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Photo by Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC The UFC promised big news from Dana White on Tuesday, and the UFC CEO announced two bantamweight championship bouts for the UFC’s return to New Jersey. White revealed on social media that the main event for UFC 316 — which takes place June 7 at the Prudential Center in Newark — will be a rematch for the bantamweight championship between Merab Dvalishvili and Sean O’Malley. The pair first met at UFC 306 this past September where Dvalishvili captured the title from O’Malley via unanimous decision in the main event. In the co-main event, now two-time women’s bantamweight title holder Julianna Peña defends her newly won championship for the first time against Kayla Harrison. Following White’s news, MMA Fighting’s Mike Heck and Jed Meshew react to the news, if the announcements lived up to the hype, the new UFC Kansas City main event between Ian Machado Garry and Carlos Prates, and more. Watch the full reaction to the news in the video above. An audio-only version of the show can be found below and on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, and wherever you find your favorite podcasts.

Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC Merab Dvalishvili faces Sean O’Malley in a rematch while Julianna Pena puts her bantamweight title up for grabs against Kayla Harrison in the new main and co-main events just announced for UFC 316 on June 7 from the Prudential Center in Newark, N.J. UFC CEO Dana White announced the new fights on Tuesday. Dvalishvili looks for the second defense of his 135-pound title after he vanquished Umar Nurmagomedov back in January in a stunning five-round performance. That fight came just four months after Dvalishvili claimed the bantamweight title with an even more dominant performance over O’Malley at UFC 306 at the Sphere in Las Vegas. The rematch gets booked without O’Malley actually competing again since losing his title to Dvalishvili but he’s getting a second crack at the Georgian fighter when they meet again in June. As for the co-main event, Pena returns to action following a razor-close decision over Raquel Pennington that crowned her as a two-time UFC bantamweight champion. Overall, Pena has gone 3-1 in her past four fights, which included a statement performance over Amanda Nunes to become champion for the first time back in 2021. Now she faces a two-time Olympic champion in Harrison in June after the former PFL champion signed with the UFC in free agency and quickly rattled off back-to-back wins over Holly Holm and Ketlen Vieira to earn a title shot. Overall, Harrison is 18-1 as a pro and she’ll attempt to become UFC champion when she faces Pena in June.

Photo by Steve Marcus/Getty Images Welterweights Ian Machado Garry and Carlos Prates have agreed to meet in the new main event at the upcoming UFC Kansas City event on April 26. The UFC announced the matchup on Tuesday but made no mention what happened to the original headliner between Jamahal Hill and Khalil Rountree. No matter the reason with Hill vs. Rountree scrapped, the UFC moved swiftly to book a new main event. View this post on Instagram A post shared by UFC (@ufc) Garry accepts the fight following a back-and-forth battle against Shavkat Rakhmonov this past December in a matchup to determine a No. 1 contender in the welterweight division. While Garry came up just short on the scorecards, he gave Rakhmonov his toughest test to date and now he gets a chance to bounce back against one of the fastest rising stars in the division. Prates comes into the fight with a perfect 4-0 record in the UFC with all of his fights ending by knockout in the first or second round. The Brazilian was originally scheduled to face Geoff Neal at UFC 314 but Neal suffered an injury that forced him off the card. Rather than rebook him against a different opponent on that date, the UFC shifted Prates to the Kansas City headliner where he now faces Garry instead. Garry vs. Prates headlines the card on April 26 with the event also featuring Anthony Smith in his retirement bout against Zhang Mingyang and Giga Chikadze taking on David Onama in a featherweight clash.

Michael Bisping | Esther Lin, MMA Fighting Michael Bisping is still deeply involved in the fight game, but don’t expect him to step back into the cage anytime soon. That feels like a necessary disclaimer on April Fool’s Day, with Bisping’s past promotion Cage Warriors taking advantage of the occasion to jokingly announce the former middleweight champion is ending his retirement to challenge middleweight champion Dario Bellandi. Of course, the announcement was just another April 1 gag, a common occurrence in the sports news world to which the combat sports sphere is no exception. Several fighters joined in on the fun, with boxing star Tyson Fury proclaiming he is taking over the James Bond mantle from Daniel Craig, and Ben Askren also announcing his comeback—to return to collegiate wrestling at the age of 40 to compete for the university of Iowa. From the eye-catching to the eyeroll-inducing, check out this year’s best (and worst) April Fool’s posts below. BREAKING NEWS Michael Bisping’s Back! And He’s Coming for the Middleweight Crown!UFC & CW legend @Bisping is out of retirement for a comeback fight against Dario Bellandi pic.twitter.com/U5ijwmwY9w— Cage Warriors (@CageWarriors) April 1, 2025 View this post on Instagram A post shared by Tyson Fury (@tysonfury) The @NCAA has granted me 1 more year of eligibility and @Hawks_Wrestling offered me a bag!!! So pumped to wrestle one more year and try to win a 3rd hodge — Funky (@Benaskren) April 1, 2025 BREAKING: Renato Moicano set to face Gilbert Burns at UFC 315 for a Catchweight Bout. Moicano took the picanha bet personally, and now there is bad blood. pic.twitter.com/pCSn99CPmJ— Show Me the Money Podcast (@showmethepod) April 1, 2025 View this post on Instagram A post shared by Publi Nerd (@publinerd) Game changer History will be made with ONE’s first-ever tag-team mixed-rules fight when Rodtang and Anatoly Malykhin collide with Superlek and Reug Reug! Who you got in this insane showdown?Full breakdown in the comments ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/M28pQ6KFnm— ONE Championship (@ONEChampionship) April 1, 2025 Honestly I see no need in still boxing professionally with my injuries.. especially with the money and platform I’m building on kick ..I’m sorry to all I’ve let down in the boxing world & appreciate all the support you all have given me through the years .. I’m officially…— DeenTheGreat (@DeenTheGreat) April 1, 2025 View this post on Instagram A post shared by Karolina Kowalkiewicz Zaborowska (@karolinakowalkiewicz) Dear fans,Today marks our final day in boxing. I want to thank everyone who has been part of this journey with me.To my dear friends scheduled to fight on the London and NYC cards, I apologize for the time and effort you put into training camp. I wish you the best of luck in…— TURKI ALALSHIKH (@Turki_alalshikh) April 1, 2025

Jessica Eye | Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC Jessica Eye is back. The one-time UFC flyweight title challenger announced Tuesday on The Ariel Helwani Show she has signed on to compete with BKFC. BKFC also shared the news of Eye’s signing on social media. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Jessica Eye (@jessicaevileye) Eye is a longtime combat sports veteran best known for her 15-fight UFC run from 2013 to 2022. Once one of the top-ranked flyweights in the world, Eye competed for the 125-pound title in a losing effort against Valentina Shevchenko at UFC 238, and ended her time with the promotion on a four-fight losing streak and a UFC record of 5-10. The 38-year-old has not fought since a loss to Maycee Barber at UFC 276 and she explained to Helwani that she took time off to deal with health issues. “I think a lot of people didn’t understand what I was going through towards the end of my fight career,” Eye said. “I think a lot of people kind of got confused at times when I started missing weight and having all these problems... I ended up contracting a parasite. You ever heard of that show [Monsters Inside Me]? Legitimately, there was a monster inside me. There was a worm about that long. “I passed that worm about five weeks before I had my retirement fight with the UFC, which was back in 2022. After that happened, in all reality, I wasn’t ready to retire, but my body was just so exhausted. I went through so many issues that only the UFC really knew about. My gall bladder removal, getting sepsis, getting E. coli, and having all these troubles, that right before I had my retirement fight, we finally found it.” Eye said her BKFC debut is expected to take place May 10 in Salt Lake City with an opponent still to be determined. As of now, Eye is only signed on for one fight, but she hasn’t ruled out continuing to work with the promotion in the future.