UFC 322: Start time, schedule, fight card, how to watch and odds

The UFC returns to New York City as Islam Makhachev takes to the Octagon looking to claim the UFC welterweight championship tonight.

The Russian takes on reigning champion Jack Della Maddalena at Madison Square Garden this weekend in a stacked card.

Makhachev, 34, vacated the lightweight belt back in May in order to move up to the welterweight division.

Maddalena is undefeated on the promotion since his UFC debut back in January 2022.

He has won every fight since – an eight-bout win streak – and that has seen him climb to the top of the welterweight rankings.

He took the belt off Belal Muhammad at UFC 315 with a unanimous decision victory in Montreal, to follow up his knockout win over Gilbert Burns at UFC 299, where his knee and elbow combination finish earned him the lucrative Performance of the Night bonus in Miami.

As for Makhachev, he has not fought since submitting Renato Moicano at UFC 311 back in January.

That first-round brabo choke win in Inglewood, California was his final successful defence of the lightweight title, before he moved up weight class after breaking the record for the most consecutive UFC lightweight title defences.

Makhachev’s win streak – and the level of opponents that he has beaten – is impressive. Before Moicano, he submitted Dustin Poirier at UFC 302, and before that, he knocked out Alex Volkanovski in Abu Dhabi at UFC 294.

He claimed the lightweight belt with a Performance of the Night submission of Charles Oliveira at UFC 280 in October 2022.

Elsewhere on the card, there is a UFC women’s flyweight title fight between two-time champion Valentina Shevchenko and two-time strawweight champion Zhang Weili, which is the co-main event. Zhang has vacated her strawweight title to fight Shevchenko.

There are other notable names on the main card.

Britain’s Leon Edwards, the former welterweight belt holder, is looking to bounce back from his two consecutive defeats against Muhammad and Sean Brady by beating Carlos Prates, who is on a high after his spinning elbow knockout of Geoff Neal at UFC 319.