Fight Coverage
The 10 | All-Action April Ahead
Highlighting The Standout Pairings Set To Hit The Octagon Over The Next Four Weeks
We made it, friends. April is upon us, winter is in the rearview mirror, and longer days, warmer days, sunnier days, are on the horizon.
In terms of the UFC fight calendar, we’re into Q2 and midway through a 13-week run with an event each Saturday that has been electric so far and promises more of the same in the month ahead. While I can’t guarantee things play out that way, I feel pretty confident saying that because I’ve looked at the fights slated to hit the Octagon between now and April 25 and compiled the list of absolute bangers and critically important fights set to transpire, and believe you’ll feel the same way once you check it out.
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Mark your calendars; you’re not gonna wanna miss these fights!
UFC Fight Night: Moicano vs Duncan — Saturday, April 4 (Las Vegas, NV)
Virna Jandiroba vs Tabatha Ricci
Give me more of these types of fights when someone has just challenged for a title and come up short.
Jandiroba dropped a competitive decision to Mackenzie Dern last October at UFC 321 and remains stationed in the Top 5 in the strawweight division. She’d won five straight before that contest, is still very much in the championship mix, and is aiming to cement that position this weekend. Ricci got back into the win column last year with a second-round stoppage win over Amanda Ribas and is 7-2 over her nine strawweight starts, but needs a win over someone like Jandiroba in order to really establish herself as a contender.
This matchup gives both athletes a chance to accomplish something significant while also carrying the potential to elevate a new name into the championship conversation, which is always important. On top of that, it’s a terrific fight between Top 10 talents that will help clarify the pecking order in the 115-pound weight class heading into the second half of the year.
More of this, please.
Renato Moicano vs Chris Duncan
This weekend’s main event pairing between Moicano and Duncan carries a little bit of the vibes discussed above, while also being a possible slobberknocker, which is really the perfect combination for a Fight Night main event.
Moicano fought for the lightweight title on short notice last January and then landed on the wrong side of things against Beneil Dariush in June, but he’s also the guy who battered Benoît Saint Denis in Paris two Septembers back and can’t be discounted as a threat in the 5-12 range in the division. He has a wealth of experience, is good everywhere, and doesn’t mind getting bloody, which makes him an ideal test for the ascending Scotsman.
This is a big step up in competition for Duncan, but one that is merited after he’s registered four straight wins, a run that includes three submission finishes and one Fight of the Night bloodletting against Mateusz Rebecki. His one UFC setback came against the one opponent he’s faced that is now ranked (Manuel Torres), but that was more than two years ago, and “The Problem” has looked dangerous since.
The winner will land on the fringes of contention with a matchup against another ranked opponent likely in their future, while the vanquished fighter will remain a crucial staple of the Second 15 in the lightweight divisions, with more perpetually entertaining fights likely awaiting both, regardless of the outcome.
UFC 327: Prochazka vs Ulberg — Saturday, April 11 (Miami, FL)
Tatiana Suarez vs Loopy Godinez
Remember what I was saying about wanting more fights like the Jandiroba-Ricci pairing? May I present Exhibit B for the month of April…
Suarez got things moving in the right direction again following her drubbing at the hands of Zhang Weili with a win over Amanda Lemos that was needed, but not particularly impactful. She's 11-1 overall, entrenched at No. 2 in the rankings, but could really use the kind of dominant performance she was regularly putting forth prior to her absence ahead of her title fight last February.
After dropping competitive decisions to the two women who fought for the vacant title last October in 2024, Godinez earned a pair of wins in 2025 to steady herself in the strawweight rankings. Like Ricci, whom she beat at UFC 295, the 32-year-old Mexican-Canadian would benefit greatly from a statement win over someone of Suarez’s pedigree.
This one is particularly intriguing to me because I think Godinez has the tenacity and wrestling chops to force something more out of Suarez, who has been a little conservative and one dimensional lately, but was an absolute force of nature on her way up.
Curtis Blaydes vs Josh Hokit
Do you know what other kind of fight I really love? Ones where you pair an established contender against a prospect that has been lights out but is taking a gargantuan step up in competition together to see what happens. I love those kinds of fights.
Josh Hokit TKOs Max Gimenis | UFC Fight Night: Bonfim vs Brown
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Josh Hokit TKOs Max Gimenis | UFC Fight Night: Bonfim vs Brown
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Blaydes has been a Top 5 mainstay in the heavyweight division for the last eight years, putting together a 14-5 record with one no contest that includes wins over Mark Hunt, Alistair Overeem, Alexander Volkov, and Jailton Almeida —plus an injury win over Tom Aspinall —and losses to the current champ Aspinall, Sergei Pavlovich, Derrick Lewis, and Francis Ngannou, twice. Dude has almost exclusively fought ranked contenders and has won far more often than he’s lost, and now he’s getting a chance to face an unranked newcomer just two fights into his UFC journey.
Hokit is the kind of athletic prospect we’ve been wanting to see make the transition to MMA for years: a proven top-shelf athlete with wrestling chops who committed to the sport before his athletic prime was behind him, and so far, the results have been pretty good. He’s dominated each of his first two UFC opponents and is 8-0 overall, but this is as big a step up in competition as you can get, and it’s going to be quite telling to see how he performs.
Honestly, both guys deserve props for taking this fight: Blaydes has little to gain from dispatching Hokit outside of adding a win to his resume and some back to his account, while the recent Contender Series grad can catapult into contention or gain ground even with a loss, but could also get embarrassed, which would significantly slow his momentum.
Can’t wait to see how this one plays out.
Joshua Van vs Tatsuro Taira
The flyweight title goes up for grabs in South Florida as a pair of fighters born this century battle for UFC gold for the first time.
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Van won the title last December after Alexandre Pantoja suffered an elbow injury while getting taken down less than a minute into their championship matchup at UFC 323. It was his fourth win of the year, sixth straight overall, and ninth in 10 starts since arriving in the UFC in the summer of 2023, all of which combine to make the 24-year-old champion one of the most fascinating fighters on the roster.
Not to be outdone, Taira wrapped his 2025 campaign one fight before Van, stopping former champion Brandon Moreno in the second round in a fight that was far more one-sided than most anticipated. He’d made relatively quick work of short-notice replacement opponent HyunSung Park earlier in the year and enters this weekend’s title clash with a stellar 18-1 record overall.
Each of these men has the potential to be a cornerstone figure in the promotion for the next 7-10 years, given their age, and there is a very good chance this isn’t the only time we see them face one another with championship gold hanging in the balance. Van is the superior striker, Taira is the superior grappler, and the deciding factors here could be speed, conditioning, and defensive actions.
This has real Fight of the Year potential to me.
Jiri Prochazka vs Carlos Ulberg
The vacancy atop the light heavyweight division will be filled in the UFC 327 main event as former champ Jiri Prochazka faces off with streaking contender Carlos Ulberg at Kaseya Center.
Prochazka is undefeated in the UFC when he’s not facing Alex Pereira, having added a third-round knockout win over Khalil Rountree Jr. to his resume last October on the same night Pereira reclaimed the title that is up for grabs here. All six of his wins in the UFC have come by stoppage, and his unbreakable will and unpredictable approach make him an absolute menace to deal with inside the Octagon.
If Prochazka is jazz —all improvisation and creativity — then Ulberg is the symphony; everything in time, in rhythm, and beautiful in its execution. “Black Jag” has won nine straight and is coming off a tremendous first-round knockout win over Dominick Reyes last year in Perth, and his power and technical proficiencies make him an interesting dance partner for the former champion here.
The next couple of months are going to be really interesting in the light heavyweight division as things realign following Pereira’s departure and the litany of fights that are on the calendar. It’s possible that the winner of this one enjoys a lengthy reign atop the division, but first things first.
UFC Fight Night: Burns vs Malott — Saturday, April 18 (Winnipeg, MB)
Kyler Phillips vs Charles Jourdain
Maybe this is a homer pick because I’m Canadian, it’s a Canadian show, and I’m highlighting a French-Canadian athlete I’ve spoken with countless times over the last bunch of years. That could be it, but I also think this has a chance to be a tremendously insightful contest as well.
The 30-year-old Phillips has fallen out of the rankings in the bantamweight division, but that has more to do with the depth of talent in the weight class than his not being Top 15 caliber. While he enters on a two-fight skid, the former Contender Series competitor and Ultimate Fighter alum was 6-1 in the Octagon prior to his most recent outings, and is the kind of dangerous, experienced foe that should provide a stern test for the ascending Jourdain in this one.
After going 6-6-1 in 13 featherweight starts, Jourdain shifted to bantamweight in late 2024, submitting Victor Henry in Montreal before replicating the feat last October in Vancouver against Davey Grant. His dynamic offense and speed play much better at 135 pounds than they did up a weight class, plus he’s not getting out-sized and out-muscled as he did against some of the powerhouses and giants he faced during his featherweight tenure.
This is the kind of matchup Jourdain needs at this exact moment: a pairing with an established name that has been in the Top 15 that shows the first two wins were harbingers of more to come, and not just good efforts against guys that have lived in the Second 15 for the duration of their UFC tenures. That’s not meant to sound harsh, but the only real way to know if someone is truly capable of working into the rankings and making a run is to see them face off with someone who has already been there.
Speaking of which…
Gilbert Burns vs Mike Malott
The Winnipeg main event serves the exact same purpose for the Canadian half of the welterweight pairing set to headline at Canada Life Centre on April 18.
Burns is a former title challenger and Top 15 mainstay who has spent the previous six years facing the best the division has to offer. While some will be quick to point out that he’s lost four straight, I would be quicker to counter that those losses came against two former champions, a Top 10 mainstay, and an undefeated rising star who looks poised to challenge for gold sometime soon, so maybe slow down a little before declaring him dead.
Malott pushed his winning streak to three with a unanimous decision win over Kevin Holland last October in Vancouver and was the undisputed top choice to headline the promotion’s return to The Great White North later this month. He’s passed all the tests he can pass outside of the rankings and now gets a second chance to earn a number next to his name while also shouldering the load of being the “local guy” in his first main event assignment.
Will “Durinho” get back in the win column while stifling Malott’s rise, or can the leader of the Maple Leaf Militia score the biggest win of his career on Canadian soil?
UFC Fight Night: Sterling vs Zalal — Saturday, April 25 (Las Vegas, NV)
Norma Dumont vs Joselyne Edwards
Remember how earlier in this piece I was talking about matchups where top contenders face emerging names that need a chance to prove just how good they truly are in their respective divisions? May I present Exhibit C…
Dumont entered the year in a bit of an odd position: she’s won six straight, including very impressive victories over Germaine de Randamie and Irene Aldana, but many questioned the scorecards in her split decision win over Ketlen Vieira last time out, which took a little shine off her winning streak. With none of the tippy-top contenders in the division active right now, “The Immortal” hasn’t had a chance to take another step forward, resulting in her fighting backwards in the rankings here.
Joselyne Edwards Secures Statement Round 2 Submission | UFC Houston
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Joselyne Edwards Secures Statement Round 2 Submission | UFC Houston
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Edwards has been a revelation over her last four fights, posting four wins and four stoppages to climb to No. 11 in the rankings, most recently dominating and submitting Nora Cornelle towards the end of February in Houston. “La Pantera” has found a new rhythm during this stretch, fighting with a greater sense of urgency and far more confidence than in her earlier UFC ventures.
This is a high-risk, low-reward fight for Dumont in that beating Edwards doesn’t move her forward, so the key will be turning in the kind of performance that shows she’s levels above the surging Panamanian. Conversely, this is an all-upside play for the Xtreme Couture representative, as a win instantly puts her in the Top 5 and staring down a marquee assignment, while a defeat won’t cost her any real ground.
Again, fights like this, where there are appreciable opportunities for both sides and divisional ramifications at play, are vital and some of the best matchmaking the UFC can do.
Aljamain Sterling vs Youssef Zalal
The final bout in this smorgasbord of April engagements is a fantastic featherweight bout between the former bantamweight titleholder, Aljamain Sterling, and the streaking Youssef “The Moroccan Devil” Zalal.
Since his win over Brian Ortega last August, Sterling has been trying to make his case for a championship opportunity against Alexander Volkanovski, and you can’t blame him: he’s 36 years old, knows there are fewer fights in front of him than behind him, and a championship matchup is what everyone is gunning for, always. “The Funk Master” has earned a pair of solid wins on either side of a loss to No. 1 contender Movsar Evloev since moving to featherweight, and toppling Zalal would certainly strengthen his case for contention going forward.
Zalal’s two-year run since returning to the promotion has been outstanding, as the Factory X Muay Thai representative has won five straight, with four finishes, most recently having made quick work of Josh Emmett back at UFC 320 last October. It was never a question of skill with Zalal, but rather focus and commitment, and now that those things are dialled all the way in, we’re seeing his best self every time out.
Featherweight remains one of the more competitive divisions in the sport, and although the next challenger has seemingly been established, the jockeying for position behind Evloev is as fierce as ever, and how things shake out here will have a significant impact on what that battle looks like.
