MMA Live Event Discussion Thread, Summer Thru Fall 2025

[The Natural]

Meltzer:

–Dana White today announced for the 12/6 UFC 323 show in Las Vegas, the last PPV for at least seven years, that Merab Dvalishvili will attempt to become the first champion in history to defend the title four times in a calendar year as he faces Petr Yan.  Alexadre Pantoja v.s. Joshua Van for the flyweight title, Henry Cejudo vs. Payton Talbott, and most likely Brandon Moreno vs  Tatsuro Taira are also on the show.

[waffle]

every merab fight makes aldo's performance vs him more impressive. 

[The Natural]

14 minutes ago, waffle said:

every merab fight makes aldo's performance vs him more impressive. 

Really does especially old man Jose Aldo who stuffed every Merab takedown attempt. Jose Aldo's TDD is some of the best, if not the best in MMA, ever.

[jaedmc]

2 hours ago, The Natural said:

Meltzer:

–Dana White today announced for the 12/6 UFC 323 show in Las Vegas, the last PPV for at least seven years, that Merab Dvalishvili will attempt to become the first champion in history to defend the title four times in a calendar year as he faces Petr Yan.  Alexadre Pantoja v.s. Joshua Van for the flyweight title, Henry Cejudo vs. Payton Talbott, and most likely Brandon Moreno vs  Tatsuro Taira are also on the show.

I wonder what the lightest card in UFC history is. 

[waffle]

Combined weight? UFC 3 maybe? Only 6 fights, and 10 different fighters. Now.... one is Emmanuel Yarbrough so maybe not. 

[Elsalvajeloco]

There are some shows recently though in the last few years where most of the fights are 155 or below like the WEC once they axed the welterweight, middleweight, and light heavyweight divisions. So it's going to be something in the recent past if anything.

[twiztor]

On 10/14/2025 at 12:09 PM, jaedmc said:

I wonder what the lightest card in UFC history is. 

first one in my brain was UFC 9, the first non-tournament card. only 7 fights (and no Yarborough). 

i think more recent cards having way more fights, even at the lighter weights, is going to bring up the total.

Edited October 19, 2025 by twiztor

[Elsalvajeloco]

Yeah, like I said, I don't see Reinier de Ridder being the guy to dethrone Khamzat.

[waffle]

13 hours ago, twiztor said:

first one in my brain was UFC 9, the first non-tournament card. only 7 fights (and no Yarborough). 

i think more recent cards having way more fights, even at the lighter weights, is going to bring up the total.

Yeah, probably an early one for total weight and one of those post-WEC for average weight. 

[jaedmc]

11 hours ago, Elsalvajeloco said:

Yeah, like I said, I don't see Reinier de Ridder being the guy to dethrone Khamzat.

I expected this to be a close fight that could go either way, but I didn't expect RDR to get broken down to where he couldn't get off the stool. That was wild. I say give Brendan Allen a crack at the champ. Don't bother matching him up with DDP or Strickland. Just get Khamzat in the cage and start clearing this division out.

 

[Elsalvajeloco]

UFC 321: Aspinall vs. Gane 
October 25, 2025
Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (Etihad Arena)

UFC Heavyweight Championship: Tom Aspinall © vs. Ciryl Gane (first defense)
UFC Women's Strawweight Championship: Virna Jandiroba vs. Mackenzie Dern (vacant)
Umar Nurmagomedov vs. Mario Bautista
Alexander Volkov vs. Jailton Almeida
Aleksandar Rakić vs. Azamat Murzakanov    

FX / ESPN+ / Disney+ Preliminary Card:
Nasrat Haqparast vs. Quillan Salkilld
Ikram Aliskerov vs. Jun Yong Park
Mateusz Rębecki vs. Ľudovít Klein
Valter Walker vs. Louie Sutherland    
Jose Delgado vs. Nathaniel Wood
Hamdy Abdelwahab vs. Chris Barnett 
Azat Maksum vs. Mitch Raposo    
Mizuki Inoue vs.  Jaqueline Amorim

Event Bonuses ($50,000)
Performance of the Night: 
Performance of the Night: 
Fight of the Night: 

Attendance:
Gate: 

[Elsalvajeloco]

Quillan Salkilld just did some prime Mirko CroCop shit and caught a body.

[jaedmc]

yeah that was Shevchenko/Eye kinda scary

[waffle]

how unfortunate. gane looked awesome. wanted to see how tom would've responded in round 2. 

[Elsalvajeloco]

Felt exactly the same. It was playing out to be an intriguing fight as it couldn't have gone any better for Gane very early on. However, it was clearly going to come down to if Gane might slow down and Aspinall eventually take over from there.

Unfortunately, this outcome just adds more uncertainty to a pretty lackluster division.

[waffle]

4 minutes ago, Elsalvajeloco said:

Unfortunately, this outcome just adds more uncertainty to a pretty lackluster division.

At least it gives them one more fight, cause there's NOTHING else for this division. 

[jaedmc]

Speaking of uncertainty at heavyweight, if you wanna see a bizarre series of events, check out Waldo Cortes-Acosta vs. Delija from tonight. 

[Elsalvajeloco]

A few people I saw on X are using that situation to criticize Aspinall for not continuing last week. Some things to think about:

1. The doctor and referee are going to take that decision out of your hands if you cannot open your eyes for an extended period of time. This was a freak occurrence where the finish happened legit five to ten seconds after the fight restarted. That's a less than 5 percent probability of that happening more than once in a blue moon.

2. Fighting Ante Delija compromised is a bit different than fighting Ciryl Gane compromised. For most heavyweights, fighting Gane with 20/20 vision is a tall ask so now you want someone to fight him basically half blind?

3. Sometimes, 3-5 minutes to recover from an eye poke ain't enough based on the severity. I absolutely HATE fights that end that way prematurely especially as it was starting to get really good. However, I can still be somewhat objective. Aspinall wasn't doing some exaggerated agony gestures to get either the ref or doc to step in and intercede on his behalf. I do think he was frustrated by the fact that the fight was pretty much over given that he was given a good amount of time and his sight still wasn't clear.

[AxB]

Aspinall's dad did an interview on YouTube, saying that 3 days later, Aspinall had no vision in one eye and only 50% vision in the other. And if that's with 3 days to heal, going back in there on the night would have been stupid.

Why are people on twitter saying Dulgarian vs Del Valle last night was a fixed fight? Is it just betting patterns, or that he was defending the RNC like someone who doesn't know how to defend an RNC?

[zendragon]

Apparently betting lines shifted massively toward a first round finish before the fight

[Elsalvajeloco]

I dunno if I would be throwing UFC fights when the UFC cuts people for losing 2-3 fights if that. If I am risking my career and possible prison time, it better be life changing money.

[zendragon]

yhea but you have to remember some off these guys are obviously not that bright

[twiztor]

UFC 322 actually looks pretty damn good! i've not spent much time in the mma-sphere, but i'm surprised that i didn't hear of Weili vacating her SW ttile to move up and challenge Shevchenko for the FLW belt. I guess all the focus was on Islam vs. JDM, which should also be a good one. add on #2 Sean Brady vs undefeated #8 Michael Morales, Leon Edwards vs. Carlos Prates, and Beneil Dariush vs Benoit Saint-Denis, and you have a really banger card. Even the prelims look pretty good!

are we in the post-PPV world yet, or is that still how we watch these?

[The Natural]

36 minutes ago, twiztor said:

UFC 322 actually looks pretty damn good! i've not spent much time in the mma-sphere, but i'm surprised that i didn't hear of Weili vacating her SW ttile to move up and challenge Shevchenko for the FLW belt. I guess all the focus was on Islam vs. JDM, which should also be a good one. add on #2 Sean Brady vs undefeated #8 Michael Morales, Leon Edwards vs. Carlos Prates, and Beneil Dariush vs Benoit Saint-Denis, and you have a really banger card. Even the prelims look pretty good!

are we in the post-PPV world yet, or is that still how we watch these?

November UFC MSG cards usually deliver. I'm really looking forward to Jack Della Maddalena vs. Islam Makhachev and Valentina Shevchenko vs. Zhang Weili. I will say I wish we got the dream fight of Islam vs. Ilja Topuria at Lightweight with Topuira moving up than Islam moving up to Welterweight vs. JDM. I can't see Topuira moving up two weight divisions to face Islam in the superfight if Islam can get past JDM. Be interesting to see how Makhachev looks at Welterwei. Most looking forward to Valentina vs. Weili with Weili moving up to Flyweight trying to become a two weight UFC champion. I fancy Zhang to.

Yes, I think we're in the post PPV world, mate.

[Elsalvajeloco]

UFC 322: Della Maddalena vs. Makhachev 
November 15, 2025
New York City, NY (Madison Square Garden) 

UFC Welterweight Championship: Jack Della Maddalena © vs. Islam Makhachev (first defense)
UFC Women's Flyweight Championship: Valentina Shevchenko © vs. Weili Zhang (second defense)
Sean Brady vs. Michael Morales
Leon Edwards vs. Carlos Prates
Beneil Dariush vs. Benoît Saint Denis    

FX / ESPNEWS / ESPN+ Preliminary Card:
Bo Nickal vs. Rodolfo Vieira
Roman Kopylov vs. Gregory Rodrigues    
Erin Blanchfield vs. Tracy Cortez
Malcolm Wellmaker vs. Ethyn Ewing

FX / ESPN+ / UFC Fight Pass Preliminary Card:
Gerald Meerschaert vs. Kyle Daukaus
Jose Mariscal vs. Pat Sabatini
Angela Hill vs. Fatima Kline
Baisangur Susurkaev vs. Eric McConico
Viacheslav Borshchev vs. Matheus Camilo

Event Bonuses ($50,000)
Performance of the Night: 
Performance of the Night: 
Fight of the Night: 

Attendance: 
Gate: