UFC Fight Night ‘Ortega vs. Rodriguez’ main card to air on ABC

Ultimate Fighting Championship will return to ABC later this summer.

The Las Vegas-based promotion announced that the main card for its July 16 event will air on ABC and ESPN+ at 3 p.m. ET/12 p.m. PT. UFC Fight Night takes place at UBS Arena in Elmont, N.Y., and is headlined by a featherweight showdown pitting Brian Ortega against Yair Rodriguez. The rest of the bout order for  UFC on ABC 3 is currently unknown.

This marks the third time a UFC card has aired on ABC. Previously, UFC on ABC 1 in January 2021 saw Max Holloway put a “Beatdown of the Year”-winning performance against Calvin Kattar, while UFC on ABC 2 in April 2021 was headlined by Marvin Vettori’s unanimous decision triumph against Kevin Holland.

Ortega is coming off a unanimous decision loss to Alexander Volkanovski in a 145-pound title bout at UFC 266 last September. “T-City” is 0-2 in championship fights, with a fourth-round stoppage loss to Max Holloway in December 2018 on his resume. Ortega is 15-2 as professional with notable wins over the likes of Chan Sung Jung, Frankie Edgar, Cub Swanson, Renato Carneiro and Clay Guida.

Rodriguez, meanwhile, last appeared at UFC Fight Night 197 this past November, when he dropped a five-round verdict against Holloway in his first bout since October 2019. The Mexican featherweight is 8-2 with one no contest in the Las Vegas-based promotion and owns notable triumphs against the likes of Jeremy Stephens, Jung, B.J. Penn, Alex Caceres and Dan Hooker.