From the bright lights of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil to Vancouver in Canada, to UFC waits for nobody!
A Middleweight Main Event with massive implications for the division headlines a fantastic event this weekend as Reinier de Ridder looks to continue his rise when he takes on Brendan Allen.
The ever-exciting showman Kevin Holland will face local hope Mike Mallot in the Co-Main Event but there are plenty of quality fights to look forward to.
My thoughts and expert UFC Fight Night betting plays can be found below.
Former One Championship Middleweight champion Renier de Ridder made his UFC debut this time last year and has been on a rampage since joining the biggest MMA promotion in the world.
The BJJ and Judo black belt has been incredibly active in his short time in the UFC and is searching for his fifth win in under 12 months.
And he hasn’t been given easy opponents either.
Submission wins over Gerald Meerschaert and Kevin Holland and a knock out win over Bo Nickal was followed by his biggest scalp of all in July when he won a close split decision over former Middleweight champion Rob Whittaker.
Brendan Allen put together seven wins in a row from 2022-24 and five of those came via submission.
He then lost back to back decisions before bouncing back against Marvin Vettori in July to get back in the win column and his sights are firmly set on a title fight if he can get back to back wins.
This looms as an intriguing contest between two very capable grapplers but as with many of these match ups, the quality of each fighter’s BJJ might see this part of MMA rendered irrelevant as the threat is cancelled out.
I wouldn’t be surprised if the fight takes place on the feet for the majority of the five rounds.
There is never a dull moment when Kevin Holland is fighting, and his overall poor record is somewhat deceiving when you consider the threat he possesses in all facets of mixed martial arts.
The facts are that he has won just five of his last 12 fights in the octagon but he has faced stiff competition, sometimes on short notice, and he very much has a kill-or-be-killed type of attitude.
Mike Mallot has become the pride of Canadian MMA in recent years and his last four straight fights in the octagon have been in his home country.
Since winning a UFC contract through Dana White’s Contender Series in 2021 he has won five of his six fights with the only blemish coming against the very tough and experienced Neil Magny late in the third round.
Kevin Holland has so many different weapons at his disposal and really could win this fight via all three methods but the fact we are getting better than even money is enticing.
UFC stalwart Marlon ‘Cito’ Vera hasn’t been seen in the octagon for over 12 months.
The 32 year old made his UFC debut way back in 2014 and has an overall pro MMA record of 23 wins, 10 losses and a solitary draw.
He has just one win from his last four fights but that included a title fight that he lost via decision to Sean O’Malley and a close split decision loss to Cory Sandhagen.
Local Canadian fighter Aiemann Zahabi lost two of his first three fights in the UFC when making his debut in 2017 and he then had a two year hiatus from fighting.
Since then he has won his last six fights in a row including Pedro Munhoz and Jose Aldo via decision the last two times he has entered the octagon.
Neither of these two fighters have been very active in recent years but Chito Vera is the one that concerns me the most.
There is no doubting the ability of either fighter to put on a show and they are very evenly matched on the feet which makes this a tough betting prospect.
And the market agrees if you look at the head to head pricing.
Despite their records of a fair amount of decisions on their respective CVs I’m taking a stab that one can make a statement and finish the fight.