UFC Vancouver With Awesome Main Card This Saturday Night

Action begins from Rogers Arena late Saturday afternoon with the undercard at 4 pm ET/ 1 pm PT. Inside the United States, the event can be viewed gavel-to-gavel on ESPN+.

Main card action follows at 7 pm ET/ 4 pm PT from British Columbia. Absent of any changes to the itinerary for the weekend, the final version of UFC Vancouver will feature a slate of 13 fights from the No. 1 MMA promotion on the planet.

UFC Vancouver Main Event: No. 4 Contender Reinier de Ridder vs. No. 8 Contender Brendan Allen

At the top of the bill on Saturday night’s main card is a critical fight in the middleweight ranks. No. 4 contender and former ONE Middleweight (205 lbs) MMA Champion Reinier de Ridder (21-2 MMA, 4-0 UFC) meets up with No. 8 contender Brendan Allen (25-7 MMA, 13-4 UFC.)

This main event will be an advertised maximum of five rounds at five minutes per round to close out the evening’s activities in UFC Vancouver. RDR enters this, his second main event in succession, having posted a record of 5-0 in his last five fights dating back to July of 2024. Allen was not supposed to be de Ridder’s opponent for UFC Vancouver.

Initially, he was to have squared off against Anthony Hernandez this weekend. Hernandez needed to bow out of the fight due to injury last month, something he addressed on his Instagram page.

Back on July 26 on the ABC Television Network, RDR took Robert Whittaker to the limit, besting him by unanimous decision after 25 minutes of action. It’s been a short rise to the division’s elite at 185 for de Ridder, and he’s now firmly in the conversation for the UFC Middleweight Championship.

Can he take the next step toward securing another championship in UFC Vancouver’s main event this coming weekend? Tune in and find out.

Across the way, Brendan Allen comes into this contest with a 3-2 record over his past five contests. This past summer, he outpaced Marvin Vettori (19-8-1 MMA, 9-7-1 UFC) by way of unanimous decision in New Orleans during UFC 318. Vettori received a $50,000 (USD) cash advance that Saturday evening for the Fight of the Night Award.

Saturday’s contest will be the 33rd of Allen’s professional career. A victory over RDR this coming weekend would certainly boost his resume.

UFC Vancouver Co-Main Event: No. 15 Contender Kevin Holland vs. Mike Malott

Immediately prior to the headliner, the UFC Vancouver co-main event sees action happening at welterweight between No. 15 contender Kevin Holland (28-14, 1 NC MMA, 15-11, 1 NC UFC) and Mike Malott (12-2-1 MMA, 5-1 UFC.) This is a three-round fight at five minutes per round.

Holland will be making his 44th career walk to the cage and his 28th under the UFC banner Saturday evening with a record of 2-3 in his last five fights. Last time out, he sustained a unanimous decision defeat at the hands of Daniel Rodriguez (20-5 MMA, 10-4 UFC) in UFC 318.

Kevin Holland has kept himself quite busy in the run-up to UFC Vancouver. This fight serves as the fifth for Holland and his camp in 2025.

He’s got a .500 record thus far this year, but as the year nears its end, can he secure a winning record in 2025? Only time will tell.

Meanwhile, Mike Malott has gone 4-1 in the past five contests. At the present time, he’s won two fights in succession.

This past spring, he stopped Charles Radtke (10-5 MMA, 3-2 UFC) with a second-round knockout during UFC 315 in Montreal, Quebec. This is another “home game” for Malott, so will he deliver another win in front of his countrymen?

UFC Vancouver: No. 7 Contender Marlon Vera vs. No. 9 Contender Aiemann Zahabi

Also on the UFC Vancouver main card, you’ll be seeing a bantamweight contest pairing No. 7 contender Marlon Vera (23-10-1 MMA, 15-9 UFC) against No. 9 contender Aiemann Zahabi (13-2 MMA, 7-2 UFC.) “Chito” comes into the weekend with a 2-3 record over the course of his last five trips to the cage.

It’s been over 14 months since he last fought, however. In August of last year, he dropped a unanimous decision to Deiveson Figueiredo (25-5-1 MMA, 14-5-1 UFC) during UFC Abu Dhabi.

Canceled fights have become an issue for the Marlon Vera camp. A planned contest between Vera and Mario Bautista on May 3 in Des Moines was postponed amid the two being rebooked for UFC 316 in Newark, NJ.

The June 7 rescheduling was itself postponed after Vera sustained an injury. With the pairing of Marlon Vera and Mario Bautista off the table for the time being, “Chito” now turns his attention to Zahabi for his first fight in more than a year’s time. How much ring rust does he have going into this one?

In the other corner, Aiemann Zahabi has a mark of 5-0 in the past five outings. At the moment, he’s won six fights in a row dating back to February of 2021. Most recently, he picked up a unanimous decision victory in Quebec on May 10 against Jose Aldo (32-10 MMA, 14-9 UFC.)

As we’ve mentioned often in recent months, a fighter who’s on a hot streak is a fighter who’s at his most dangerous. Add to it the fact that Zahabi will be fighting in his home country on Saturday night and this is an important 15 minutes (or less) of action inside the fabled Octagon. Will he win his seventh bout in a row?

Rest of the Card

The UFC Vancouver main card will also feature these exciting contests:

• A women’s flyweight bout pairing No. 2 contender Manon Fiorot (12-2 MMA, 7-1 UFC) against No. 5 contender Jasmine Jasudavicius (14-3 MMA, 8-2 UFC,)
• a bantamweight affair between Cody Gibson (21-11 MMA, 3-6 UFC) and Aoriqileng (25-12, 1 NC MMA, 3-4, 1 NC UFC,)
• and a lightweight bout matching Kyle Nelson (18-6-1 MMA, 4-5-1 UFC) with Matt Frevola (11-5-1 MMA, 5-5-1 UFC.)

Which fight or fights on the main card are you most eager to see?