Greetings, fight fans! We’ve got more than just the UFC this weekend, which is fun. Unfortunately, the other stuff is running counter to the UFC, so it’s gonna be hard to keep up with everything at the same time. Let’s figure out what’s going on and who’s fighting when!
SATURDAY
Kickboxing is back! Glory 29 brings its fun punch-n-kick violence to the world with a card in Copenhagen. Some Glory Superfight bouts are available on Fight Pass starting at 1:30PM ET, including professional large man Zack Mwekassa taking on Zinedine Hameur Lain. The main card will see Yoann Kongolo take on “Perfect Hair Forever” Nieky Holzken and things kick off at 4PM ET on ESPN3.
Bellator is back in action. There have been some last minute rebookings, but hey, cards are always subject to change. The main card starts at 10PM ET on Spike TV, and despite my best efforts, I haven’t been able to uncover anything about the undercard, probably because that’s when Bellator Kickboxing is happening and that’s on tape delay. In the main event, Patricky “Pitbull” Freire takes on Bellator newcomer and former UFC fighter Kevin Souza. That should be a good fight.
Primetime Saturday night UFC returns, hooray! UFC on Fox 19 suffered a major blow when Tony “El Cucuy” Ferguson had to pull out of the scheduled lightweight main event bout with a pulmonar issue. There were rumors that his opponent, Khabib Nurmagomedov, would get a new foe in Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone or maybe even former champ BJ Penn. Ultimately, regional blue chip standout Darrell Horcher got signed and he’s taking on Khabib. It’s unfortunate, but at least Nurmagomedov is fighting for the first time in two years.
Anyway, the fights start at 4PM ET on Fight Pass with some solid prelims, capped off with John Dodson returning to bantamweight to face Manny Gamburyan. The prelims move to Fox at 6PM ET. We’ve got Islam Makachev taking on Drew Dober, plus the return of Bethe Correia as she faces Raquel Pennington. The final prelim bout is a lightweight fight between Beneil Dariush and Mike Chiesa.
The main card starts at 8PM ET on Fox with Cub Swanson taking on Hacran Dias in featherweight action. Nurmagomedov makes his return to the cage as he welcomes newcomer Horcher. We’ve also got an awesome rematch in the strawweight division as Rose Namajunas meets Tecia Torres in the co-main event. The main event is a light heavyweight scrap between former champ Rashad Evans and title challenger Glover Texeira.
