The biggest Ultimate Fighting Championship bout of the year pits Khabib Nurmagomedov against Justin Gaethje for the 155-pound championship, and it will be staged on Saturday night on Yas Island in Abu Dhabi without paying spectators present.

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==MATCH INFO==

Team : PSG vs Dijon | Live/Repeat:Live

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The U.F.C. 254 pay-per-view event, available in the United States through ESPN+, carries an unusual start time of 2 p.m. Eastern. U.F.C., which usually times its events to capture a nighttime audience in the United States, is still expecting to draw American audiences while also targeting fans in Europe and Russia, where Nurmagomedov, the undefeated lightweight champion, is highly popular.

“You have all the ingredients for a massive fight,” Dana White, U.F.C.’s president, said this week. “This thing is tracking to be the biggest fight we’ve ever done.”

At the start of 2020, White and other matchmakers wanted to build up to a rematch between Nurmagomedov and the outlandish Irish star Conor McGregor.

After McGregor’s 40-second dismantling of Donald Cerrone in January, White spoke openly about matching McGregor against Nurmagomedov again, provided Nurmagomedov defeated Tony Ferguson in a title fight that was scheduled for April in Brooklyn.

Then the coronavirus pandemic scrambled the U.F.C.’s plans — and the rest of the sports world’s.

Pandemic restrictions kept Nurmagomedov from traveling to the United States from Russia, and Gaethje, a hard-hitting lightweight from Colorado, stepped in to beat Ferguson over five punishing rounds at a rescheduled event in May.

Gaethje won an interim title with that stoppage, earning his shot at Nurmagomedov.

When ring announcer Bruce Buffer called Ion Cutelaba’s name, the 28-year-old Moldovan light heavyweight made a throat-slash gesture, directed at the general audience but intended for his opponent, Magomed Ankalaev. When the two men fought earlier this year, Ankalaev won in 38 seconds and Cutelaba insisted the result was a fluke.

Less than five minutes after that display of bravado, Cutelaba was unconscious, deposited onto the canvas by a sharp left hand from Ankalaev, who pounded on him until the referee stopped the bout.