UFC Fight Night on Sportsnet: Can Rose Namajunas return to title relevancy?

Former strawweight champion Rose Namajunas will look to avoid the first three-fight losing streak of her career when she faces Amanda Ribas in the main event of Saturday’s UFC Fight Night.

The bout will take place over five rounds in the women’s flyweight division at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas.

Namajunas lost a unanimous decision to Manon Fiorot in September when she made her 125-pound debut after competing in the 115-pound division for more than a decade, eventually becoming a two-time UFC champion with multiple wins over both Zhang Weilli and Joanna Jedrzejczyk.

Ribas, who has regularly bounced between those two weight classes since 2020, enters this fight ranked as the No. 7 strawweight contender and the No. 8-ranked flyweight contender yet she does not hold a spot on the women’s pound-for-pound list.

Ironically, Namajunas is not currently ranked at either 125 or 115 pounds yet she is the No. 8-ranked fighter on the women’s pound-for-pound list.

Ribas has alternated wins and losses since 2021 and is coming off a highlight finish of Luana Pinheiro in November. This is the first main event of the 30-year-old Brazilian’s UFC career and it could potentially become the first time she has seen a fourth and fifth round in MMA.

Namajunas, on the other hand, is more accustomed to training for 25-minute bouts than 15-minute fights like her most recent outing versus Fiorot.

UNDERCARD OVERVIEW

Tafa replaces brother to return the favour: Little has changed from Karl Williams’ perspective in the sense he is and has always been scheduled to face a “J. Tafa” at the Apex this weekend. Originally, however, he signed on to fight Junior Tafa and on Saturday he’ll square off with Justin Tafa in a heavyweight co-main event.

Junior replaced his older brother Justin one day before UFC 298 in mid-February after Justin sustained an injury. The younger Tafa ended up losing a technical knockout to Marcos Rogerio de Lima that night via leg kicks which rendered him unable to keep his spot on Saturday’s card. The other Tafa was a natural fit as a replacement and he will look to extend his first-round knockout streak to four in a row. Tafa had a 82-second KO win over Austen Lane at UFC 293 in September in his native Australia. Williams is 9-1 in MMA with five of his six wins on his current streak coming via unanimous decision.

Bantamweight barnburner on tap? Payton Talbott vs. Cameron Saaiman could end up being one of those fights that gets fans talking and puts a new, young prospect on the map in the deep 135-pound division. Saaiman is just 23 and coming off his first loss in the sport, a unanimous decision to Christian Rodriguez in October, but is 9-1 with seven wins by stoppage. Talbott, meanwhile, is an exciting 25-year-old who will literally do a backflip during a fight to escape a takedown attempt.

Intriguing heavyweights kick off the show: The opening bout of the night features a pair of heavyweights. Mohammed Usman, the younger brother of former welterweight champion Kamaru Usman, takes on undefeated Mick Parkin, a training partner of interim champion Tom Aspinall. Usman has gone the distance in four of his past five and Parkin has seen the scorecards in his two UFC appearances, however both are capable of finishing opponents with their hands. Five of Parkin’s eight wins have been by KO/TKO.

UFC Fight Night: Ribas vs. Namajunas projected bout order below:

MAIN CARD

-- Amanda Ribas vs. Rose Namajunas    

-- Justin Tafa vs. Karl Williams

-- Edmen Shahbazyan vs. A.J. Dobson

-- Payton Talbott vs. Cameron Saaiman

-- Billy Quarantillo vs. Youssef Zalal

-- Fernando Padilla vs. Luis Pajuelo

PRELIMINARY CARD

-- Kurt Holobaugh vs. Trey Ogden

-- Ricardo Ramos vs. Julian Erosa

-- Miles Johns vs. Cody Gibson

-- Jarno Errens vs. Steven Nguyen

-- Montserrat Rendon vs. Darya Zheleznyakova

-- Igor Severino vs. André Lima

-- Mohammed Usman vs. Mick Parkin