UFC Seattle’s Electrifying Main Card Caps First Quarter of ’26 Schedule

UFC Seattle fight week continues. While Seattle’s hometown MLB team will be entertaining the visiting Cleveland Guardians this Saturday for the third in a four-game series to begin the baseball season, not everyone in the Pacific Northwest will be watching the Mariners.

Climate Pledge Arena, the home venue of the Seattle Kraken, will be playing host to the second trip by the UFC to Seattle in as many years. Live coverage starts this Saturday at 5 pm ET/ 2 pm PT with the prelims.

Main card action ends the evening at 8 pm ET/ 5 pm PT. Stateside, you can see UFC Seattle gavel-to-gavel via Paramount Plus. All told, barring any 11th-hour adjustments needing to be made to the schedule between now and the weekend, the final version of the Saturday night show features a baker’s dozen, 13 fights.

UFC Seattle Main Event: No. 4 Contender Israel Adesanya vs. No. 14 Contender Joe Pyfer

At the top of the bill on Saturday night, the middleweights will go to war in the UFC Seattle main event.  No. 4 contender Israel Adesanya (24-5 MMA, 13-5 UFC) clashes with No. 14 contender Joe Pyfer (15-3 MMA, 6-1 UFC.) This main event is an advertised maximum of five rounds at five minutes per round to close out the show.

Adesanya has posted a record of 1-4 in his last five fights, and it’s been close to three full years since he last won in the UFC. Last year, he sustained a second-round knockout (overhand right to ground and pound shots) at the hands of Nassourdine Imavov (17-4, 1 NC MMA, 9-2, 1 NC UFC) during UFC Riyadh.

This is a critical fight for both Israel Adesanya and Joe Pyfer. A loss by the former would make it four defeats in a row and probably knock him out of the title picture at 185. Can the former UFC Middleweight Champion hand Pyfer his second loss in the UFC?

Meanwhile, Joe Pyfer enters UFC Seattle on the strength of a 4-1 record in his last five fights. At the moment, he’s won three fights in succession.

Most recently, he scored a second-round submission (rear-naked choke) over Abus Magomedov (28-7-1 MMA, 4-3 UFC.) Pyfer, the subject of an impassioned speech by UFC CEO Dana White on Contender Series in 2022, is near the bottom of the rankings at middleweight.

Will he secure a resume-building win? Tune into the UFC Seattle main event and find out.

UFC Seattle Co-Main Event: No. 3 Contender Alexa Grasso vs. No. 5 Contender Maycee Barber II

Immediately prior to the main event, the UFC Seattle co-main attraction happens at women’s flyweight. It’ll be a rematch more than five years in the making when No. 3 contender Alexa Grasso (16-5-1 MMA, 8-5-1 UFC) battles No. 5 contender Maycee Barber (15-2 MMA, 10-2 UFC.) This is a three-round fight at five minutes per round.

The first time they battled was in February of 2021 as the co-main attraction of UFC 258, won by Grasso. While the original contest was held at the Meta Apex with no audience in attendance due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this fight will be held with a full crowd. How does the rematch play out?

Grasso enters the weekend with a record of 2-2-1 in her last five fights. She’s winless in her last three contests. Most recently, she dropped a unanimous decision at the hands of Natalia Silva (20-5-1 MMA, 8-0 UFC) in May of last year.

Alexa Grasso has had to wait a little bit longer to make her first walk to the cage of 2026. She was supposed to have fought on Jan. 24 versus Rose Namajunas in UFC 324 before she had to withdraw from the card due to injury.

With a clean bill of health afforded to her, only time will tell if she can go 2-for-2 versus “The Future.”

Across the way, Maycee Barber makes the walk with a record of 5-0 in her last five fights. Presently, she’s on a seven-fight winning streak dating back to July of 2021, including a unanimous decision victory over Karine Silva (19-6 MMA, 5-2 UFC) back in December.

In a Wednesday interview with CBS’ Brian Campbell, Barber mentioned that she’d like a shot at the title should she win this weekend, and very few obstacles are in her way.

“I think the only thing that’s stopping me is if Dana decides that he just doesn’t want to see me have a belt,” she said in the interview. Should Barber win convincingly here, she’ll have a strong case at a chance for the championship.

UFC Seattle: Michael Chiesa vs. Niko Price

Also on UFC Seattle’s main card, the welterweights leap into action for a fight between Michael Chiesa (19-7 MMA, 14-7 UFC,) in his final appearance in MMA, and Niko Price (16-10, 2 NC MMA, 8-10, 2 NC UFC,) who will also be retiring from the sport. Chiesa sets foot inside the Octagon this weekend sporting a 3-2 record in his last five fights.

The retiring welterweight has won three bouts in a row. On June 14 in Atlanta, he scored a unanimous decision victory against Court McGee (22-14 MMA, 11-13 UFC.) There’s no going back for Michael Chiesa, who’s retiring after 22 fights in the UFC as a tribute to his grandfather, who competed in the No. 22 motorcycle as a fast-track racer.

His grandfather amassed north of 1,200 wins throughout his racing career. Can Chiesa take one last trip to victory lane?

In the other corner, Niko Price comes in on a quick turnaround with a 1-4 record in his past five appearances. At the moment, he’s dropped three in a row, including a Feb. 7 first-round knockout at the hands of Nikolay Vertennikov (14-7 MMA, 2-3 UFC) in a minute and 42 seconds.

Price is substituting for Carlston Harris, who withdrew from UFC Seattle due to problems with his visa. He’s had seven weeks between fights, but is the short hiatus going to be helpful or a hindrance as he makes his last walk?

Rest of the Card

The UFC Seattle main card is rounded out by these fights:

• A featherweight contest pairing Julian Erosa (31-12 MMA, 9-8 UFC) against LerryAn Douglas (13-5 MMA, UFC promotional debut,)
• a middleweight bout matching Mansur Abdul-Malik (9-0-1 MMA, 3-0-1 UFC) with Yousri Belgaroui (9-3 MMA, 1-0 UFC,)
• and a lightweight fight versing Terrance McKinney (17-8 MMA, 7-5 UFC) and Kyle Nelson (17-6-1 MMA, 5-5-1 UFC.)

Which fights are you looking forward to the most? Let us know in the comments.