A pair of flyweight contender bouts, plus many of the best mixed martial artists fighting out of Canada, are featured this weekend when the UFC returns to Edmonton on Saturday for the first time since 2019.
Former men’s flyweight champion Brandon Moreno faces the returning Amir Albazi in the main event, and in the co-main event, former two-time women’s strawweight champion Rose Namajunas looks to continue her strong run at flyweight when she takes on Erin Blanchfield.
This is the third time the UFC has hosted an event in Edmonton. The organization previously held UFC 215: Nunes vs. Shevchenko 2 in 2019 and UFC 240: Holloway vs. Edgar in 2017 in the Alberta capital.
Saturday’s fight card will also be the first UFC event to operate under a set of updated MMA rules that allows “12 to 6” elbows as a new definition of what is a “grounded” fighter.
The co-main event was originally announced as the headline bout for UFC Edmonton before the UFC shuffled the deck and added Moreno vs. Albazi.
Namajunas’s only loss since moving up from the 115- to the 125-pound division was a decision to current No. 1 contender Manon Fiorot; Blanchfield’s only loss in the UFC was also a decision to Fiorot.
The winner of Saturday’s co-main event, which is scheduled for five rounds instead of three despite not being a title fight or main event, will remain in the immediate title conversation.
Champion Valentina Shevchenko won the title back from Alexa Grasso at UFC 306 and is expected to face Fiorot next.
The situation at flyweight on the men’s side also has several moving parts.
Alexandre Pantoja, the reigning men’s flyweight champ, is set to defend his belt against Kai Asakura at UFC 310 in December.
Moreno currently remains in flyweight title fight no man’s land with three previous losses to Pantoja — the third time was when the title changed hands following a split decision at UFC 290 in July 2023. Moreno is coming off a subsequent five-round split decision loss to Brandon Royval in February.
Albazi is not as well-known to fight fans as Moreno, but the talented fighter from Iraq is on the verge of a championship opportunity.
The 31-year-old is 17-1 in MMA, 5-0 in the UFC, but coming off multiple surgeries. His best win, on paper, was a contested split decision over Kai Kara-France more than 16 months ago in his most recent appearance.
UNDERCARD OVERVIEW
The Black Beast returns: Derrick Lewis has been a popular fixture on the UFC roster for the past decade and returns to Canada for the second time during his UFC tenure. Lewis picked up a highlight knockout win over Travis Browne in Halifax in 2017. Lewis was originally slotted in Saturday’s co-main event against Alexander Romanov before the UFC changed up the lineup.
Lewis was rescheduled in a more fan-friendly style matchup with Brazilian striker Jhonata Diniz and Romanov was bumped to the prelims to face Lewis’s last opponent, Rodrigo Nascimento. Lewis is the UFC’s all-time leader in knockout wins with 15.
Canadian content: Like most fight cards that take place north of the border, the lineup is full of fighters who call Canada home. Nine of the 14 bouts scheduled will feature a Canadian-based athlete. Canucks mostly struggled in Toronto at UFC 297 in January and Saturday’s card will see a handful of them look to rebound.
The prelims have Aiemann Zahabi, Jasmine Jasudavicius, Charles Jourdain, Serhiy Sidey, Chad Anheliger and Jamey-Lyn Horth, while welterweight Mike Malott and middleweight Marc-André Barriault compete in back-to-back bouts to kick off the six-fight main card.
Jasudavicius, the No. 14 women’s flyweight contender, has won four of her past five and is the highest-ranked Canadian on the card.
Caio Machado is from Brazil but lives and trains in B.C., and he will make his light heavyweight debut against Brendson Ribeiro on the main card after going 0-2 at heavyweight to begin his UFC career.
Full UFC Edmonton fight card and projected bout order below:
MAIN CARD
— Brandon Moreno vs. Amir Albazi (five rounds)
— Erin Blanchfield vs. Rose Namajunas (five rounds)
— Derrick Lewis vs. Jhonata Diniz
— Caio Machado vs. Brendson Ribeiro
— Marc-André Barriault vs. Dustin Stoltzfus
— Mike Malott vs. Trevin Giles
PRELIMINARY CARD
— Aiemann Zahabi vs. Pedro Munhoz
— Ariane da Silva vs. Jasmine Jasudavicius
— Charles Jourdain vs. Victor Henry
— Jack Shore vs. Youssef Zalal
— Alexander Romanov vs. Rodrigo Nascimento
— Serhiy Sidey vs. Garrett Armfield
— Chad Anheliger vs. Cody Gibson
— Jamey-Lyn Horth vs. Ivana Petrovic