UFC Fight Tonight: Is there a UFC card on Saturday, July 17, 2021?

After an uber-successful UFC 264, the promotion is back again this weekend with another stacked Fight Night card at the UFC Apex arena.

Despite ending in an abrupt and unsatisfactory fashion with Conor McGregor breaking his leg in the main event against Dustin Poirier, UFC 264 raked in around 1.8 million pay-per-view buys, according to several sources. The figure would make the event the second-highest selling card in the promotion's history, right after 2.4 million pay-per-views sold by UFC 229: Nurmagomedov vs. McGregor.

ESPN averaged 1.615 million viewers for the prelim fights (8-10pm). That’s 11% better than ESPN’s most recent UFC PPV Prelim with Conor McGregor in January (1.454 million viewers). It was ESPN's most viewed program of the day on Saturday.

— John Ourand (@Ourand_SBJ) July 13, 2021

The UFC fight tonight on July 17, 2021, is going to feature yet another exciting lightweight bout as the headliner. Khabib Nurmagomedov's protege Islam Makhachev will be facing fellow rising 155-pounder Thiago Moises in the main event of UFC Vegas 31.

The co-main event of the card will mark the awaited return of former women's bantamweight champion Miesha Tate against UFC veteran Marion Reneau. After losing her title to Amanda Nunes at UFC 200, Miesha Tate dropped a decision to Raquel Pennington and announced her retirement from the sport.

After a stint with Singapore's ONE Championship as Vice President, Tate decided to make her comeback to mixed martial arts with a six-fight contract with the UFC. Her opponent Marion Reneau is currently on a four-fight skid, losing most recently to Macy Chiasson in March this year.

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UFC Fight Night: Makhachev vs. Moises

A featherweight bout between former champion Max Holloway and Yair Rodriguez was supposed to serve as the main event for the UFC card on July 17, 2021. However, Holloway had to withdraw because of an injury, and the matchup was kept intact for a future date after Rodriguez reportedly turned down a fight against Giga Chikadze.

Islam Makhachev and Thiago Moises were booked as the headliner instead. With only one loss in his entire MMA career, Islam Makhachev is on a seven-fight winning streak. His last victory came against Drew Dober at UFC 259 with an arm-triangle choke submission.

Thiago Moises is not too far behind himself, with a three-fight winning streak under his name. He went through Alexander Hernandez with a decision in his last outing in February this year, and before that, picked up another decision over Bobby Green.

Other fights on the UFC Vegas 31 main card will feature Jeremy Stephens in a lightweight contest with Mateusz Gamrot, Rodolfo Vieira in a middleweight bout against Dustin Stoltzfus, and Gabriel Benitez in a featherweight fight opposite Billy Quarantillo.

Catch Dana White's preview of the card below:

If you don't know, now you know.@MakhachevMMA vs @ThiagoMoisesMMA is LIVE and FREE SATURDAY on @espn and @ESPNPlus! #UFCVegas31 pic.twitter.com/SA9tp1CNqu

— danawhite (@danawhite) July 15, 2021