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Fans are quite evidently not too pleased with the rumored UFC 297 headliner – Raquel Pennington vs. Mayra Bueno Silva.
The UFC is set to hold its first pay-per-view of 2024 in Toronto, Canada. The event is scheduled for January 20, 2024, but the exact venue has not been announced so far. Alexander Volkanovski was initially expected to defend his featherweight title against Ilia Topuria on the card, but the Australian's recent knockout loss to Islam Makhachev has seemingly pushed his return date.
Interestingly, recent rumors have suggested that the women's bantamweight championship between Raquel Pennington and Mayra Bueno Silva will be the headliner for the UFC 297 event.
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Since the rumor started to circulate the internet, fans have expressed their disregard for the fight being worthy enough of a main event of a pay-per-view card, predicting it will be a "snoozefest." Take a look at some of the reactions below:
"There's no way they make this main event?"
"Home girl looks like she really don't want to be there at all. Looool"
"I've seen better fights in a Walmart parking lot"
Will Islam Makhachev fight Charles Oliveira at UFC 297?
A rematch between Islam Makhachev and Charles Oliveira was also rumored to be the headliner for the upcoming UFC 297. However, that does not seem to be the case anymore. According to MMA journalist Brett Okamoto, UFC CEO Dana White has confirmed that the highly anticipated lightweight championship rematch will not take place in January.
Brian Okamoto took to Twitter to report the same and stated:
"Islam Makhachev vs. Charles Oliveira 2 will not headline UFC 297 next month in Toronto, per Dana White. As of now, Oliveira does appear to be the most likely 155 challenger, although White tells ESPN, 'Anything is possible, it's whenever both are ready.'"
Further, Okamoto also revealed that Islam Makhachev's manager Ali Abdelaziz has made it known that his client will be ready to return to the octagon as soon as March next year. He said:
"Makhachev's manager @AliAbdelaziz00 tells ESPN he has informed the UFC the earliest Makhachev will be ready to defend his title is March 9."
