Dan Ige will return to the cage next month and will battle a surging contender as part of UFC’s next trip into Texas. Ige will clash with Melquizael Costa at UFC Houston, which transpires on February 21st. UFC Fight Night 267 emanates from the Toyota Center.

Costa authored four emphatic wins last year and improved his UFC-specific record to 6-2 with this looming bout with ’50 K’ being his biggest test in the octagon to date. That 2025 run was bookended by a pair of finishes over Andre Fili and Morgan Charrière with a guillotine choke and head kick, respectively. In between that stretch, Costa recorded a pair of unanimous decision wins over Julian Erosa and Christian Rodriguez.

For Ige, the aim is to return to winning ways on the heels of a loss to Patricio Pitbull last July at UFC 318. Prior to that loss to the former multi-division Bellator MMA champion, Ige had authored a win over Sean Woodson via strikes in the third round of their UFC 314 battle.

Prior to that Woodson win, though, Dan Ige had setbacks against Diego Lopes as well as Lerone Murphy with the aim of regaining his footing among the ranked contenders at 145 pounds.

Dan Ige vs. Melquizael Costa and the UFC Houston lineup so far

Dan Ige throwing down with Melquizael Costa represents a consequential contest in the featherweight ranks, but that’s not the only intriguing bout at UFC Houston.

In the headlining spot of this UFC FN offering, former UFC middleweight champion Sean Strickland looks to carve out a path working his way back to the gold. To do so, the polarizing pugilist must get by the number four-ranked contender at 185 pounds, Anthony Hernandez.

Ante Delija versus Serghei Spivac will also take place in the coming weeks, with this clash pitting the number nine and number seven-ranked contenders at heavyweight, respectively. The remaining fights on UFC Houston, as of this writing, can be seen below:

• Alibi Idiris vs. Ode Osbourne
• Michel Pereira vs. Zach Reese
• Alden Coria vs. Luis Gurule
• Seok Hyeon Ko vs. Jacobe Smith
• Nora Cornolle vs. Joselyne Edwards
• Yadier del Valle vs. Jordan Leavitt