Featured UFC183 fighter Nick Diaz answers a question during media day events at the MGM Grand on Thursday, January 29, 2015.
Saturday, July 17, 2021 | 8 p.m.
Fans who wondered what happened to International Fight Week during last weekend’s UFC 264 no longer need to fear the end of the annual festivities.
One of the UFC’s signature events will return in 2021 — just on a different date. The locally based mixed martial arts promotion announced Saturday night that International Fight Week festivities will be held from Tuesday Sept. 21 to Saturday Sept. 25 in Las Vegas, culminating with UFC 266 at T-Mobile Arena.
The pay-per-view card will be headlined by three five-round fights. A featherweight championship bout between Alexander Volkanovski and Brian Ortega will fill the main event after a women’s flyweight title fight between Valentina Shevchenko and Lauren Murphy.
A much-anticipated five-round welterweight rematch between Nick Diaz and former champion Robbie Lawler is also scheduled.
Diaz, one of the UFC’s biggest draws, will be returning to the octagon for the first time since UFC 183 in January 2015, a loss later changed to a no contest against Anderson Silva. Diaz and Lawler last fought at UFC 47 in April 2004 when the former knocked out the latter in the second round.
The card will cap a near week-long fighting celebration that usually features a packed calendar full of opportunities for fight fans. Full details are forthcoming, but this year’s International Fight Week is confirmed to include a Hall of Fame induction ceremony, two-day interactive Fan Experience and star fighters hosting parties, meet and greets and autograph sessions.
International Fight Week has traditionally been held around the early July pay-per-view card but complications from the pandemic made it unfeasible to arrange this year. It started as a partnership between the UFC and the Las Vegas Visitors and Convention Authority around the 2012 title fight rematch between Silva and Chael Sonnen, one of the biggest bouts in history at the time.
The week has attracted more than 50,000 visitors and $150 million in economic impact in the past, according to figures from the convention authority.
The event went on to be held every year until coronavirus interrupted plans for the 2020 version. Some may have speculated that it was over after that or at least on pause until 2022, but UFC President Dana White said he was determined to go forward with International Fight Week.
“Our team has been working on it,” White said last week. "We wanted it to be this year.”
Case Keefer can be reached at 702-948-2790 or [email protected]. Follow Case on Twitter at twitter.com/casekeefer.
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