The octagon will touch down in the Canadian province of Manitoba for the first time since December 2017 this spring with UFC Fight Night 273 in Winnipeg.
UFC officials announced Friday that the event will go down April 18 at Canada Life Centre and will feature a welterweight headliner between former title challenger Gilbert Burns (22-9 MMA, 15-9 UFC) and Mike Malott (13-2-1 MMA, 6-1 UFC).
Burns, No. 12 in the latest USA TODAY Sports/MMA Junkie welterweight rankings, has not had his hand raised since April 2023. The 39-year-old is on a four-fight losing skid. However, all the defeats came to ranked names in Michael Morales, Sean Brady, Jack Della Maddalena, and Belal Muhammad.
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Malott will get a headlining opportunity on the power of a three-fight winning streak, the most recent of which came against Kevin Holland at UFC Fight Night 262 in October. The 34-year-old has been beaten just once in his octagon tenure so far, suffering a comeback defeat to Neil Magny in January 2024.
The latest UFC Fight Night 273 lineup includes:
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Gilbert Burns vs. Mike Malott
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Jasmine Jasudavicius vs. Karine Silva
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John Castaneda vs. Mark Vologdin
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Mitch Raposo vs. Allan Nascimento
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DongHun Choi vs. Andre Lima
This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: UFC returns to Winnipeg; Gilbert Burns vs. Mike Malott headlines
