Getty Israel Adesanya and Yoel Romero will co-headline UFC 248.
Israel Adesanya will defend his Middleweight title against No. 3 ranked Yoel Romero, while Weili Zhang will also be defending her strawweight title against Joanna Jedrzejczyk in UFC 248’s two headlining events.
You can no longer buy UFC PPVs through your cable provider or UFC.tv, but anyone in the US can buy the UFC 248 PPV through ESPN+.
Your pricing options depend on whether or not you’re already an ESPN+ subscriber, so here’s a further rundown of how to watch Adesanya vs Romero and the UFC 248 PPV:
Note: Heavy may earn an affiliate commission if you sign up via a link on this page
If you don’t already have ESPN+, you can get a special deal that includes a one-year subscription to ESPN+ ($49.99 value) and UFC 248 ($64.99 value) for $84.98, which works out to about 26 percent savings:
If you already have ESPN+, you can purchase the UFC 248 PPV by itself for $64.99. Make sure you’re logged into your ESPN+ account, then select the “Only looking for UFC 248? Get it for $64.99 here” link:
Or, current ESPN+ subscribers can also still get the special bundle price. But instead of starting a new ESPN+ subscription, you’ll just extend your current subscription by a year and get the UFC 248 PPV for a total of $84.98.
Once you’re signed up for ESPN+ and you’ve purchased the PPV, you can watch UFC 248 on your computer via ESPN.com, or you can watch on your phone (Android and iPhone compatible), tablet, Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV, Chromecast, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, or other compatible streaming device via the ESPN app.
For all of those options, you’ll need to sign in with your ESPN+ account to watch the early prelims (ESPN+) and the main card (ESPN+ PPV). You can also watch the second set of prelims (ESPN) this way if you sign in with a cable provider.
UFC 248 Preview
Adesanya (18-0 MMA, 7-0 UFC) will defend his title for the first time against Romero (13-4-0), who has lost three of his last four fights, with his most recent defeat coming in UFC 241 when he lost by decision to Paulo Costa. The undefeated Adesanya has made it clear how he feels about his opponent.
“I’ve seen him get rocked. I’ve seen him get stopped,” Adesanya said about Romero. “I’ve seen him get bloodied. I’ve seen him cry. I’ll make him cry. He’s human like anyone else, and everyone likes to make this myth about, ‘Oh, he’s steel, like kicking steel,’ or you hit him and he doesn’t fall. I’ll touch him enough times. I’ll touch him enough times and eventually he’ll crumble like the Twin Towers.”
Adesanya has since apologized for the insensitivity of his 9/11 reference, but that hasn’t been the only drama surrounding this fight. Romero has missed weight twice in the not-too-distant past, and despite his recent assurances his weight will be fine for this bout, he still has several pounds to lose.
Zhang will also be defending her 115 lb. title for the first time against the No. 4 ranked Jedrzejczyk, who was strawweight champion for over two years. She lost to Rose Namajunas in 2017, and recently told MMA Fighting she’s ready to get the belt back.
“Since I lost the belt, I became even more obsessed than when I was champion,” Jedrzejczyk said this week. “With the belt, physically having the belt or not, you can act like the champ. You can be the champ. I made it to the elite. Not once but six times. I miss it.”
Other matchups included on the UFC 248 fight card are:
- Beneil Dariush vs. Drakkar Klose — Lightweight
- Li Jingliang vs. Neil Magny — Welterweight
- Alex Oliveira vs. Max Griffin — Welterweight
- Sean O’Malley vs. Jose Quinonez — Bantamweight
- Mark Madsen vs. Austin Hubbard — Lightweight
- Rodolfo Vieira vs. Saparbek Safarov — Middleweight
- Deron Winn vs. Gerald Meerschaert — Middleweight
- Polyana Viana vs. Emily Whitmire — Women’s strawweight
- Jamall Emmers vs. Giga Chikadze — Featherweight
- Danaa Batgerel vs. Guido Cannetti — Bantamweight