In ancient Rome gladiators battled to the death for the entertainment of the Coliseum and King to become heroes of the empire. Today in 2023, we have the next best thing. The fireworks will be lit tonight in UFC 289 as Amanda Nunes gets set to defend her title against Irene Aldana in the night’s main event. With a total of 12 fights on the night, there will be no shortage of excitement as fighters challenge for titles and look to move up ranks. You can find out everything you need to know about UFC 289, including time and dates for the fights, the biggest fights on the night and the fighters to back in your accumulators. You can also find the best odds for UFC 289 on BetKing, alongside some of the highest odds in online sports betting across other markets including football and tennis.
**Time and date for UFC 289** The time for the fights vary, starting from the preliminary rounds at 11:00pm on Saturday June 10th, with the main event expected to take place in the early hours of Sunday, June 11th. 3:00am, to be precise. The headliner between Nunes and Aldana is expected to be held at 6:00am on Sunday to close out UFC 289 on a high. Although these are the stated times for the fights, the chronology of events might change depending on circumstance.
**Fight card for UFC 289** The main event for UFC 289 will be Nunes defending her Bantamweight title against the Mexican challenger Aldana after original challenger Julianna Pena pulled out of a fight against the Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu expert. Aldana will be looking to become only the fourth ever Mexican UFC champion across all divisions, but standing in the way of her glory will be the reigning champ, Nunes. Another Brazilian, Charles Olivera, will also aim to get the better of Beneil Dariush in the Lightweight category after failing to reclaim his belt from Islam Makhachev who beat him in his last MMA match at UFC 280 in October 2022. In other main card events, Mike Malott takes on Adam Fugitt in the Welterweight division, while Dan Ige will face Nate Landwehr in the Featherweight division and Marc-André Barriault takes on Eryk Anders in a middleweight fight. The rest of the fight card reads thus: **Preliminary card** Nassourdine Imavov and Chris Curtis headline the Preliminary card, which will be Imavov’s first bout since a January loss to Sean Strickland in a unanimous decision at the UFC Fight Night in Las Vegas. In Curtis, Imanov will face one of the UFC’s more orthodox fighters who is looking to bounce back after losing his two of his last three fights including a unanimous decision loss that brought him into double digits for defeats in UFC. Other fights in the preliminary card include. **Miranda Maverick vs. Jasmine Jasudavicius** **Aiemann Zahabi vs. Aori Qileng** **Kyle Nelson vs. Blake Bilder** **Early preliminary card** The early preliminary card was set to feature three bouts, but with Khalil Rountree Jr.’s tie against Chris Daukaus cancelled, Kyle Nelson vs Blake Bilder was moved up to take its place in the Preliminary Card. Now, the early preliminary card will only feature matches between David Dvorak and Stephen Erceg as well as Diana Belbita and Maria Oliveira.
**Who to back in UFC 289** Nunes is the overwhelming favourite to retain her title against Aldana after beating Pena in her last UFC bout to claim the title. She won via unanimous decision on that occasion to reclaim her title and is [backed at 1.29 odds compared to Aldana at 3.50 odds on BetKing to win the bout. ](https://m.betking.com/sports/match/5284298/nunes-amanda-aldana-irene) Nunes is the more experienced fighter of the two and will bring her wealth of experience as well as her longer arm and leg reach to the fore against Aldana. The defending champion will need to use her longer reach to keep Aldana at arm’s length, or risk falling prey to one of the most deadly submission experts in the game who has claimed 21% of her wins by forcing her opponents to tap out. In the other star match-up of the night, Michael Olivera will have to overcome great odds to get the better of Dariush who is undefeated in eight fights dating back to a 2018 loss by knockout to Alexander Hernandez in UFC 222. Olivera has been [priced at 2.18 odds to take the fight, while Dariush is the favourite for the win at 1.66 odds. ](https://m.betking.com/sports/match/5265949/oliveira-charles-dariush-beneil) Although Dariush is considered the front-runner for the fight, backing Olivera could prove a smart investment as he is the more consistent fighter at this point and has a slight reach advantage over Olivera. Olivera is one of the most entertaining fighters in the UFC today and will be hoping to continue his recent good streak which could see him making a play for the title in the lightweight division in no time. You can find [the best odds for other UFC 289 fights on BetKing. ](https://m.betking.com/sports/events/prematch/mma/ufc/ufc-289-nunes-vs-pena-3)
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