UFC fight night Saudi Arabia, Robert Whittaker vs Khamzat Chimaev, Sean Strickland, latest, full card

Australian UFC star Robert Whittaker will fight rising star Khamzat Chimaev in the headline bout in Saudi Arabia on Saturday June 22nd (local) in a historic fight with significant title implications.

Former middleweight champion Whittaker will battle the 13-0 Chimaev in the first-ever event to be held in the Kingdom, but in a significant twist the Fight Night will decide the number one contender for Dricus du Plessis’ middleweight belt.

In announcing the fight, UFC boss Dana White said it would: “see who will be the number one contender for the middleweight championship”.

Currently Whittaker is the third-ranked contender behind Sean Strickland and Israel Adesanya, while Chimaev is ranked just 11th.

Champion Dricus du Plessis is expected to fight Israel Adesanya at the newly-announced UFC 305 in Perth in August.

But with Whittaker now announced to fight Chimaev in July, that leaves number one contender Sean Strickland frozen out of the title picture.

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26-7 Whittaker beat Paulo Costa at UFC 298 by unanimous decision in February – after surviving a brutal spinning heel kick – and afterwards said he was hoping to fight Strickland for the number one contender status if he couldn’t get a rematch with Du Plessis .

Du Plessis claimed a TKO win over Whittaker at UFC 290.

He told Fox Sports Australia afterwards: “My trajectory, it’s going upwards. I want that UFC title back. And given Dricus Du Plessis has the belt now, I think it makes perfect sense to run our fight back.

“But I also understand that’s not how things work sometimes. I never shy away from hard work, either.”

Whittaker had been desperately hoping to headline the Perth card in August – but now he has surprisingly been overlooked.

However, he told MMA Junkie of a fight with Chimaev: “That’s tricky because that doesn’t move me. It does in clout, but it doesn’t move me higher up in the rankings.

“I don’t know. I want to fight guys in the top five. Beating Strickland puts me at (No.) 1 again, and that’s as close as you can get really.”

Now he’ll have the chance to fight for that number one position – but against one of the most dangerous up-and-comers in the UFC.

Chimaev has gone 7-0 since joining the UFC, including beating former welterweight champion Kamaru Usman in October.

Also on the card, Sergei Pavlovich will fight Alexander Volkov in a heavyweight co-main event.

Kelvin Gastelum faces Daniel Rodriguez at welterweight, while Johnny Walker faces Volkan Oezdemir.

And Sharabutdin Magomedov — known as Shara Bullet — faces Ihor Potieria at light heavyweight.