In addition to there being two championship fights at UFC 321, there’s a pair of additional main card bouts that serve as title eliminators in their respective divisions.
The winner of Saturday’s main event between heavyweight champion Tom Aspinall and Ciryl Gane will, in all likelihood, end up facing the winner of Alexander Volkov vs. Jailton Almeida at some point next year.
With Jon Jones out of the picture and Francis Ngannou not being an option ever since he joined the Professional Fighters League, there’s currently a dearth of viable heavyweight title challengers on the UFC roster that aren’t competing at UFC 321.
Aspinall concurred Wednesday at the official UFC 321 media day that “it’s pretty obvious they’re going to do winner vs. winner. … That’s what I think it’s going to be next for the heavyweight title.”
-
Watch UFC 321 on Sportsnet+
Tom Aspinall returns to defend the heavyweight title against Ciryl Gane in Abu Dhabi. Watch UFC 321 on Saturday, Oct. 25, with prelim coverage beginning noon ET / 9 a.m. PT, and pay-per-view main card starting at 2 p.m. ET / 11 a.m. PT.
Purchase the event
Volkov, who turns 37 on Friday, has already been in the cage once with Aspinall and twice with Gane. The Russian was submitted by Aspinall 3.5 years ago before going on a four-fight winning streak. His streak was snapped by Gane 10 months ago via split decision that most thought was a robbery. Even UFC president Dana White told Volkov, “You got (expletive),” following the controversial UFC 310 outcome.
“It’s horrible,” White said. “I don’t know what we’ll do but we’ll try to make it right by you. The whole (expletive) arena thought you won the fight. They (expletive) that one up bad. I’ll talk to you in a little while. I apologize.”
The way the UFC tried to “make it right” by Volkov was a headscratcher. The organization went the salt-in-the-wound route and awarded Gane a title shot and had Volkov face a dangerous younger contender on the same card. Gane also defeated Volvo by five-round decision back in 2021.
Almeida is a two-to-one betting favourite and looking for his third consecutive stoppage win. The 34-year-old from Brazil has a dominant grappling style and rarely gets hit. Almeida’s 0.88 strikes absorbed per minute is the best in the organization’s history among fighters with at least five UFC appearances. That doesn’t mean he’s unhittable, though, and his durability could be a red flag. After all, he was knocked out by Curtis Blaydes’ hammer fists as he shot for a takedown in March of 2024.
Volkov has 72 per cent takedown defence and lands 4.97 significant strikes per minute with proven knockout power in contrast to Almeida’s 60 per cent takedown efficiency and just 41 per cent striking defence.
Meanwhile, in the bantamweight division, Umar Nurmagomedov will be looking to bounce back from his first loss when he faces streaking veteran Mario Bautista, where the winner could end up facing the winner of UFC 323’s upcoming main event between Merab Dvalishvili and Petr Yan.
Nurmagomedov lost a competitive five-round title fight to Merab Dvalishvili at the beginning of the year, while Bautista is riding an eight-fight winning streak and an upset win over the touted Nurmagomedov could vault him to the front of the line at 135 pounds.
Nurmagomedov is from Dagestan and is a popular fighter in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, which is where Saturday’s event takes place, and Bautista doesn’t want to risk going the distance and potentially losing a competitive decision.
“I know where I’m at. I’m in his backyard, so (the finish) is something I gotta search for,” Bautista said Thursday at the pre-fight press conference. “I’m not looking to go to a decision here, and I need to make myself stand out from the rest of this division to get that title shot. He’s well-rounded, I’m well-rounded, so I just see it being an exciting fight.”
While Dana White hasn’t officially guaranteed the winner of Nurmagomedov vs. Bautista will face the winner of Dvalishvili vs. Yan, the UFC president did suggest it’s a definite possibility if either fighter thoroughly impresses.
“Go out there and put on a show on Saturday that makes people go, ‘Damn, one of these guys should be fighting for the title next,’” White said Thursday.
Which strawweight has improved more in past five years?
The rematch between Virna Jandiroba and Mackenzie Dern would typically be another title eliminator type of matchup, however, since longtime strawweight champion Zhang Weili vacated her title so she can move up to challenge flyweight champion Valentina Shevchenko, Jandiroba and Dern will instead compete for the vacant belt.
These two 115-pounders met almost five years ago with Dern escaping with a hard-fought unanimous decision victory.
Dern, 32, is 5-4 since beating Jandiroba with notable decision wins over Tecia Torres and Loopy Godinez, and she’s coming off a January submission win over Amanda Ribas that avenged Dern’s first loss of her UFC career from back in 2019.
“We’re completely different fighters nowadays,” Dern said at Thursday’s press conference. “I broke my nose (against Jandiroba) so I came through adversity in that fight.”
Jandiroba, 37, is an impressive 6-1 since losing to Dern, with her lone loss during that stretch being a competitive three-round decision to Ribas.
Dern, who’s the betting favourite entering the weekend, is on her first multi-win streak in four years, while Jandiroba has won five in a row. Jandiroba positioned herself for a title shot with back-to-back wins over past title challengers Amanda Lemos last summer and Yan Xiaonan at UFC 314 earlier this year.
There are a handful of athletes on the undercard that could one day find themselves on the verge of a title shot, starting with a solid 205-pound matchup.
Azamat Murzakanov is the only fighter on the card with an undefeated professional record. The 36-year-old Russian is 15-0 as a pro and has won all five of his UFC appearances since debuting in the organization in 2022. Murzakanov is set for his toughest test so far at the UFC level in Aleksandar Rakic. The 33-year-old Austrian is looking to avoid a fourth consecutive loss, but make no mistake, his current cold streak doesn’t mean he’ll be a layup for Murzakanov.
Rakic’s past three fights have been losses to former champions Magomed Ankalaev, Jiri Prochazka and Jan Blachowicz. The loss to Blachowicz was in 2022 and was due to Rakic blowing out his knee during the fight. His TKO loss to Prochazka at UFC 300 was a thrilling back-and-forth brawl during which he had Prochazka in trouble. His loss to Ankalaev at UFC 308 in Abu Dhabi one year ago was a close three-round decision, losing 29-28 across the board. The winner of Murzakanov vs. Rakic will be considered a possible future title contender.
Jaqueline Amorim is 10-1 and a name to watch at strawweight. The 30-year-old from Brazil has a 100 per cent finishing rate with eight submissions and two KO/TKO wins and has finished her last four opponents. Her opponent, Japan’s Mizuki Inoue, has only fought once in the past five years and that was a decision win over Hannah Goldy more than two years ago.
Featherweight Jose Delgado is also 10-1 in MMA with a 100 per cent finishing rate on a lengthy finishing streak. Delgado has finished his past seven opponents, including his 26-second TKO of Hyder Amil at UFC 317 in June. He faces Nathaniel Wood, who’s entering his 13th UFC bout. England’s Wood has won four in a row, all by unanimous decision.
The preliminary card concludes with a lightweight matchup between Quillan Salkilld and Nasrat Haqparast. Salkilld is a hyped prospect out of Australia who hasn’t lost since his pro debut, while Haqparast is on a nice five-fight run and looking to break into the rankings.
Also on the prelims is an intriguing middleweight matchup between Ikram Aliskerov and “The Iron Turtle” Jun-yong Park. Aliskerov is a dangerous and well-rounded 185-pound contender whose only losses have been to current champion Khamzat Chimaev and former titleholder Robert Whittaker. Park has a sneaky 9-3 record in the UFC and pushes a relentless pace when he fights.
Heavyweights meet on short notice after cancelled bouts
Brazilian submission artist Valter Walker is scheduled to welcome Scotland’s Louie Sutherland to the UFC. Walker had a scheduled matchup with Mohammed Usman at UFC Rio earlier this month cancelled after Usman withdrew from the fight hours before the official weigh-in. Sutherland was supposed to debut at UFC Perth in late September but his opponent, Justin Tafa, withdrew the day before the event leaving Sutherland without a matchup.
Sutherland is 10-3 in MMA with all but two of his wins coming via KO/TKO. Sutherland has recently been competing in the Netherlands-based Levels Fight League organization and won a title in his most recent appearance. Walker has won each of his past three fights by heel hook submission.
