Ankalaev, Nurmagomedov added to top of UFC Abu Dhabi card in July

Magomed Ankalaev will make his return to the Octagon in a summer main event against Khalil Rountree Jr., the UFC announced this week.

The former lightweight-heavyweight champion will headline a UFC Fight Night event July 25 in Abu Dhabi in his first fight since losing the title to Alex Pereira at UFC 320 this past October.

Ankalaev initially became the UFC’s 205-pound champion at UFC 313 last March when he won a five-round decision over Pereira. However, the 36-year-old from Dagestan, Russia never defended the belt as he was stopped by Pereira in their immediate rematch in just 80 seconds.

Rountree will be facing his fourth consecutive opponent that has been a UFC light-heavyweight champion. The 36-year-old American has lost two of his past three outings. He was stopped by Pereira at UFC 307 in their 2024 title fight, then won a decision over Jamahal Hill last June before getting knocked out by Jiri Prochazka in a 2025 Fight of the Year contender.

The event is set to take place at Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. It is the 11th UFC event at the venue since 2021.

Ankalaev’s manager suggested in a lengthy social media post following UFC 320 that if it were up to him Ankalaev wouldn’t’ve made the walk to the cage for the rematch as Ankalaev was dealing with an undisclosed injury and the manager said impacted his performance.

Pereira eventually vacated the title after avenging his previous loss to Ankalaev and Carlos Ulberg won the vacant light-heavyweight title in April when he knocked out Prochazka.

Ulberg sustained a torn ACL during his win over Prochazka, so the division’s current titleholder won’t return to action until 2027.

The UFC also announced the co-main event for the Abu Dhabi card with No. 2-ranked bantamweight contender Umar Nurmagomedov set to face No. 8 David Martinez.

Dagestan’s Nurmagomedov, 30, is 20-1 in mixed martial arts whose only loss was a five-round unanimous decision to former champion Merab Dvalishvili last January in their title fight. Nurmagomedov, a cousin of former UFC lightweight champion, Khabib Nurmagomedov, has bounced back from his first loss with consecutive three-round decisions to Mario Bautista in October and Deiveson Figueiredo in January.

Mexico’s Martinez, 27, boasts a 14-1 pro record with three consecutive wins in the UFC since debuting last year. He is coming off a February decision win over one-time title challenger Marlon Vera.

The July 25 Fight Night is the first event in Abu Dhabi since October's UFC 321, which infamously concluded in a main event no-contest after Ciryl Gane poked Tom Aspinall in the eyes during their heavyweight title fight, rendering the champ unable to continue.

The organization confirmed an additional eight matchups for the card, including a meeting of top-10 heavyweight contenders Rizvan Kuniev and Tyrell Fortune.

Below are the set matchups with bout order still to be finalized:

-- Magomed Ankalaev vs. Khalil Rountree Jr.

-- Umar Nurmagomedov vs. David Martinez

-- Rizvan Kuniev vs. Tyrell Fortune

-- Valter Walker vs. Thomas Petersen

-- Louie Sutherland vs. Gokhan Saricam

-- Brendson Ribeiro vs. Magomed Tuchalov

-- Steve Erceg vs. Ramazan Temirov

-- Wellington Turman vs. Islam Dulatov

-- Ismael Bonfim vs. Axel Sola

-- Dustin Jacoby vs. Uran Satybaldiev