The once scheduled bantamweight championship bout between Petr Yan and Aljamain Sterling has now been added to a blockbuster PPV in March.

As confirmed to ESPN on Thursday following an initial report by MMAJunkie, Yan will look to successfully defend his 135 lbs title for the first time against Sterling at UFC 259 on March 6th, the third championship bout set for the event.

Yan and Sterling had originally been set to square off at UFC 256 in December but the champion withdrew from the contest due to undisclosed reasons. The bantamweight title fight will now join a champion vs. champion clash between light heavyweight champ Jan Blachowicz and middleweight king Israel Adesanya in addition to Amanda Nunes defending her featherweight gold against Megan Anderson.

Yan (15-1) is currently on a 10-fight winning streak including a perfect 7-0 UFC record. ‘No Mercy’ has won four of his seven UFC fights inside the scheduled distance and picked up the vacant title in July of last year with a fifth-round TKO win over Jose Aldo.

Rey Del Rio/Getty Images Sport

Sterling (19-3) meanwhile will enter the March event on a five-fight winning run and has won seven of his last eight inside the octagon. ‘Funk Master’, who joined the UFC in 2014, holds an 11-3 promotional record and has defeated four current top 15 fighters on his current winning streak in Cody Stamann, Jimmie Rivera, Pedro Munhoz and Cory Sandhagen.

UFC 259 is now currently expected to feature:

  • Jan Błachowicz (LHW c) vs. Israel Adesanya (MW c) – light heavyweight title fight
  • Amanda Nunes (c) vs. Megan Anderson – featherweight title fight
  • Petr Yan (c) vs. Aljamain Sterling – bantamweight title fight
  • Aleksandar Rakić vs. Thiago Santos
  • Dominick Cruz vs. Casey Kenney
  • Islam Makhachev vs. Drew Dober
  • Joseph Benavidez vs. Askar Askarov
  • Tim Elliott vs. Jordan Espinosa
  • Jake Matthews vs. Sean Brady
  • Randy Costa vs. Trevin Jones
  • Uroš Medić vs. Aalon Cruz