UFC 298 Booked for Anaheim’s Honda Center on Feb. 17, Volkanovski-Topuria Headlining

The time and place of Alexander Volkanovski vs. Ilia Topuria is now official.

Per the promotion on Thursday, UFC 298 will take place at the Honda Center in Anaheim, California, on Feb. 17. The Ultimate Fighting Championship had previously announced that the featherweight championship clash of Volkanovski (26-3) vs. Topuria (14-0) would sit atop the billing, and its date of Feb. 17 had been discussed as well. However, the destination of California was not official until its announcement.

This event will be the first at this venue since UFC 270 in early 2022, when Francis Ngannou beat Ciryl Gane for the heavyweight strap. The home to NHL team Anaheim Ducks has played host to a number of major UFC cards over the years, from UFC 76 titled “Knockout” which did not feature a single knockout to UFC 157 which brought women’s MMA to the organization. This fight card will feature the first men’s headliner in a division below light heavyweight for the building, although the canceled UFC 233 was slated to have Henry Cejudo rematch T.J. Dillashaw for the latter’s bantamweight throne.

Volkanovski will be looking to right the ship after a short-notice appearance up for the lightweight belt did not go his way in October. The Aussie attempted to wrest the 155-pound strap from Islam Makhachev in his second effort, only to get punted in just over three minutes. Throughout his career that began in 2012, Volkanovski has still not lost in any weight class below lightweight, and he has amassed five defenses as the featherweight king thus far including two against Max Holloway, and one against Brian Ortega, Chan Sung Jung and Yair Rodriguez.

“El Matador” Topuria has yet to taste defeat as a professional, and he has finished 12 of his 14 opponents to date. Inside the Octagon, the German-born Georgian fighting out of and repping Spain has rattled off six wins including four stoppages. Topuria cinched his crack at the belt by running roughshod over Josh Emmett, with one judge even awarding him a 50-42 scorecard en route to a dominant triumph. Emmett has put away Bryce Mitchell, Jai Herbert, Ryan Hall and Damon Jackson in the UFC as well.

With its location of Anaheim in the books, UFC 298 will be going down on Feb. 17 with at least one championship bout on its lineup in the form of Volkanovski vs. Topuria at 145 pounds. Only a few other fights have been added to the billing thus far, including a heavyweight romp between Marcos Rogerio de Lima and Justin Tafa, a welterweight contest pitting Danny Barlow against Yusaku Kinoshita and a rescheduled 205-pound tilt of Mingyang Zhang vs. Brendson Ribeiro.