UFC Abu Dhabi takes place Saturday night. We take a look at the main card.<\/p>\n
UFC Abu Dhabi <\/a>fight week continues. Saturday night, Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates serves as the setting for this week’s UFC <\/a>event<\/a>. Live coverage of UFC Abu Dhabi <\/a>commences at the earlier start time of 9 am ET\/ 6 am PT with the prelims<\/a>.<\/p>\n Inside the United States of America, this card will be seen from start to end via Paramount Plus.\u00a0<\/a> Main card action immediately follows at 12 noon ET\/ 9 am PT.<\/p>\n If there are no further adjustments to the card’s itinerary, the final version of UFC Abu Dhabi will feature a slate of 13 bouts. Last week, there was a change to the evening’s main event.<\/p>\n UFC Abu Dhabi Main Event: No. 1 Contender Magomed Ankalev vs. No. 9 Contender Bogdan Guskov: Ankalaev Looking to Rebound from “Poatan” Loss<\/p>\n At the top of the bill, the light heavyweights take to the cage for a contest between No. 1 contender Magomed Ankalaev<\/a> (21-2-1, 1 NC MMA, 12-2-1, 1 NC UFC) and No. 9 contender Bogdan Guskov<\/a> (18-3-1 MMA, 4-1-1 UFC) in a short-notice bout for the latter. This is a five-round fight at five minutes per round to close the show.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Magomed Ankalaev enters the UFC Abu Dhabi main event on Saturday night with a record of 2-1-1 with one no-contest in his last five fights. Back in October, he dropped a first-round knockout to Alex Pereira (13-4 MMA, 10-3 UFC) during UFC 320’s main event for the UFC Light Heavyweight Championship.<\/p>\n Recently, Ankalaev discussed the pain of the Oct. 4 loss to “Poatan,” who’s since moved to the heavyweight ranks.<\/p>\n “It must have been the worst day of my life,” he said. “I lost the fight, I lost the belt, and it was really hard for me to get back here.”<\/p>\n Ankalaev has had over nine months to reflect on what went wrong that October weekend. How will he fare in his return bout?<\/p>\n Bogdan Guskov Steps In on Short Notice for UFC Abu Dhabi<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Bogdan Guskov comes into the co-main event having accepted the July 25 fight on less than two weeks notice as a substitute for Magomed Ankalaev’s original opponent, Khalil Rountree Jr. Rountree withdrew from UFC Abu Dhabi due to injury.<\/p>\n Guskov has a record of 4-0-1 in his last five fights. Last time out, he fought to a majority draw vs. Jan Blachowicz (29-11-2 MMA, 12-8-2 UFC) in UFC 323 on Dec. 6. A rematch for this past May was called off due to Blachowicz suffering a torn meniscus.<\/p>\n The pairing was then rebooked once again for next Saturday in UFC Belgrade but was scrubbed once the vacancy for July 25 became available. Guskov sits at No. 9 in the rankings at 205 and suddenly finds himself facing the top contender. A victory here would certainly build his resume.<\/p>\n UFC Abu Dhabi Co-Main Event: No. 10 Contender Steve Erceg vs. Ramazan Temirov: Erceg Aiming for 15th Pro Win<\/p>\n Immediately beforehand, the co-main attraction of UFC Abu Dhabi takes place in the flyweight division. No. 10 contender Steve Erceg<\/a> (11-4 MMA, 5-3 UFC) makes his second appearance in under three months’ time against Ramazan Temirov<\/a> (19-2 MMA, 2-0 UFC.) This is a three-round fight at five minutes per round.<\/p>\n Steve Erceg comes into the co-main attraction on the strength of a 2-3 record in his last five outings. On May 2, he scored a unanimous decision victory over Tim Elliott (21-14-1 MMA, 10-12 UFC) after three rounds.<\/p>\n “Astroboy” has been a streaky fighter of late, winning two bouts in succession after dropping three fights in a row. Which version of Steve Erceg shows up on Yas Island this Saturday evening?\u00a0<\/p>\n Ramazan Temirov Returns to UFC After Year-Plus Hiatus\u00a0<\/p>\n Across the way, Ramazan Temirov enters UFC Abu Dhabi Saturday night with a 5-0 record in his last five MMA fights. He’s on an 11-fight winning streak dating back to April of 2021.<\/p>\n On the night of March 1, 2025, he scored his second win under the UFC promotional banner against Charles Johnson (19-9 MMA, 8-7 UFC) by way of unanimous decision. Following that fight, Johnson was to have fought Asu Almabayev, but the fight was canceled last summer due to his withdrawal from the event.<\/p>\n He’s had close to 17 months away from MMA. What kind of ring rust does Temirov have going into UFC Abu Dhabi?<\/p>\n UFC Abu Dhabi: Islam Dulatov vs. Wellington Turman: Dulatov Makes Second Walk to Octagon After Year Away<\/p>\n Also on the UFC Abu Dhabi main card, the welterweights take to the cage when Islam Dulatov<\/a> (12-1 MMA, 1-0 UFC) battles Wellington Turman<\/a> (18-8 MMA, 3-6 UFC.) Dulatov will be walking to the cage for the first time in 53 weeks this Saturday after going 5-0 in his past five appearances as part of a 12-fight winning streak.\u00a0<\/p>\n Last year, he made his first UFC appearance, winning by way of first-round knockout versus Adam Fugitt (10-6 MMA, 2-4 UFC.) In so doing, Dulatov secured the $50,000 (USD) bonus for the Performance of the Night.<\/p>\n Islam Dulatov hasn’t fought in over a year. After a lengthy hiatus, can he secure his 13th consecutive victory?\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n Wellington Turman Looking to End Three-Fight Losing Streak<\/p>\n In the other corner, Wellington Turman is facing the reverse predicament with a 2-3 record in his last five bouts. He’s dropped three bouts in a row heading into UFC Abu Dhabi.<\/p>\n He hasn’t fought in MMA in over two and a half years. Back on Dec. 2, 2023, he was on the receiving end of a second-round submission (rear-naked choke) from Jared Gooden.<\/p>\n With such a long hiatus away, can Turman end the winning streak of his opponent? Tune in and find out.<\/p>\n Rest of the Card<\/p>\n UFC Abu Dhabi’s main card is rounded out by these contests:<\/p>\n a lightweight fight matching Damian Rzepecki (10-0 MMA, UFC promotional debut) against Magomed Zaynukov (8-0 MMA, UFC promotional debut,)
\na heavyweight encounter between No. 8 contender Rizvan Kuniev (14-3-1, 1 NC MMA, 1-1 UFC) and No. 9 contender Tyrell Fortune (18-3, 2 NC MMA, 1-0 UFC,)
\nand a welterweight showcase versing Abubakaer Vagaev (24-4 MMA, UFC promotional debut) with Saygid Izagakhmaev (22-3 MMA, 0-1 UFC.)\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"UFC Abu Dhabi takes place Saturday night. We take a look at the main card. UFC Abu Dhabi…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":822487,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[444],"tags":[20194,49,48,641,10139,13088,17574,30467,638,287751,82,33223,640,286520,287752,10092],"class_list":["post-822486","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-bogdan-guskov","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-fighting","tag-flyweight","tag-islam-dulatov","tag-light-heavyweight","tag-magomed-ankalaev","tag-mma","tag-ramazan-temirov","tag-sports","tag-steve-erceg","tag-ufc","tag-ufc-fight-night-ankalaev-vs-rountree-jr","tag-wellington-turman","tag-welterweight"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/822486","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=822486"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/822486\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/822487"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=822486"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=822486"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=822486"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}