Reports from Meni Mayer and Skinny Bets have UFC 289 to take place in Canada. UFC officially announced on April 7, 2023, that Roger’s Arena in Vancouver, Canada would host the event.

A trilogy bout for UFC Women’s Bantamweight Championship between Amanda Nunes and Julianna Pena was announced to headline the event. Pena pulled out of the bout after suffering a ribs injury. Irene Aldana was earlier supposed to headline UFC Vegas 73 event against Raquel Pennington but was brought in to replaced Pena in the main event title fight at UFC 289.

Charles Oliveira and Beniel Dariush will clash in the co-main event. This fight was earlier announced for UFC 288, but an injury to Oliveira postponed the bout to this event. The winner of this fight is expected to challenge Lightweight Champion Islam Makhachev.

Matt Schnell was supposed to face David Dvorak in the featured prelims bout. Schnell pull out of the bout due to an injury late in May. Stephen Erceg was supposed to debut at UFC Vegas 73 against Clayton Carpenter, but his bout was postponed to UFC Vegas 76 on July 1 due to Erceg’s visa issues. Carpenter later pulled out of the bout due to injury. After Schnell’s withdrawl, UFC booked Erceg to debut at UFC 289 against Dvorak.