Welterweight action featuring Canada’s Yohan Lainesse is among a number of freshly announced match-ups for July’s UFC 291.
On Wednesday, UFC officials revealed via press release that Lainesse (9-2) will face Matthew Semelsberger (11-5) at the PPV event on July 29, 2023 at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Lainesse, a.k.a. “White Lion,” is 1-2 in the promotion to date after winning his way into the company by way of Dana White’s Contender Series in 2021. Thus far, he’s sandwiched a win over Darian Weeks between losses to Gabe Green and fellow Canuck Mike Malott.
The Quebec native meets “Semi the Jedi” Semelsberger on an identical 1-2 stretch. Semelsberger lost a split decision against Jeremiah Wells last time out; prior to that, he had earned a decision victory over Jake Matthews.
UFC 291 is set to be headlined by lightweights Dustin Poirier and Justin Gaethje, who face off for the second time with the promotion bringing back the “BMF” title for the occasion. In addition, the following match-ups have been announced and reported for the second PPV event of July:
- Dustin Poirier vs. Justin Gaethje — for the UFC “BMF” championship
- Jan Błachowicz vs. Alex Pereira
- Tony Ferguson vs. Bobby Green
- Paulo Costa vs. Ikram Aliskerov
- Stephen Thompson vs. Michel Pereira
- Derrick Lewis vs. Marcos Rogério de Lima
- Michael Chiesa vs. Kevin Holland
- C.J. Vergara vs. Vinicius de Almeida Salvador
- Joanne Wood vs. Priscila Cachoeira
- Gabriel Bonfim vs. Trevin Giles
- Roman Kopylov vs. Claudio Ribeiro
- Matthew Semelsberger vs. Yohan Lainesse
