SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 12 FROM THE DESERT DIAMOND ARENA IN GLENDALE, ARIZONA
SLIGHTLY EARLY START TIME WARNING | PRELIMS 11 AM PDT / 2 PM EDT | MAIN CARD 2 PM / 5 PM
Noche UFC, as an event series, was built to shamelessly market aroundpay tribute to Mexican Independence Day and Mexico’s rich cultural traditions. It has failed to ever actually do this. Last year’s Noche UFC 3 was supposed to see the UFC finally pull it off. Alexander Volkanovski was going to fight a rematch against Yair Rodríguez, and they were going to put it in the freshly-built Arena Guadalajara, and Mexico was, at last, going to be front and center.
And then Yair pulled out and the arena wasn’t ready and they wound up just doing it in a demographically Latino-heavy state with a Jean Silva main event and shrugging.
But that couldn’t possibly happen twice, could it?
MAIN EVENT: THE SHORT LADDER
FEATHERWEIGHT: Jean Silva (17-3, #6) vs Jose Delgado (12-2, NR)
Surprise! It happened again. Jean Silva and Yair Rodríguez were supposed to fight and it was supposed to be a big deal and then Yair pulled out again. Yair remains the #5 Featherweight in the UFC, a ranking he retains by virtue of one victory in almost four years, and it was against Patrício Pitbull, who is currently ranked #15. Fun fact, while we’re at it: Once this event comes and goes, in four years of Noche UFC, the event built to tie the UFC in with Mexico, there will have been twice as many Jean Silva appearances in their main events as there have been fighters who were born in Mexico.
We’re not even at the halfway point anymore. Brandon Moreno, Alexa Grasso, David Martinez, Edgar Cháirez, Rafa García, Regina Tarin, Jessie Rosas. Seven out of twenty-six fighters on this card are representing Mexico. And that’s a fuckin’ step up from last year. Somehow, impossibly, the UFC running some AI-generated video packages about Mexican history in the background of THE SPHERE between Ode’ Osbourne fights is the point at which they collectively decided they’d accomplished their mission and could give up on Noche UFC being a thing that matters past changing the .png file they put in front of the card on the website.
Exactly how little does it matter now, you ask?
Remember one week ago, when I talked about Nathaniel Wood and the way the UFC kept him perpetually buried? Two fights ago, Jose Delgado’s two-fight winning streak was snapped when he both missed weight and lost a decision to Wood--a controversial but defensible one--and then Delgado just barely scraped a split decision past the 4-for-12 Andre Fili, followed by Delgado winning his own controversial decision over the 1-1 Austin Bashi.
Despite this, despite being nowhere near the rankings, Jose Delgado is main eventing Noche UFC 4 against the #6 Featherweight on the planet because he was a) conveniently available, b) conveniently cheap and c) conveniently the son of Mexican immigrants. And I gotta tell you, man, I fuckin’ hate pointing that out, even though it’s just describing what the UFC is doing. I should just focus on being disgusted by the UFC’s shell game of spending one moment doing everything possible to propagandize for the most absurdly racist administration since Johnson and the next making Spanish-speaking Dana White holograms that totally respect Mexican culture as long as you’re willing to pay $115 for a black jersey that says Noche UFC on the back.* But because they don’t openly acknowledge it, I cannot help feeling like a shithead when I do.
*Yes, really. They’re also selling Noche UFC luchador masks for $80.
There’s only been one Jose Delgado UFC appearance outside of the prelims. And it wasn’t even his last fight! They put him on the main card for the Fili fight, and then they demoted him back down to the prelims against Bashi, because heaven for-fucking-fend they not have main card space for Chase Hooper and Tommy McMillen. He’s up here in the main event fighting to be just a spot away from a title fight because making the main event of Noche UFC Jean Silva vs David Onama just wouldn’t have fit the marketing.
Of course, Jean Silva has nothing the fuck to do with Mexico, but that doesn’t matter because he’s Jean Silva.
In an era of the sport that prioritizes viral highlight-reel clips above all else, Jean Silva is the ideal fighter. He’s weird, he’s aggressive even to his detriment, he knocks people loopy with big booming punches and chokes Bryce Mitchell unconscious when you really, really need him to. There are only two men Jean’s failed to stop in his UFC tenure thus far: Diego Lopes, who ended last year’s Noche UFC 3 by rewarding Silva for his refusal to ever stop charging forward by knocking him out with a spinning elbow, and Arnold Allen, who Jean outclassed and smacked in the head dozens of times but couldn’t actually put down, because Allen is absurdly tough.
No one else has been able to fend him off. He’s too tough, too scary, and too vicious. He was a favorite to knock out Yair, and he’s an even bigger favorite to stop Delgado. And, hell, Delgado was a knockout artist himself! The whole basis of his UFC push was a lengthy KO streak that culminated in the 26-second destruction of undefeated prospect Hyder Amil.
But just like Jean Silva found he could no longer walk down and destroy fighters in the top ten, Delgado’s stoppage streak screamed to a halt against known quantities. With all respect in the world to Andre Fili, finishing him off has been one of Featherweight’s most reliable ways to prove you belong in the conversation. Dan Ige did it. Joanderson Brito did it even faster. Melquizael Costa and Vinicius Oliveira both did it. Jose Delgado got past him by the skin of his teeth.
So he’s tough, and he’s never been stopped, and he’s going to have a big size and reach advantage, and JEAN SILVA BY TKO is still the call.
CO-MAIN EVENT: GOING THROUGH THE WASH
FLYWEIGHT: Brandon Moreno (23-10-2, #8) vs Joseph Morales (14-2, NR)
We say this a lot, but this sport is fucking rough, man.
Three years ago, Brandon Moreno was the most celebrated Flyweight on the planet. He broke Brandon Royval’s arm, he kicked out Kai Kara-France’s liver, and he won the first and hopefully only championship quadrilogy in UFC history after both knocking out and submitting Deiveson Figueiredo, who, himself, went from the presumptive Flyweight king of an entire generation to kicked out of the weight class entirely. Moreno was the true king--the centerpiece of the UFC’s Mexican marketing plans, the winner of the wildest championship rivalry in years, the best Flyweight in the goddamn world.
It’s 2026 he isn’t even the best Brandon in the division anymore, and the word on the lips of angry internet fans is “washed.”
I’ll spoil it up front: I do not think Brandon Moreno is washed. I do think competing at the highest levels of the sport is really difficult. Moreno held Alexandre Pantoja and Brandon Royval to split decisions in close, competitive fights, dominated a largely motionless Amir Albazi, and took a unanimous decision over Steve Erceg. That’s two very close bouts with two of the best in the world, and two clear victories over ranked contenders.
But then he ate the first stoppage loss of his entire career against Tatsuro Taira, the man who just almost beat Joshua Van and became the world champion, and even then it was a controversial stoppage that Moreno protested immediately. Moreno was supposed to meet Asu Almabayev next, but wound up facing the very tricky Lone’er Kavanagh on very short notice and lost a decision. That’s the fight being used to cast the darkest shadows of doubt on Moreno’s future--largely because it was bookended by Kavanagh getting knocked out by Charles Johnson and choked out by Brandon Royval--to the point that Brandon Moreno is a betting underdog against Joseph “Bopo” Morales.
That and people really, really like finishes.
Let’s be real, here: Morales is barely back. He got beaten out of the UFC in 2018 after losing consecutive fights to Deiveson Figueiredo and Eric “Showtime” Shelton, who are, clearly, two equally important competitors, he vanished for most of the pandemic and resurfaced in Cage Warriors and Urijah Faber’s promotion where he mostly fought people who are barely staying above 50/50 records, he dipped for two more years, and he came back in 2025 to win The Ultimate Fighter 33 (jesus christ).
To be fair: The class of competition he fought there didn’t suck. Eduardo Chapolin is a man many cited as a serious prospect: Morales choked him out. Imanol Rodriguez is in the UFC now with a knockout win over the underrated Kevin Borjas: Morales beat him by split decision. Alibi Idiris, his partner in the tournament final, is, uh, serving a suspension after failing the UFC’s extremely unserious drug testing policy. But Bopo’s had a great UFC run in the year+ since his TUF victory, right?
I mean. He won a fight! Sure, it was against Matt Schnell, and sure, he was 3 for his last 10 and got finished in every single one of those losses, and sure, Schnell retired one fight later after getting pretty effortlessly knocked out in two and a half minutes, but hey, man, he’s finishing people.
This era of the sport really rewards finishers. Everything is built around them. Lowering the high-water mark on the roster isn’t just about affordability in talent, it’s about making it statistically more and more likely fights will end in stoppages. The less focused fighters are on defense, the less likely you get to a decision. Morales has only seen a decision four times in the last decade--three, if you don’t count TUF, which are legally just exhibitions. He’s a killer finisher!
But he struggles like hell with anyone he can’t finish. Morales throws his whole ass into his offense and it tends to leave him tired down the stretch. If Moreno can avoid getting submitted, he’s probably going to make it to a solid decision win. Which makes this a referendum on if you, yourself, believe that Moreno is, in fact, washed.
I’m still going with no. BRANDON MORENO BY DECISION.
MAIN CARD: I CANNOT SUFFICIENTLY STRESS HOW MUCH YOU CAN, SHOULD, AND MUST GO FUCK YOURSELVES
FEATHERWEIGHT: Tommy McMillen (11-0) vs Marwan Rahiki (9-0)
Let me diagram how the sport works now.
Tommy McMillen gets scouted by the UFC because the UFC’s favorite son Sean O’Malley trains with him. He’s placed on the Contender Series at an undefeated 7-0, having never fought serious competition. He wins his contract by beating David Mgoyan, who has spent almost all of his career fighting men with terrible records. McMillen barely wins a majority decision; despite the closeness of the fight, Mgoyan is not hired. In McMillen’s debut, the UFC puts him on the main card and gives him Manolo Zecchini, one of their least qualified, least successful fighters. As McMillen fights and, inevitably, wins, the commentary team calls him a superstar somewhere between three and thirty times. For his second appearance, the UFC steps him all the way up to Alberto Montes, who has one fight in two years, is past 30, and gives up almost half a foot in height and reach.
Marwan Rahiki gets scouted by the UFC because the Australian government is paying them millions of dollars to focus on their regional fight scene. He’s 6-0, a path he, too, has blazed through people that are equally inexperienced and unaccomplished. Rahiki’s DWCS opponent, Ananias Mulumba, has one solid win in his career, but earned his spot by choking out a 10-12 man in Abu Dhabi. Rahiki wins, and for his UFC debut he draws Harry Hardwick, who had one UFC fight, during which he looked terrible. Rahiki beats him, too, while the desk calls him a rising Australian star. There’s an attempt to book Rahiki against legitimate competition in Jack Jenkins, but Jack gets hurt, so the UFC shrugs and replaces him with regional fighter Ollie Schmid, who is 4-2 and has never beaten an opponent with a winning record. Rahiki nukes him in one round.
You take these two men, who have coasted to the big show on a wave of good fortune and preferable matchmaking, and you book them not just on your main card, but as your featured bout. You have the commentary team talk about their place as the future of the sport. You make them more important than top contenders, former world champions, and ranked fighters. You make god damn sure Tommy McMillen is in the press photo collages for the show, because you’ve already decided he’s The Guy and nothing’s going to stop you from making it so.
And then you go back to the rest of the roster and you tell them it’s their job to market themselves because the UFC isn’t going to do it for them.
MARWAN RAHIKI BY TKO.
WOMEN’S FLYWEIGHT: Manon Fiorot (13-2, #2) vs Alexa Grasso (17-5-1, #3)
I break format pretty frequently, but I very rarely break schedule. I write the main and co-main events on Sunday, the main card on Monday and the prelims on Tuesday. That’s the system that has worked for me, given how frequently the UFC changes their cards around during fight week.
As of this writing, it is Saturday the 5th. A few hours ago, during the Dan Hooker vs Salahdine Parnasse event in Paris, the UFC officially confirmed an incredibly stupid internet rumor from the past week: Valentina Shevchenko is injured, she has been stripped of the UFC Women’s Flyweight Championship, and the new main event of UFC 332 on October 3 is Natália Silva vs Wang Cong for the undisputed title.
Good news, though: Women’s Flyweight is flush with contenders. Manon Fiorot, Alexa Grasso and Erin Blanchfield are all right there! All three of them are booked to fight within the next month! All you’d have to do is de-book one of those fights and slot them in! This fight can’t be that important to you, because despite being a de facto #1 contendership match you booked it under Tommy McfuckingMillen!
Or, you know. You could just put Wang Cong in.
I hammered out about five angry paragraphs about it before realizing I wasn’t writing about Manon vs Alexa anymore, I was writing about Silva vs Cong and what that says about the state of the sport, and that will wait until next month. Manon Fiorot and Alexa Grasso have done everything the UFC could possibly ask of them. One fight ago, Manon took on Jasmine Jasudavicius, who had never been stopped, and knocked her dead in 74 seconds. One fight ago, Alexa Grasso took on Maycee Barber, who had never been stopped, and knocked her dead--before slapping a rear naked choke on her unconscious body for good measure--in two and a half minutes.
They’re at the top of their division. They just delivered knockout-of-the-year finishes. Alexa Grasso was the world goddamn champion.
They are not as important as Jose Delgado, Joseph Morales or Marwan Rahiki.
I like Alexa and her style. I don’t think she’s going to be able to use it as effectively against Manon’s counterpunching and strength advantage as she’ll need to. MANON FIOROT BY DECISION.
HEAVYWEIGHT: Waldo Cortes-Acosta (17-3, #5) vs Curtis Blaydes (19-6 (1), #6)
Salsa Boy cannot fail, he can only be failed. The UFC really fucking loves Waldo, I assume on account of his fun nickname, his general refusal to wrestle, and his place as one of their only successful Contender Series Heavyweights, particularly since their terrible breakup with Jailton Almeida. They got Waldo a couple wins coming straight off DWCS, they threw him into a ranked bout with Marcos Rogério de Lima, and he lost, badly. They gave him five fairly easy wins, most of whom were coming off losses, before trying to jump him all the way to top last August by having him fight Sergei Pavlovich. Waldo got completely shut out. Waldo got three more fights and three more wins, and they somehow decided beating Derrick Lewis in 2026 made Waldo a top five Heavyweight and gave him a shot at top contender Alexander Volkov, and he lost, again.
So now it’s time to drag what’s left of Curtis Blaydes back onto the chopping block. I have been a gigantic fan of Curtis Blaydes* for years, and I have complained roundly about the UFC’s multiple attempts to sidetrack him favor of more marketable, less wrestley Heavyweights for just as long, but he bumped into the ceiling of big, terrifying punchers every time he reached the top of the room, and at this point, I think it’s just about over. Tom Aspinall killed him in sixty seconds flat, Blaydes only barely scraped by Rizvan Kuniev with a split decision, and while it’s one of the very, very few fights I haven’t watched, my understanding is he hit Josh Hokit several hundred times and still lost a decision. He looks a bit slower, a bit less mobile and a bit more tired every time we see him, and I just don’t have the faith anymore.
WALDO CORTES-ACOSTA BY TKO. Kinda hope I’m wrong, though.
*at least I’m a fan of Curtis Blaydes as a fighter, rather than as a guy who posts transphobic bullshit on social media all the time, but at this point I don’t know who’s left in MMA I wouldn’t have to say this about other than maybe Liz Carmouche and it bums me out every single day
BANTAMWEIGHT: David Martinez (14-1, #8) vs Dan Ige (19-11, NR)
It’s been a really weird couple years for David Martinez. Not unsuccessful, by any means--just weird. At the end of 2024, David was the Combate Global champion, a handful of folks had heard of him, and he’d made it to the Contender Series on an episode built around people who really matter, like Diyar Nurgozhay. By the start of 2026, David was a top ten Bantamweight on a ten-fight winning streak who’d just beaten a former titlist in Marlon Vera. By the midpoint of the year, David was intended to have faced Umar Nurmagomedov in a top contendership bout. But the UFC decided it made more sense to send Umar to China to lose to Song Yadong, and their brand new top ten Bantamweight was conveniently Mexican, so Noche UFC 4 was his inevitable home.
And if that means going from a top contendership bout with Umar to defending your top ten spot against the no-longer-ranked Dan Ige, well, that’s tough, buddy. Dan has been keeping the Bantamweight gate for years, but it’s starting to show in his record. There isn’t a single embarrassing loss on the list--Emmett, Evloev, Lopes, Lerone, anyone who talks shit about losing to them isn’t worth listening to--but because Ige has been fighting these top guys for so damn long, he’s, uh, 11-10 in the UFC now. He’s been losing more than he wins for the last six years, and he’s closing in on his late thirties, and in an age where the company is cutting older, more expensive contracts on a whim, all of his time is borrowed time. He’s here until they no longer feel he’s useful.
But he’s also bigger, longer, and still a really good counterpuncher. Ige’s always had some of the best bread-and-butter boxing in the division, the people who beat him tend to be the people who are either too technical for him or too intense for his orthodox style to overcome. I’m not quite convinced Martinez is either of those. DAN IGE BY DECISION.
PRELIMS: I CAN’T LET YOU GET KLOSE
FLYWEIGHT: Tim Elliott (21-14-1, #12) vs Edgar Cháirez (14-6 (1), #15)
God bless you, Flyweight. You are my rock. There are so few matchups you can make in its ranks that aren’t extremely likely to fucking rule, and this is a great example. Tim Elliott is a seventeen-year veteran who came dangerously close to choking out Demetrious Johnson a decade ago and has settled into ten fun years of being a really creative grappler who would probably succeed a little more if he didn’t juke and dance and occasionally moonwalk in mid-fight, but then he just wouldn’t be himself, and being himself is good enough to stick as a permanent entry in the top fifteen. Edgar Cháirez is a tough prospect with some really aggressive grappling attacks, sometimes to his outright detriment as he’s sacrificed control to jump on chokes, but then, he wouldn’t have so goddamn many submissions on his record if he didn’t. He went the distance with Tatsuro Taira and Joshua Van, he just became the first man in the UFC to choke out Bruno Silva, and he needs a win over a known quantity to finally establish himself as a contender.
But I don’t think he’s gonna get it. Elliott is notoriously tough to outgrapple, Edgar’s best hopes probably involve keeping the fight standing, and unless Elliott chooses to fight to his weaknesses--which, in fairness, happens, constantly--he stands a real good chance of keeping the fight in his wheelhouse. TIM ELLIOTT BY DECISION.
WELTERWEIGHT: Ignacio Bahamondes (17-7) vs Muslim Salikhov (22-6)
It is, once again, a time of judgment for Ignacio Bahamondes. The UFC’s been trying to make him a star since his post-DWCS debut all the way back in 2021, but every time they managed to get his foot in the door, someone slammed it in his face. First it was John Makdessi, then Ľudovít Klein, and after Ignacio notched the best win of his life against Jalin Turner last year management thought he was finally ready, only to watch him eat back-to-back losses for the first time in his career. He couldn’t outstrike Rafael Fiziev and he couldn’t outwork Tofiq Musayev, and now, having been thoroughly pushed out of the picture at Lightweight, it is time to do what a 6’3” man probably should have done in the first place and go back to 170 pounds. Muslim Salikhov is here to lose. He’s going on 43, he’s shorter, he’s stubbier, and every fight with him is essentially just a coinflip. He wheelkicked Song Kenan, he stopped Carlos Leal’s momentum dead in its tracks with a forty-two-second knockout, and then Uroš Medić dusted him in a minute flat. He kills or he is killed, and here, they are seeking his pelt.
I make the mistake of picking Muslim often. Statistically, it’s a terrible idea. But it’s been a long time since Ignacio has had to worry about Welterweight punching power, and Muslim has this tendency to land counters out of nowhere, and most importantly, I failed Statistics. MUSLIM SALIKHOV BY TKO.
MIDDLEWEIGHT: Yousri Belgaroui (10-3) vs Djorden Santos (11-3)
If Bahamondes/Salikhov was a slanted battle, this is an attempted execution. Remember last month, when we were talking about the UFC’s attempts to rehabilitate their big scary Middleweight finishing machine Mansur Abdul-Malik? That’s because one fight ago, Yousri Belgaroui knocked him dead. Remember a few months back, when we discussed Ozzy Diaz, the man the UFC employs so they have someone to march out and get destroyed by big strikers like Zhang Mingyang and Ateba Gautier? Two fights ago, Diaz beat Djorden Santos. Belgaroui is 6’6”, undefeated in the UFC, and coming off three straight knockouts. Djorden is half a foot shorter, 1-2, and just got choked out by Baisangur Susurkaev in his last bout.
It’s not subtle. YOUSRI BELGAROUI BY TKO.
LIGHTWEIGHT: Drakkar Klose (16-3-1) vs Tommy Gantt (12-0)
Sometimes there’s a fight that exists solely to make me individually feel stupid and set in my ways. Drakkar Klose has been in the UFC for damn near a decade, and in that time only three people have beaten him: David Teymur, who will go down as one of the UFC’s unsung what-ifs, Beneil Dariush, who was a top Lightweight contender during some of its toughest years, and Joel Álvarez, who is a) scary as hell and b) not a Lightweight. Klose is historically, objectively, good. Tommy Gantt is a -500 favorite to not just beat but destroy him. Gantt has only fought three men with winning records in his entire career, and one of them was the 11-9 Josh Henry, who got destroyed by UFC washout Kyle Prepolec: Gantt struggled with him into the third round. His DWCS fight was against a man with only one decent win and his UFC debut was against Artur Minev, who arguably had none*, but Gantt stopped them, so now he’s the next big thing.
And, honestly? Could be. I can tell you about Klose’s experience advantage, but he’s damn near 39 and Gantt is bigger, stronger, younger, hungrier and a better wrestler. The UFC’s probably right and Gantt is probably about to eat Klose alive and they’ll have been all the smarter for imparting his credibility to a (slightly) younger prospect with more upside and a much cheaper contract. But I choose to live in the midst of the probablies. DRAKKAR KLOSE BY DECISION.
*it pains me to say this because Minev’s said win was over Derek Campos, who beat Daniel Straus back in Bellator, and god knows I like Daniel Straus, but by the time of that fight he was in his late thirties and on the losing streak that led to his retirement, and by the time Minev fought Campos, it was Campos who was 37 years old and 1 for his last 11, and god, time is just the biggest bitch
LIGHTWEIGHT: Rafa García (19-4) vs Rongzhu (28-6)
Sometimes the UFC has a couple of puzzle pieces they don’t quite know what to do with, and their solution is to slam them together in the hopes that one of them will take a shape they find useful. Rafa García is fucking great. 7-2 at Lightweight over the last five years is a fantastic accomplishment, especially when you consider the way he fucked up Jared Gordon and bounced Alexander Hernandez off his winning streak. And yet: Hernandez is fighting former champion Rafael dos Anjos next month, and Rafa is fighting Rongzhu. Rongzhu, himself, is on his second lease on life with the UFC. They hired him back in 2021, he was a giant mess who missed weight repeatedly and mostly lost, he came back for the Road to UFC 2 tournament, beat everyone in front of him and won his new contract with ease, and was promptly crushed by Chris “Taco” Padilla. To any sensible observer, this is fine: Taco is a bad motherfucker. To the UFC, which inexplicably hates him, this has seen Rongzhu banished to forgettable prelim duty. They sent him to Australia where he beat Kody Steele, they sent him to China to knock off Austin Hubbard, and then they put him back on a Road to UFC card to knock out Victor Martinez. And now, on a three-fight winning streak, with a card in China that happened just two weeks ago, Rongzhu, one of their most successful Chinese fighters, is playing the role of the evil foreigner against a Mexican fighter on a Noche UFC card three bouts from the bottom.
It sucks when they don’t care about you no matter how good you’re doing. RAFA GARCÍA BY DECISION.
FEATHERWEIGHT: Jessie Rosas (8-1) vs Sean King (6-0)
If you've been reading these for any real length of time, you're already very familiar with my feelings on Raul Rosas Jr. and the way the UFC tried to usher him into the upper ranks of the sport with a series of carefully-curated matchups. Suppose Raul had a brother named Jessie. Suppose Jessie didn't beat a single person with a winning record until just this past June, and suppose that record was 23-11. Suppose Jessie got a UFC contract anyway, and suppose that the UFC decided Miles Johns, who is coincidentally on a three-fight losing streak, was the right man to welcome him to the company, for some strange reason. How do you think I would feel about that, and who do you think I would pick?
Just before weigh-ins, Rosas/Johns got pulled from the card after the UFC's doctor reportedly decided a scratch on his head looked infected. If you were the conspiratorial sort, you might want to say that someone realized they hired Rosas the Lesser and slated him to debut against a man who has beaten Actually Good Fighters and realized they should calibrate their expectations just a bit better. So: Here's Sean King. He's had 6 fights, only two of them were against people with winning records, and those records are 5-4 and 13-10. One bout ago King was choking out Cristian "The Cannibal" Lopez, a totally legitimate fighter for Fury FC who is 2-15 with every single loss of his career coming by stoppage and 10 of those stoppages coming in the first round, which is not at all conspicuous, and it in no way reflects on the state of our sport that the UFC is contracting this calibre of competitor on a regular basis.
Congrats on the better deal, Jessie. JESSIE ROSAS BY DECISION.
WOMEN'S FLYWEIGHT: JJ Aldrich (15-7, #15) vs Regina Tarin (8-0, NR)
But it just wouldn't be a modern UFC card without a ranked women's fight buried as far down on the prelims as possible. JJ Aldrich was a serious prospect once upon a time, and she's been treading water for just about four years, instead. Only one woman that Aldrich has beaten since 2022 is still in the UFC, and it's Jamey-Lyn Horth, whom Aldrich beat in her last fight, a victory so meaningful to the company that next month Horth is fighting former title challenger and top ten fixture Katlyn Cerminara (née Chookagian) as a home-country hero in Canada, and Aldrich is curtain-jerking Noche UFC as the American competitor against Mexico's Regina Tarin, who has one UFC fight, ever. We saw Tarin fight and beat Ernesta Kareckaite back in February, and it was a competitive, difficult bout that saw Tarin scrape by with a decision after just barely, barely outstriking her.
On one hand: I am not sold on Regina. Ernesta Kareckaite hasn't been all that great, and struggling that badly with her doesn't give me a great deal of faith in Regina's future. On the other: Aldrich has been coasting for years. She seems tired--not in the sense of her gas tank, which is perfectly fine, but in the existential sense where watching her fight feels like watching someone listen to "Once in a Lifetime" on repeat while questioning all of their life choices. JJ ALDRICH BY DECISION is still the call, but I hope there is still joy in her heart for this terrible sport.