Two title bouts head to Montreal

The first UFC event in over a decade will be headlined by two title fights.

Welterweight champion Belal Muhammad will defend his title against Jack Della Maddalena in the UFC 315 main event May 10 at Bell Centre in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, the promotion announced Wednesday.

In addition, UFC women’s flyweight champion Valentina Shevchenko will face France’s Manon Fiorot in a five-round co-main event.

Muhammad (24-3 MMA, 15-3 UFC) returns from a severe toe infection that knocked him out of a scheduled title fight vs. Shavkat Rakhmonov in December. Rakhmonov instead faced and defeated Ian Machado Garry. Due to injury, Rakhmonov was unable to take a crack at Muhammad.

That’s where Della Maddalena (17-2 MMA, 7-0 UFC) stepped in. Scheduled to face Leon Edwards in a UFC Fight Night headliner on March 22 in London, Della Maddalena has been replaced by Sean Brady.

Della Maddalena now gets a title shot a little over three years after his promotional debut. Notable wins in the UFC include Gilbert Burns and Kevin Holland.

Shevchenko (24-4-1 MMA, 13-3-1 UFC) will face someone not named Alexa Grasso for the first time in four appearances. Shevchenko and Grasso engaged in a trilogy during which they split the appearances at 1-1-1. Shevchenko currently has the last laugh, however, as she won the title back from Grasso in September.

Fiorot (12-1 MMA, 7-0 UFC) could become the first French champion should she win. No opponent has been able to be her thus far in the UFC, as Fiorot has racked up wins over Erin Blanchfield and Rose Namajunas among others.

Also, a welterweight bout between Gilbert Burns (22-8 MMA, 15-8 UFC) and Michael Morales (17-0 MMA, 5-0 UFC) that was originally expected for UFC 314 in Miami shifts to UFC 315 Montreal. That moves the total amount of publicly known fights to seven.

With the additions, the UFC 315 lineup includes:

• Champion Belal Muhammad vs. Jack Della Maddalenna – for welterweight title
• Champion Valentina Shevchenko vs. Manon Fiorot – for women’s flyweight title
• Gilbert Burns vs. Michael Morales
• Alexa Grasso vs. Natalia Silva
• Bekzat Almakhan vs. Brad Katona
• Nora Cornolle vs. Hailey Cowan
• Marc-Andre Barriault vs. Bruno Silva

For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 315.