Five things to know about UFC 321, including Tom Aspinall's first title defense

UFC 321 is scheduled for Oct. 25 and will provide a different experience for MMA fans thanks to a unique start time.

What do you need to know about UFC 321? We asked Buzznights, one of the moderators on the largest MMA Reddit platform for thoughts on the event and what you need to know. By the way, r/mma's live event fight threads always start 30 minutes prior to the first fight.

1. Where and when is UFC 321?

The fight takes place in Abu Dhabi and has a different start time than usual. The fight airs on ESPN+ with prelims beginning at 10 a.m. (Eastern) and the main card at 2 p.m. (Eastern). Coffee and donuts will be on the menu instead of your usual wings and beer. 

2. Tom Aspinall defends his title for the first time vs. Ciryl Gane

Tom Aspinall was the interim heavyweight champion for close to two years with two title defenses, then heavyweight champion Jon Jones finally retired in June without defending against Aspinall (something he took heavy criticism for doing). UFC president Dana White declared Aspinall to be the UFC heavyweight champion.

It will be nice to see action at the top of the heavyweight class as it was held up by Jones' inactivity. If Gane ends up winning this one, expect snarky posts on X from Jones about how he didn't need to prove himself by fighting Aspinall.

3. Vacant strawweight championship: Virna Jandiroba takes on Mackenzie Dern

Zhang Weili vacated the strawweight belt only a month ago to move up to flyweight. She'll take on Valentina Schevchenko at UFC 322.

The belt will move to South America after this fight as both contenders hail from Brazil. Jandiroba is on a five-fight win streak while Dern has a win from January and two losses in 2024. Expect this fight to go to the mat as they're both black belts in jiu-jitsu.

4. Fight for the trivia lovers: Valter Walker vs. Louie Sutherland

Walker has won his last three by heel hook submissions, and don't be surprised if he goes for the fourth here (hopefully Sutherland has been practicing his takedown defense). Walker is ranked No. 15 in a fairly crowded heavyweight class.

5. Fun fight: JunYong Park vs. Ikram Aliskerov

Park's nickname (the Iron Turtle) makes total sense after what happened in his last fight, when he took an illegal knee to the head as well as eye pokes from his opponent in June. His nickname of the Iron Turtle was fitting given how tough he was to continue fighting his way to a favorable decision.

Aliskerov has a slew of first-round finishes. This should be a good one.