UFC Kansas City is upon us. After a bye week last Saturday night due to the Easter holiday period, Dana White’s promotion picks its schedule back up this weekend as the fourth month of the year concludes.
T-Mobile Center in Kansas City is the host venue for the final card in the month of April and the second half of a day-night doubleheader of competitive violence following BKFC 73 in the afternoon. Live coverage of the event begins Saturday evening at 6 pm ET/ 3 pm PT. If you’re watching UFC Kansas City inside the United States, the prelims will be streaming on ESPN+.
Main card action caps the night at 9 pm ET/ 6 pm PT with a programming note attached to it: Due to ESPN’s coverage of the UFL game between the Michigan Panthers and the St. Louis BattleHawks from The Dome at America’s Center in St. Louis, MO, the main card of UFC Kansas City will be seen linearly on ESPN2 this Saturday night. 14 fights will take place in Kansas City on Saturday.
That main card will feature No. 15 contender Anthony Smith (38-21 MMA, 13-11 UFC) making his final MMA appearance in his 60th career fight versus Zhang Mingyang (18-6 MMA, 2-0 UFC) in the co-main event at 205 lbs. More on the main card later on this week.
Our focus today is on the UFC Kansas City prelims.
UFC Kansas City Featured Prelim: Matt Schnell vs. Jimmy Flick
At the top of the undercard, flyweights will make the walk to the fabled UFC Octagon as Matt Schnell (16-9 MMA, 6-7 UFC) squares off against Jimmy Flick (17-8 MMA, 2-3 UFC) in an all-American showdown. Schnell enters UFC Kansas City this weekend having gone 1-4 in his last five fights.
At the moment, he’s dropped two fights in a row, including a second-round submission defeat by way of ninja choke to Cody Durden (17-7-1 MMA, 6-5-1 UFC) last September at the UFC Apex facility in Enterprise, NV. He hasn’t set foot in the cage for competition in nearly eight months’ time and could use a victory in this weekend’s featured preliminary contest.
Will he get it? Only time will tell.
Meanwhile, Jimmy Flick will be coming into Saturday night’s event with a mark of 2-3 in his past five contests. He’ll be looking to get back in the win column this weekend, as back in June of last year, he sustained a unanimous decision loss at the hands of Nate Maness (16-3 MMA, 5-2 UFC).
Having to take over 10 months away from competition is never easy. We’ll see on Saturday night if he’s able to shake the ring rust off.
UFC Kansas City Co-Featured Prelim: Evan Elder vs. Gauge Young
Immediately prior to the featured undercard bout, the co-featured prelim sees action take place in the welterweight ranks when Evan Elder (9-2 MMA, 2-2 UFC) meets Gauge Young (9-2 MMA, UFC promotional debut.) Elder was supposed to have made his first walk to the Octagon in 2025 already.
He’s seen two scheduled fights get scrubbed ahead of the scheduled fight night. His March 15 contest versus MarQuel Mederos (10-1 MMA, 2-0 UFC) was postponed, along with his originally-planned bout for this week’s show against Ahmad Hassanzada (12-3 MMA, 0-0 UFC).
In the case of Evan Elder’s bout vs. Hassanzada, it was postponed due to the latter withdrawing. Last time out, Elder finished Darrius Flowers (12-8-1 MMA, 0-3 UFC) with a second-round submission by way of arm-triangle choke in Denver last July 13.
Elder’s gone 3-2 in his last five contests and is currently riding a two-fight winning streak. Can he keep it up?
Across the way, despite Gauge Young being denied a UFC contract on Dana White’s Contender Series late last summer, he’s rebounded quite nicely, stopping Eric Grant with a left hook in the second round with only 11 seconds having ticked off the clock last December. Due to Young making his UFC debut in Saturday’s card, a planned May 2 fight in FAC 29 in Independence, MO versus Cort Wahle (6-5 MMA) has been called off.
Numerically speaking, Gauge Young has finished eight of his nine victories, including six knockouts. If Young can get a little bit of daylight in the UFC Kansas City co-featured prelim, look out. He just might add another stoppage to his ledger on Saturday.
UFC Kansas City: Chris Gutierrez vs. John Castaneda
Also on the UFC Kansas City undercard, you’ll see a featherweight confrontation matching Chris Gutierrez (21-5-2 MMA, 9-3-1 UFC) with John Castaneda (21-7 MMA, 4-3 UFC). This is a fight that was already supposed to have taken place.
These two competitors were to have squared off against one another on March 8 during UFC 313 but Castaneda took ill in the final hours ahead of the show, causing the fight to be postponed to this Saturday evening. Gutierrez comes into the rescheduled bout having posted a record of 3-2 in his last five appearances.
Last time out, he scored a unanimous decision victory over Quang Le (8-2 MMA, 0-2 UFC) last August at the UFC Apex. He hasn’t had a sustained unbeaten streak in the UFC since he rattled off eight fights without a defeat to begin his promotional tenure. Another victory here could signal the start of more long-term success for Chris Gutierrez.
In the other corner, John Castaneda has gone 3-2 over his past five bouts in his own right. Most recently, he exited the cage on the losing end of a unanimous decision on June 8 in UFC Louisville. After a delay of seven weeks, which man will emerge as the victor?
Final Thoughts
Which fight or fights are you looking forward to on the UFC Kansas City prelims? Let us know in the comments.
