The end-of-year card comes to Las Vegas, Nevada once more with the women's Featherweight Championship on the line. The formidable Cris 'Cyborg' Justino defends her title against former featherweight title challenger and bantamweight champion, Holly Holm.
In the co-main event, undefeated top contender Khabib Nurmagomedov does battle with Brazilian striker Edson Barboza in a highly-anticipated match up in the Lightweight division. The winner will almost certainly set themselves up for a title shot in the near future.
Making up the rest of the main card, England's Marc Diakiese looks to avenge his first professional loss in his last outing against Drakkar Klose with a victory over Kiwi Dan Hooker, with the fight having been moved up to the main card after Jimmie Rivera's failure to secure an opponent.
Former Strawweight champion Carla Esparza looks to halt the Cynthia Calvillo hype train, while long time welterweight contender Carlos Condit makes his return to the Octagon for the first time since being submitted by Demian Maia in August 2016 as he matches up with Neil Magny.
The card feels somewhat underwhelming to some, with former Bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz pulling out of a fight with fellow top contender Rivera. Cruz's replacement, John 'Hands of stone' Linekar, had to pull out just last week with a tooth infection.
An entertaining back and forth on Twitter between rising contender Marlon Moraes and Rivera raised hopes of a late boost for the card, but one that ultimately came up short.
Moraes claimed to be keen to fight Rivera, who gave the Brazilian up to 10lbs allowance, but the fight was unable to get across the dotted line and Rivera was without a fight.
There were also strong rumours of a bout between Welterweight champion Tyron Woodley and Nate Diaz headlining the card, with Woodley himself all but confirming the fight was on the table. Perhaps unsurprisingly, that match up did not materialise.
Another (even less believable) rumour was that Lightweight champion Conor McGregor was to make his return to defend his title against interim champion Tony Ferguson. However, McGregor was 'suspended' following his actions at Bellator 187 and in turn 'unable' to take the fight.
One more notable fight, and one that has again failed to come to fruition, was that of Khalil Rountree and former kickboxing world champion, Gokhan Saki. The 'Turkish Tyson' pulled out with a meniscus tear at the end of November, following his debut UFC knockout win over Henrique da Silva in September.
Rountree will now instead do battle with Pole Michal Oleksiejczuk, who makes his UFC debut with an MMA record of 12-2.
Finally, kicking off the night on UFC Fight Pass, number 11 ranked Flyweight Tim Elliott will take on UFC debutant Mark De La Rosa in the Bantamweight division. Elliott was scheduled to fight two weeks ago at UFC Fresno, but his replacement opponent Pietro Megna failed to make weight and the bout was cancelled.
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