From the beautiful Sydney, Australia with a crowd of more than 18,000 fans to the UFC Apex in Las Vegas within a week.
The main event this Sunday comes to us from the Middleweight division between two contenders, Jared Cannonier and Gregory Rodrigues.
There are plenty of quality fights taking place and, backing off a profitable UFC 312, we look forward to banking some more cash for the punters.
Jared Cannonier vs Gregory Rodrigues
Former AFC Heavyweight champion Jared Cannonier has found his place in the Middleweight division having also competed at Light Heavyweight throughout his career.
He won seven of nine after making the switch including a loss in a title fight against Israel Adesanya and wins over Sean Strickland, Kelvin Gastelum and Marvin Vettori.
His hopes of another shot at the title any time soon was taken away by back to back losses in 2024 but he is a very well rounded fighter with lethal power in his striking evidenced by 10 KO wins during his pro MMA career.
Gregory Rodrigues has just the two losses to his name from nine fights inside the UFC and he too has 10 wins via knockout during his 16 fight career.
He comes into the biggest fight of his life with three consecutive wins, two of which were via a finish.
This will be a cracker of a main event for fight fans between two heavy hitters, one in which I very much doubt will need the judges.
2 Units Jared Cannonier By KO/TKO
Calvin Kattar vs Youssef Zalal
Up there with one of the best and most consistent fighters to ever not fight for a title, Calvin Kattar enters his 32nd professional MMA fight this weekend.
He made his UFC debut back in 2017 and has wins over Dan Ige, Giga Chikadze and Ricardo Lamas during that time.
Losses to Max Holloway, Josh Emmett, Arnold Allen and Aljamain Sterling in recent times has put a hope to his title aspirations but there is no doubting the ability of Kattar at the top level.
Youssef Zalal is a Moroccan BJJ black belt who has earned this high level fight on the back of six straight wins, all via finish.
Three of those wins have been in the biggest promotion in the sport and all three have been by submission.
His UFC career has been separated in two having been dropped earlier in his career after three losses in a row including to the now champion Illia Topuria via decision.
He is a more mature fighter now with far more experience but make no mistake that this is the toughest test he has faced in his rivalval in the sport.
½ Unit Calvin Kattar To Win @ $3.90
Edmen Shahbazyan vs Dylan Budka
Shahbazyan won the first 11 fights of his pro MMA career including five in the UFC with many predicting the young fighter would fill a place in the rankings for a long time.
Once stepping up in grade to fight the better fighters he started to struggle and he comes into this fight having won just two of his last seven fights albeit against some of the best in the division.
The Mindless Hulk, Dylan Budka, has a pro MMA record of seven wins and four losses.
After winning a UFC contract through Dana White’s Contender Series he has lost both fights since, and his career in the promotion is on the line in this fight.
Looks the perfect fight for Shahbazyan to flex his muscles and that’s the way I’ll be playing.
2 Units Edmen Shahbazyan By KO/TKO or Submission