The blockbuster UFC 286 hits London, England live from the O2 Arena this Saturday night as Leon ‘Rocky’ Edwards looks to defend his belt on home soil against former champion, Kamaru ‘The Nigerian Nightmare’ Usman. The headliner serves as a trilogy bout which currently sits at 1-1 after Edwards’ emphatic knockout in August over Usman. In the co-main event, all action fighters, Justin Gaethje and Rafael Fiziev clash in a fight that certainly has title implications.
Before these two exciting fights, the prelims go down, featuring a number of debutants, a number of experienced UFC fighters and some intriguing match-ups of which all are guaranteed action.
Understandably there is plenty of British interest with names including Lerone Murphy, Christian Leroy Duncan, Jake Hadley and Joanne Wood, amongst others all featuring on the early prelims. The full early preliminary fights are as follows:
Lerone Murphy vs. Gabriel Santos
Christian Leroy Duncan vs. Duško Todorović
Malcolm Gordon vs. Jake Hadley
Joanne Wood vs. Luana Carolina
Jai Herbert vs. Ľudovít Klein
Juliana Miller vs. Veronica Macedo
You can check out our full early prelims preview here:
On the prelims, there are four salivating match-ups. Two debutants, Sam Patterson and Chris Duncan make the walk for the first time. Both men earned a contract on the contender series and will be looking to impress in London. Muhammad Mokaev makes his fourth UFC appearance and Jack Shore makes his 145lbs debut. The match-ups are as follows:
Jack Shore vs. Makwan Amirkhani
Chris Duncan vs. Omar Morales
Sam Patterson vs. Yanal Ashmoz
Muhammad Mokaev vs. Jafel Filho
You can check out our full prelims preview here:
Ranked middleweights, Roman Dolidze and Marvin Vettori open up the main card in an exciting clash of an in-form fighter taking on a fighter with far more experience. Following the middleweights in a match-up between the undefeated, Casey O’Neill and Jennifer Maia. You can check out our feature on O’Neill here. Gunnar Nelson and Bryan Barberena meet in a fight where two men’s styles may just clash for a fight of the night. As we know, Justin Gaethje and Rafael Fiziev play co-main event to our eventual main event, Leon Edwards defending his welterweight crown against Kamaru Usman.
Our main card preview can be found here:
