''UFC Fight Night: Blaydes vs. dos Santos'' (also known as ''UFC Fight Night 166'' and ''UFC on ESPN+ 24'') was a

mixed martial arts Mixed martial arts (MMA), sometimes referred to as cage fighting, no holds barred (NHB), and ultimate fighting, and originally referred to as Vale Tudo is a full-contact combat sport based on striking, grappling and ground fighting, inc ...

event produced by the

Ultimate Fighting Championship The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) is an American mixed martial arts (MMA) promotion company based in Las Vegas, Nevada. It is owned and operated by Zuffa, a wholly owned subsidiary of Endeavor Group Holdings. It is the largest MMA ...

that took place on January 25, 2020 at

PNC Arena PNC Arena (originally Raleigh Entertainment & Sports Arena and formerly the RBC Center) is an indoor arena located in Raleigh, North Carolina. The arena seats 18,680 for ice hockey and 19,722 for basketball, including 61 suites, 13 loge boxes an ...

Raleigh, North Carolina Raleigh (; ) is the capital city of the state of North Carolina and the List of North Carolina county seats, seat of Wake County, North Carolina, Wake County in the United States. It is the List of municipalities in North Carolina, second-most ...

, United States.

Background

The event was the first that the promotion hosted in Raleigh and first in

North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and So ...

since UFC on Fox: Jacaré vs. Brunson 2 in January 2018. A heavyweight bout between Curtis Blaydes and former

UFC Heavyweight Champion Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) champions are fighters who have won UFC championships. Historical notes At the time of the UFC's inception in 1993, mixed martial arts was not sanctioned in the United States, and did not include weight classe ...

Junior dos Santos served as the event headliner. A bantamweight bout was scheduled between former UFC Lightweight Champion Frankie Edgar and

Cory Sandhagen Cory Sandhagen (born April 20, 1992) is an American professional mixed martial artist. He currently competes in the Bantamweight division in the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). A professional competitor since 2015, Sandhagen has also compete ...

at the event. However, Edgar was withdrawn from the fight in favour of facing

Chan Sung Jung Jung Chan-sung ( ko, 정찬성; born March 17, 1987), anglicized as Chan Sung Jung and better known by his ring name The Korean Zombie, is a South Korean professional mixed martial artist and kickboxer. He currently competes in the Featherweig ...

in a featherweight bout at UFC Fight Night: Edgar vs. The Korean Zombie after Jung's original opponent, former featherweight title challenger Brian Ortega, pulled out due to a knee injury. In turn, Sandhagen was removed from the card and expected to be rescheduled for a future event after promotion officials deemed that a suitable opponent could not be arranged. A middleweight bout between Bevon Lewis and Alen Amedovski was scheduled to take place at the event. However, Amedovski was forced to pull out of the event citing injury and was replaced by

Dequan Townsend Dequan Townsend (born May 11, 1986) is an American mixed martial artist currently competing in the Light Heavyweight division. He has previously fought for the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). Background Townsend originally began training ...

. A strawweight bout between Hannah Cifers and Brianna Van Buren was scheduled to take place at the event. However, Van Buren was pulled from the event due to undisclosed reasons and replaced by former Invicta FC Strawweight Champion Angela Hill. Featherweight fighters Josh Emmett and

Nad Narimani Nad Narimani (born April 14, 1987) is an English mixed martial artist. He was the formal Cage Warriors Fighting Championship featherweight champion and he competed in the Featherweight division of the Ultimate Fighting Championship. Mixed mart ...

pulled out of their scheduled fights against

Arnold Allen Arnold Billy Allen (born 22 January 1994) is an English professional mixed martial artist. He currently competes in the Featherweight division in the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). As of November 8, 2022, he is #4 in the UFC featherweig ...

and Nik Lentz respectively, citing injuries. As a result, Allen and Lentz faced each other at the event.

Results

Bonus awards

The following fighters received $50,000 bonuses. *Fight of the Night: Brett Johns vs. Tony Gravely *Performance of the Night: Alex Perez and Herbert Burns

References

{{2020 in mixed martial arts UFC Fight Night 2020 in mixed martial arts 2020 in sports in North Carolina Mixed martial arts in North Carolina Sports competitions in Raleigh, North Carolina January 2020 sports events in the United States

Background

Results

Bonus awards

See also

References