Welcome to the Monday edition of the Knockdown Daily. Today’s newsletter features a few quick news stories, plus our weekly preview of the top upcoming MMA events.
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News
UFC Announces Two PPV Cards For Las Vegas
A pair of pay-per-view UFC lineups have been scheduled for the MMA fight capital of the world: Las Vegas, Nevada, USA. The dates and locations were announced by the promotion on Saturday night.
‘International Fight Week’ Set For Late June
One of the marquee annual events in UFC’s calendar, “International Fight Week,” is official. UFC 303 will take place on June 29th at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, as part of the promotion’s celebratory week.
“International Fight Week” is typically one of the most high-profile fight cards of the year. The PPV lineup takes place the same weekend as a convention and Hall of Fame ceremony hosted by the UFC.
Last year’s “International Fight Week” was headlined by UFC 290, which featured title fights at featherweight and flyweight.
As has been the case for years, “International Fight Week” will go down in Vegas inside the T-Mobile Arena.
UFC To Make Debut At MSG Sphere
The promotion will make its debut at one of the more talked about Vegas venues later this year. UFC 306 is scheduled to take place at the MSG Sphere on September 14th.
The MSG Sphere, referred to frequently simply as just “The Sphere,” opened in Vegas last September. The venue, which can hold up to 20,000, has received buzz for its unique look and presentation. The inside of the ball-shaped venue features a massive 160,000-square-foot-long LED screen that wraps around one half of the building, providing stunning visuals for live events.
The outside of the building has also become recognizable due to its full LED screen coverage.
UFC 306 will also be the second-ever “Noche UFC” card. The promotion debuted the event concept last year as a way to celebrate Mexican Independence Day. The first “Noche UFC” was headlined by a flyweight title bout between Alexa Grasso and Valentina Shevchenko.
A Look At The Week Ahead
Friday
ONE 166: De Ridder vs. Malykhin 2
ONE Championship will make its debut in Qatar this weekend, presenting a trio of MMA title fights as part of a rare numbered event.
The Qatar Investment Authority has reportedly put $50 million into ONE Championship in the past, making it inevitable that the promotion would eventually head to the country for an event. The time for that card finally is this weekend, as the Singapore-based promotion will take their fighters to the Lusail Sports Arena in Lusail.
This weekend’s card has some high-profile pairings, but it was meant to be bigger than how it looks currently. A week ago, a total of five title bouts were expected to go down. ONE’s current 115-pound star Stamp Fairtex was scheduled to face Denice Zamboanga in MMA, and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu ace Tye Ruotulo was expected to put his grappling belt on the line, but both of those appearances are now off the show. This weekend’s card is weaker without those fights, although Friday is still the first time that the promotion has presented three or more MMA title bouts on the same card since their October 2020 “Inside the Matrix” event.
Anatoly Malykhin will attempt to capture a third MMA title in the main event when he rematches Reinier de Ridder.
Malykhin currently holds belts in ONE’s 265 and 225-pound divisions. Malykhin first became a champion at heavyweight, earning an interim belt against Kirill Grishenko in 2022. He unified his title with regular heavyweight champ and UFC alum Arjan Bhullar last year, putting him away in the third round with strikes.
Malykhin beat de Ridder in late 2022 to earn a belt at the 225-pound weight class, handing the Dutch talent his first pro loss with a first-round finish.
More than a year after their first meeting, Malykhin is now hunting down de Ridder’s title at 205 pounds. If he wins, he will become the first-ever champion in ONE to simultaneously hold three different belts.
Another rematch will take place in the co-main event, as Tang Kai will return against Thanh Le in a 155-pound title fight. Tang put an end to Le’s title reign in August 2022, going five rounds to win on scorecards. The Chinese talent has not competed since that massive victory.
A rematch between Le and Tang was expected to go down in mid-2023 but didn’t come to fruition due to an injury that Tang suffered. Le has remained active amid Tang’s absince, submitting Ilya Freymanov to earn an interim title that will be unified this weekend.
The third championship bout of the evening, also a rematch, will see Jarred Brooks put his 125-pound division title on the line against former champ Joshua Pacio.
Former UFC fighter Brooks earned a ONE title in late 2022 after quickly rising through the promotion’s ranks. He went the distance to end Pacio’s second reign with the belt, a run that remains the longest in the division’s history.
Two-time champ Pacio is facing Brooks again just after handing rising contender Mansur Malachiev his first pro loss last year.
Friday’s card will take place in the morning, around the same time that ONE Championship usually hosts its “Friday Fights” series from Thailand. The card will be free to watch on Youtube instead of Amazon Prime Video or pay-per-view. Here’s a full look at the 10-bout lineup:
Main Card (7:30AM EST / 3:30PM AST) (Youtube)
Bout 10: Reinier de Ridder (16-1) vs. Anatoly Malykhin (13-0) (ONE MMA Middleweight Championship) (205 lbs)
Bout 9: Tang Kai (18-2) vs. Thanh Le (14-3) (ONE MMA Featherweight Championship) (155 lbs)
Bout 8: Jarred Brooks (20-2) vs. Joshua Pacio (21-4) (ONE MMA Strawweight Championship) (125 lbs)
Bout 7: Arjan Bhullar (11-2) vs. Amir Aliakbari (13-3) (Heavyweight)
Bout 6: Zuhayr Al-Qahtani vs. Mehdi Zatout (Catchweight 147 lbs Boxing)
Bout 5: Osamah Almarwai vs. Cleber Sousa (Bantamweight Grappling)
Bout 4: Zafer Sayik vs. Vladimir Kuzmin (Catchweight 147.75 lbs Muay Thai)
Bout 3: Zakaria El Jamari vs. Ali Saldoev (Bantamweight Muay Thai)
Bout 2: Shinji Suzuki vs. Han Zi Hao (Featherweight Muay Thai)
Bout 1: Keito Yamakita (8-1) vs. Jeremy Miado (10-6) (Flyweight)
Saturday
OKTAGON 54: Kincl vs. Wawrzyniak
European MMA promotion OKTAGON will present one of their biggest cards of the year when they head to the Ostravar Arena in Ostrava, Czech Republic on Saturday night.
OKTAGON 54 will include the opening round of the Tipsport Gamechanger Lightweight Grand Prix, plus a title clash at middleweight.
OKTAGON debuted the “Tipsport Gamechanger” tournament last year, allowing welterweights the chance to earn a grand prize of 1 million Euros through a 16-man bracket. The tournament will return this year with the same prize, this time taking place down at lightweight.
Seven of the eight opening round fights in the tournament will take place this weekend. The final bout, a clash between featherweight champ Losene Keita and Cage Warriors alum Agy Sardari, will go down on a May 4th show.
The tournament includes numerous high-profile European MMA names. Ronald Paradeiser will return after earning his lightweight title last year against Ivan Buchinger. Finland’s Makwan Amirkhani will compete for the first time since his 14-fight UFC run came to an end. Former KSW champ Daniel Torres will make his promotional debut across from Vladimir Lengal. Hafeni Nafuka will try to keep his record undefeated when he fights rising Serbian talent Predrag Bogdanovic.
Out of the 16 fighters appearing in the tournament, one will soon be kicking off a year-long quest will lead them to a massive grand prize.
On top of the seven tournament fights scheduled to go down on Saturday, 185-pound champ Patrik Kincl will return against Piotr Wawrzyniak.
Kincl earned his belt in early 2022, beating Samuel Kristofic to take the title. After successful performances over Alex Lohore and Karlos Vemola, he’ll be trying to defend his belt for the third time this weekend.
Wawrzyniak will be challenging for a title for the first time in his OKTAGON run. He won his promotional debut two months back, stopping Vlasto Cepo in the third round with strikes. He dominated the Polish regional promotion Babilon MMA before then, holding their middleweight belt for roughly a year.
Here’s a look at OKTAGON’s card:
Main Card (12:00PM EST / 6:00PM CET) (DAZN)
Bout 11: Patrik Kincl (27-10) vs. Piotr Wawrzyniak (11-5) (OKTAGON Middleweight Championship)
Bout 10: Makwan Amirkhani (17-9) vs. Mago Machaev (13-1) (Tipsport Gamechanger Lightweight Grand Prix Opening Round)
Bout 9: Ronald Paradeiser (18-8) vs. Attila Korkmaz (14-7) (Tipsport Gamechanger Lightweight Grand Prix Opening Round)
Bout 8: Vladimir Lengal (6-2) vs. Daniel Torres (14-5) (Tipsport Gamechanger Lightweight Grand Prix Opening Round)
Bout 7: Mateusz Legierski (10-1) vs. Matous Kohout (9-6) (Tipsport Gamechanger Lightweight Grand Prix Opening Round)
Bout 6: Marcel Mohamed Grabinski (23-9) vs. Acoidan Duque (19-4) (Tipsport Gamechanger Lightweight Grand Prix Opening Round)
Bout 5: Hafeni Nafuka (8-0) vs. Predrag Bogdanovic (15-1) (Tipsport Gamechanger Lightweight Grand Prix Opening Round)
Bout 4: Akonne Wanliss (7-2) vs. Sahil Siraj (9-2) (Tipsport Gamechanger Lightweight Grand Prix Opening Round)
Bout 3: Radek Rousal (2-0) vs. Luke Neale (3-1) (Featherweight)
Bout 2: Jason Ponet (24-16-1) vs. Lukasz Rajewski (12-9) (Lightweight)
Bout 1: Milos Janicic (16-3) vs. Ebrahim Hosseinpour (8-7) (Lightweight)
UFC on ESPN+ 96: Rozenstruik vs. Gaziev
UFC closed out February with a pair of high-profile cards. They crowned a new featherweight champion in California, then went to Mexico for a pair of big fights in front of an enthusiastic crowd. This weekend will be a significant comedown from that, as the promotion will return to the UFC APEX venue in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA for a low-key midday card.
This weekend’s UFC card was initially scheduled to be the promotion’s debut in Saudi Arabia in an event sponsored by the tourism board, similar to what is being seen Friday with ONE Championship. However due to the card not becoming as strong as both the promotion and the country hoped it would be, it was instead moved to Vegas. UFC’s debut in Saudi Arabia is now expected to happen in June.
Just a recently, a previously booked heavyweight fight between Jairzinho Rozenstruick and Shamil Gaziev was moved to the headlining spot of the card. The fight will be Gaziev’s first five-round appearance in the UFC cage.
Gaziev won his UFC debut late last year, finishing Martin Buday on a December PPV card. He previously also won on “Dana White’s Contender Series,” as well as in notable promotions Brave CF and Ares FC. Saturday is a big increase in challenge and spotlight for the 34-year-old.
Rozenstruick is no stranger to the main event, as this weekend will be his sixth time being in a UFC headlining spot. He is coming off a loss from last year, getting submitted early by rising contender Jailton Almeida. He’ll be trying to stop a prospect’s momentum this weekend, like he previously did against Chris Daukaus in 2022.
The heavyweight fight will headline a show that will take place quite early in comparison to other UFC events. The main card will begin at 4 p.m. on the east coast and likely wrap up before 7, the hour that some UFC cards have stared at recently.
There are a couple of minor questions about this event heading into the week. One revolves around a possible addition of Raul Rosas Jr. and Ricky Turcios to the lineup. Rosas Jr. and Turcios were initially booked to fight last weekend in Mexico City, Mexico, although plans were altered after Rosas Jr. suffered an illness.
UFC announced that the fight has been re-booked for this weekend’s card, but Turcios claimed Sunday that he never signed a contract for the new date. It will likely become more clear in the coming days whether the fight will actually happen.
Another question mark surrounds the bantamweight UFC debut of Vinicius Oliveira against Yanis Ghemmouri. While Oliveira said last week that Ghemmouri withdrew from their fight, UFC has yet to comment on whether the bout is off. It’s unclear whether Ghemmouri will compete, if Oliveira will receive a new opponent, or if both bantamweights are off the card completely.
Taking into consideration those two details, here is a look at the lineup. Knockdown News will continue to cover any of the changes that hit the card.
Main Card (4:00PM EST / 1:00PM PST) (ESPN+)
Bout 10: Jairzinho Rozenstruick (13-5) vs. Shamil Gaziev (12-0) (Heavyweight)
Bout 9: Vitor Petrino (10-0) vs. Tyson Pedro (10-4) (Light Heavyweight)
Bout 8: Alex Perez (24-7) vs. Muhammad Mokaev (10-0) (Flyweight)
Bout 7: Matt Schnell (16-7) vs. Steve Erceg (11-1) (Flyweight)
Bout 6: Umar Nurmagomedov (16-0) vs. Bekzat Almakhan (17-1) (Bantamweight)
Preliminary Card (1:00PM EST / 10:00AM PST) (ESPN+)
Bout 5: Eryk Anders (15-8) vs. Jamie Pickett (13-10) (Middleweight)
Bout 4: Vinicius Oliveira (19-3) vs. Yanis Ghemmouri (12-2) (Bantamweight)
Bout 3: Javid Basharat (14-0) vs. Aiemann Zahabi (10-2) (Bantamweight)
Bout 2: Loik Radzhabov (17-5-1) vs. Abdul-Kareem Al-Selwady (15-3) (Lightweight)
Bout 1: Christian Leroy Duncan (9-1) vs. Claudio Ribeiro (11-4) (Middleweight)
Notes On: LFA
Eight fights were confirmed last weekend for LFA 178 on March 8th. The card, which is headlined by a light heavyweight title bout between Uran Satybaldiev and Bruno Assis, will take place in Santa Cruz, California, USA.
Former Bellator fighter Miguel Jacob (8-2) is expected to compete in the co-main event against Jeff Creighton (9-2-1). Jacob won his LFA debut last year, beating Ryan Leininger on scorecards. Creighton has won five of his last six fights, including a 2023 performance over Joey Davis in Bellator.
Jean-Paul Lebosnoyani (5-2) will try to bounce back from his first promotional loss when facing Adam Wamsley (4-3) at welterweight. Lebosnoyani lost a title fight to JaCobi Jones last year, getting stopped in the second round. He previously had four wins in the promotion since 2018. Wamsley earned a pair of first-round finish wins last year, turning things around after having a three-fight skid.
Ozzy Diaz (7-2) will make his return to LFA against Chuck Campbell (6-3). Diaz’s last fight was a loss to now-UFC fighter Joe Pyfer on “Dana White’s Contender Series” in 2022. He had a five-fight streak of finishes before then, including appearances in LFA and Bellator. Campbell, a former Cage Warriors title challenger, snapped a two-fight skid last year with a win against UFC vet Jared Vanderaa.
Undefeated bantamweight Stav Koren (3-0) has been matched against Hussain Bakhsh Safari (7-2). Koren has earned three wins since his 2016 debut, with his last victory taking place on a regional card in Cyprus. Safari will end a two-year absence from MMA on this card, competing for the first time since suffering a 22-second loss on an early 2022 Eagle FC card.
Fighting to come back from his sole pro loss, David Solorzano (5-1) will meet Cristian Giovannie (4-3) at bantamweight. Solorzano was stopped by Alex Osuna on a Combate Globale card in 2022. He now faces Giovannie, who lost his LFA debut to Allan Begosso last year.
Edmund Kwan (1-0) will try to follow up on a successful pro debut when he fights Aris Arguello (0-1). Kwan earned his first pro victory in November last year. Arguello lost his debut to Salvador Osorio at LFA 165.
Returning nearly five years after his pro debut, Ryan Houston (1-0) will face Chase Whtimer (1-1).
In a double debut, Jacob Horton (0-0) and Ueslei Alves Oliveira (0-0) will fight. Horton had a flawless amateur career, earning six victories since 2021.