By:  | December 22, 2022 4:05 pm

Loma Lookboonmee will now take on Elise Reed at UFC 284. The fight had originally been booked for the event in Seoul but has been moved to Australia with the two strawweights now set to face off on February 12th.

Loma recently signed a new deal with the promotion and didn’t have to wait too long for her next fight. She was scheduled to fight in Seoul on February 5th but that card was scrapped when the Korean Zombie suffered a shoulder injury in training.

Loma (7-3) is coming off a win over Denise Gomes at UFC Vegas 60. Afterwards she opened up about the ongoing mental health issues she had been struggling with.

But her career is going well with four wins from six UFC fights and a new contract. In her next bout Loma matched with an opponent of very similar experience.

Gomes (6-2) has won two out of her four UFC fights. The American is coming off a decision win over Melissa Martinez at UFC 279.

New signing

Mingyang Zhang has signed with the UFC. The Chinese light heavyweight will make his debut in Perth on February 12th and has been matched with Tyson Pedro according to reliable reports.

Zhang is riding a nine fight winning streak that culminated in a victory over George Tokkos at Road to UFC 1. He stopped the English fighter in the first round and it was considered a major upset at the time.

Zhang has reportedly been rewarded with a spot on the roster and a debut at UFC 284:

Step up

But for Zhang (16-6) it will be a big step up in terms of opposition. The majority of his previous victories have come at the expense of fighters who don’t have particularly impressive records.

Six of the last nine fighters he faced had losing records. But the 32 year old clearly caught the eye with his knockout win against Bellator veteran Tokkos in Singapore.

Pedro (9-3) will be fighting in his homeland and looking for a third straight UFC win. He has been on the roster since 2016 and has won five out of his eight fights inside the octagon.

With two wins to his name already this year the Australian has a lot of momentum behind him coming into this contest and will be sure to get vocal support from the crowd at the RAC Arena. It looks set to be a baptism of fire for Zhang.

Lightweight title

Local favourite Alex Volkanovski (25-1) will be moving up in weight to challenge for the lightweight title. The Australian is the current 145lbs  champion and ranked #1 on the UFC’s pound fir pound list.

Israel Makhachev (23-1) will be making the first defence of the belt he won by beating Charles Oliveira at UFC 280 in Abu Dhabi. The Russian is a protege of former lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov.


Top ranked

#1 ranked middleweight Robert Whittaker (24-6) will take on #6 ranked Paulo Costa (14-2). The latter is the former middleweight champion but lost his crown to Israel Adesanya and then came up short in the rematch.

UFC 284 took place in Melbourne in 2019 with Adesanya knocking out Whittaker in the main event. In total there have been 15 events put on by the promotion in Australia.

UFC 284, Perth, February 12th
Islam Makhachev (c) vs. Alexander Volkanovski (Lightweight)
Yair Rodríguez vs. Josh Emmett (Featherweight)
Robert Whittaker vs. Paulo Costa (Middleweight)
Kai Kara-France vs. Alex Perez (Flyweight)
Justin Tafa vs. Parker Porter (Heavyweight)
Tyson Pedro vs. Zhang Mingyang (Light heavyweight)
Jimmy Crute vs. Alonzo Menifield (Light heavyweight)
Joshua Culibao vs. Melsik Baghdasaryan (Featherweight)
Shannon Ross vs. Kleydson Rodrigues (Flyweight)
Jack Jenkins vs. Don Shainis (Featherweight)
Loma Lookboonmee vs. Elise Reed (Strawweight)