgestone
Arena in Nashville, Tennessee. In addition to the newly announced
135-pound tilt on top, while the lineup has not yet been set, a
strawweight pairing between Virna
Jandiroba and Tatiana
Suarez will likely serve high on the billing. Other key fights
on the marquee will likely include a bantamweight bout pitting
Said
Nurmagomedov against Kyler
Phillips and a light heavyweight rumble when Dustin
Jacoby faces Kennedy
Nzechukwu.





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Sandhagen-Nurmagomedov Selected as UFC Nashville Headliner on Aug. 5