The UFC has a May 30 main event, and it features a former champion.
The promotion has scheduled Tyron Woodley, who reigned as welterweight champ from 2016 to 2019, to fight Gilbert Burns in the headline bout of UFC’s next scheduled card, Burns confirmed on Twitter on Tuesday.
Bout agreement is signed! May 30th! Let’s go @ufc
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Contrato assinado dia 30 de maio! Vamos com tudo @UFCBrasil pic.twitter.com/IGgQDVULN4— GILBERT BURNS DURINHO (@GilbertDurinho) May 19, 2020
Sources confirmed the matchup with ESPN’s Ariel Helwani.
The UFC, after holding three events in Jacksonville, Florida, has yet to determine where the May 30 event will be held. UFC president Dana White on Saturday said he hoped to hold the fights at the promotion’s APEX facility in Las Vegas.
White said he’d take the fights to Arizona if sports are not yet allowed to resume in Nevada during the coronavirus pandemic.
“That’s 100% where I’ll go,” White said.
The 38-year-old Woodley (19-4-1) has not competed since losing the 170-pound belt to Kamaru Usman in March 2019. That defeat ended a seven-fight unbeaten streak that included knocking out Robbie Lawler for the belt in July 2016.
Burns (18-3) has won five in a row. The 33-year-old Brazilian has competed four times since Woodley last fought, with his most recent win — a first-round TKO of Demian Maia — coming in March.
Woodley is No. 5 in the ESPN welterweight rankings, while Burns is ninth. The UFC has not formally announced the bout as its main event, but White has been targeting this matchup for weeks to headline a card.
