UFC continues it’s tour of New York with UFC Utica, while also announcing three bouts for the Atlantic City card

A few years ago, a UFC event in New York was deemed impossible. Thanks to the law that legalized MMA in New York, the UFC has been taking advantage of their new territory. During the UFC Fight Night: Machida v. Andres broadcast, the company made two big announcements for the New York / New Jersey area. The first news regards the UFC’s debut in Utica, NY.

Upstate, NY will be getting a Fight Night card on June 1st inside the Adirondack Bank Center. No matches have been confirmed yet, nor has a ticket sale date. The Utica card comes two months after the UFC’s return to the Barclays Center on April 7th for UFC 223. The company has been upstate before, for UFC Fight Night: Lewis v. Abdurakhimov in Albany. They were also in Buffalo for UFC 210: Cormier v. Johnson 2. Overall there have been over six UFC events based in New York over the past few years.

Immediately after that announcement, the UFC announced three bouts to take place at their Fight Night event in Atlantic City. Leslie Smith (10-7-1) will be going for her third win in a row in a bantamweight bout against undefeated Aspen Ladd. This will be Ladd’s (6-0) second fight in the UFC since coming from Invicta FC.

Two other fights taking place include Merab Dvalishvili (7-3) taking on jiu jitsu fighter Augusto Mendes (6-2 MMA, 58-26-1 grappling) and former World Series of Fighting Champion Magomed Bibulatov (14-1) against Ulka Sasaki (20-5-2). Almost all of these fighters are looking for redemption to get back on track.

UFC Fight Night 128 takes place inside Boardwalk Hall on April 21st. Tickets go on sale Friday, March 2nd.