Fight Announcement Thread

[Lion_of_the_Midlands]

A pair of horrible pricks, but give Jake Paul his dues he had done a lot to promote Women's boxing and there will probably be a couple of female fights on the undercard. So at least Tank will have someone to hit. 

[TildeGuy~!]

If the fight actually goes ahead I’d be extremely surprised 

[Egg Shen]

 

[wandshogun09]

Bunch of fights announced overnight.

For 321 in Abu Dhabi in October, which is the Aspinall vs Gane card…

And 322 at MSG in November…

Zhang’s relinquished the Strawweight belt to move up and challenge Shevchenko, so Jandiroba vs Dern is for the vacant SW title. JDM vs Makhachev is no surprise, everyone knew that was next and there’d been talk of it landing on the MSG card for a while. Nice to see it finally get made official though. Leon Edwards is making a ballsy move taking the Prates fight after two bad losses but I like it. Most are probably gonna pick Prates in that one but I could see Leon outpointing him, especially in a three rounder. 

[wandshogun09]

Terrible turn of events here. Fluffy Hernandez is out of the De Ridder main event in Vancouver next month. What a fucking downgrade…

[Dai]

Yeah thats shite. Surely RDR should just sack it off and wait for a better opponent. 

[wandshogun09]

You’d have thought so but he seems determined to never go home again. His 2025 has been one big perpetual training camp. He must’ve moved his pyjamas and toothbrush into the gym at this point.

[Dai]

Surely hes not even that far into his weight cut or training camp at this point, so should of thought harder about cancelling. Guess its an extra pay day that hes getting as I assume hes not on much per fight at the moment.

[Bruce85]

It certainly seems like a risky fight for RDR, I’d favour him to win but is he getting a title shot off beating Allen?

Either way it’s a massive downgrade. 

[wandshogun09]

1 hour ago, Bruce85 said:

It certainly seems like a risky fight for RDR, I’d favour him to win but is he getting a title shot off beating Allen?

That’s the thing. Imavov might be the real winner in all of this. If De Ridder beat Fluffy, especially if he finished him, he’d be able to make a very strong case for the next shot, even ahead of Imavov in my opinion. But going from beating Robert Whittaker to facing Brendan Allen is a significant step backwards. Imavov was already being talked about as the most likely next challenger for Khamzat, this has pretty much confirmed it. 

[wandshogun09]

So what’s the crack here then?

Nemkov against the guy Ngannou wrecked…for the title? So Ngannou is stripped? Is he done with PFL? I mean I know he seems to be done fighting for them, he’s shown zero interest. But they just keeping him under contract or what?

[jimufctna24]

On 9/24/2025 at 5:16 PM, wandshogun09 said:

So what’s the crack here then?

Nemkov against the guy Ngannou wrecked…for the title? So Ngannou is stripped? Is he done with PFL? I mean I know he seems to be done fighting for them, he’s shown zero interest. But they just keeping him under contract or what?

Apparently the title Ngannou won was a Super Fights title. 

The title Nemkov is fighting for is a new title, which will serve as their official World Heavyweight Championship, rather than a Tournament or Super Fights belt.

The Super Fights title may be brought out again in the future for special events.

Yes, it is confusing.

Edited September 25, 2025 by jimufctna24

[Carbomb]

Good to see MMA finally copying boxing.

[wandshogun09]

Main and co-main for the Qatar card in November. 

Not bad. Also announced for that card - Kyoji Horiguchi vs Tagir Ulanbekov which is Horiguchi’s UFC return, Myktybek Orolbai vs Jack Hermansson,  Volkan Oezdemir vs Alonzo Menifield and Cage Warriors standout Luke Riley making his UFC debut against Bogdan Grad.

I find the booking of Tsarukyan vs Hooker interesting. Not sure if that all but confirms it’s gonna be Topuria vs Pimblett for the belt or what. I was sure the next contender for Topuria was either gonna be Tsarukyan or Pimblett. So now Tsarukyan’s tied up, by process of elimination you’d think it has to be Ilia vs Paddy. But I’m not sure where Justin Gaethje fits in. He’s still banging on that if he doesn’t get a title shot next he’s retiring. I don’t think he deserves the shot but fuck knows what the UFC’s logic is these days, maybe they give him one last crack at it. Although the UFC don’t generally like being given ultimatums either so they might just leave Gaethje to sit. 

I read something the other day as well that Topuria might not fight until 2026 now anyway. Which is shite but thinking about it, we’re already in October. There’s only four PPVs left in 2025 and three of them already have their headliners set. Obviously he’s not gonna be on 320 (tomorrow!) or 321 because they’re this month. And 322 at MSG already has its main and co-main and it’s only a month away. If Topuria is gonna fight this year, it can only be 323 in December. And they need to be getting that announced right about now to allow for training camps and promotion and shit. My guess is that the December headliner is either gonna be Topuria vs Pimblett/Gaethje or Volk vs Murphy, maybe with Pantoja vs Van as co-main. 

[wandshogun09]

Merab’s life is one big training camp ? Main and co-main events for UFC 323 in December.

Also announced for that card - Jan Blachowicz vs Bogdan Guskov, Fares Ziam vs Nazim Sadykhov (which I love the sound of) and a weird Henry Cejudo vs Payton Talbott matchup.

Edit - lots of talk of Brandon Moreno vs Tatsuro Taira being added as well but not 100% confirmed yet. 

Edited October 13, 2025 by wandshogun09