Fight Coverage
The 10 | June Schedule Jam-Packed With Goodness
Four Events, Dozens Of Fights, And Non-Stop Action On The Horizon
Buckle up, kids, because the June schedule is capital L Loaded.
You’re going to think I’m being hyperbolic and doing my best to hype up the next month of action inside the Octagon, and while setting the table for what is on tap is certainly part of the impetus for this series, go take a look at the collection of fights already penciled in to take place in June and tell me if you think I’m exaggerating when I call the coming month loaded?
GET YOUR TICKETS: UFC 316 | UFC Atlanta | UFC Baku | UFC 317 | UFC Nashville
Two pay-per-views, four title fights, a No. 1 contender bout at flyweight, and a bushel of genuinely terrific pairings across all weight divisions, up and down the rankings; it’s such a great projected lineup that I honestly thought about doing Honorable Mentions for all the compelling fights that failed to make the cut for each event.
Let’s not dilly-dally any longer.
Here is this month’s edition of The 10.
UFC 316: Dvalishvili vs O’Malley 2 — Saturday, June 7 (Newark, NJ)
Mario Bautista vs Patchy Mix
A couple fights before the bantamweight title goes on the line, Mario Bautista will welcome Patchy Mix to the Octagon for the first time in this absolutely riveting short notice pairing.
Patchy Mix Fight Week Interview | UFC 316
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Patchy Mix Fight Week Interview | UFC 316
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Currently riding a seven-fight winning streak, Bautista has been making slow and steady progress up the divisional ranks for the last couple years but has lacked the signature performance that would really catapult him into the thick of things in the ultra-competitive 135-pound weight class. He earned decision wins over Ricky Simon and Jose Aldo in 2024 and has lost just once in 10 fights since his promotional debut opposite Cory Sandhagen in Brooklyn.
The last Bellator bantamweight champion, Mix was on the short list of top talents outside of the UFC prior to signing with the promotion last month. The 31-year-old is 20-1 overall, with 15 of his wins coming inside the distance, and touches down in Newark riding a seven-fight winning streak that includes victories over James Gallagher, Kyoji Horiguchi, Raufeon Stots, and Sergio Pettis.
Order UFC 316: Dvalishvili vs O'Malley 2
Mix steps in for “Chito” Vera, who was forced out for undisclosed reasons, setting up a fascinating matchup with Bautista that will tell us a great deal about where each man fits in the division at the moment. No matter who wins or how, it’s a statement victory in a division that has been in the spotlight the last couple weeks and will be so even more in the days leading up to UFC 316.
A new contender emerges no matter how things shake out, adding additional spice to the division regardless of who gets their hand raised.
Julianna Peña vs Kayla Harrison
Julianna Peña seeks to successfully defend her bantamweight title for the first time in this highly anticipated showdown with former Olympic gold medalist Kayla Harrison.
UFC 316 Countdown | Julianna Peña vs Kayla Harrison
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UFC 316 Countdown | Julianna Peña vs Kayla Harrison
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Pena became a two-time champion last fall with a narrow split decision win over Raquel Pennington in Salt Lake City. As she has throughout her career, the former Ultimate Fighter winner leaned on her grit and tenacity to get the job done, and now aims to use a comparable approach to topple Harrison and cement her standing as the ruler of the 135-pound ranks.
RELATED: Harrison's Quest For Greatness | Coach Conversation
Harrison also fought on that event in Salt Lake City last October, getting the better of Ketlen Vieira in a competitive bout that forced the former WSOF and PFL standout to dig deeper than she did in her dominant debut. The 34-year-old challenger is 18-1 overall, has won three straight since suffering her lone defeat, and has had her eye on UFC gold since signing with the promotion; now she gets the chance to claim it.
Not only will the jawing between these two in the preamble to them stepping into the Octagon be entertaining, but there is a ripple of intrigue that runs through this pairing that can’t be ignored. Pena is a tenacious pressure fighter with exceptional conditioning, and while Harrison was able to go the distance and defeat Vieira at UFC 307, the potential for two additional rounds looms large over this one.
Merab Dvalishvili vs Sean O’Malley
Nine months after their first encounter, Merab Dvalishvili and Sean O’Malley face off for a second time, with the bantamweight title once again hanging in the balance.
“The Machine” made a quick turnaround following his Noche UFC win over O’Malley to successfully defend his title in January against undefeated challenger Umar Nurmagomedov. It was a vintage effort from the champion, who worked at a torrid pace, dropped the first two rounds, and then rallied to roll past Nurmagomedov and extend his winning streak to a dozen.
Full Fight | Merab Dvalishvili vs Sean O'Malley 1
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Full Fight | Merab Dvalishvili vs Sean O'Malley 1
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O’Malley competes for the first time since that initial meeting, where he entered with an injury and had little to offer until the final round. The loss snapped a seven-fight unbeaten streak and once again got people chattering about the strength of schedule the Dana White’s Contender Series graduate fought on his way to the title and through his first successful defense earlier in the year.
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This is one of those weird situations where it feels like there is so much more riding on this fight for O’Malley than there is for the champion, as Dvalishvili has already beaten the technicolor standout once and added a win over Nurmagomedov earlier this year to cement his standing atop the division. Running it back here provides “Suga” the opportunity to show how much of an impact the hip injury he carried into the first meeting hampered his performance, with the outcome likely to have a major role in dictating what his legacy will be going forward.
UFC Fight Night: Usman vs Buckley — Saturday, June 14 (Atlanta, GA)
Rose Namajunas vs Miranda Maverick
Denver-based flyweights Rose Namajunas and Miranda Maverick are set to square off in the co-main event of the UFC’s return to Atlanta on June 14.
Two-time strawweight champ Namajunas was active last year, earning wins over Amanda Ribas and Tracy Cortez before dropping a unanimous decision to Erin Blanchfield at the start of November. She’s now 2-2 in four flyweight starts and has fallen to No. 7 in the rankings in the talent-rich 125-pound weight class.
Maverick also made three appearances in 2024, posting wins over Andrea Lee, Dione Barbosa, and Jamey-Lyn Horth to extend her winning streak to four. The 27-year-old has long been viewed as someone that could make a push towards the top of the division, and if she’s going to do so, the time is now.
READ: May's Monthly Report
There was a ton of action and movement in the division at UFC 315, with another critical bout taking place this past weekend, and so if either of these ranked athletes wants to ensure they are included in the next round of critical bookings, they need to grab a victory at State Farm Arena. Will Namajunas bounce back and show she’s still a threat or can Maverick collect the biggest win of her career?
Kamaru Usman vs Joaquin Buckley
Former champ Kamaru Usman returns to take on surging contender Joaquin Buckley in this fascinating main event pairing in Atlanta.
The 38-year-old Usman hasn’t fought in 20 months, and hasn’t earned a victory since his decision win over Colby Covington at UFC 268. After losing the title to Leon Edwards at UFC 278, Usman came up just short in the rematch before earning a similar majority decision loss in a short-notice middleweight pairing against Khamzat Chimaev at UFC 294 in October 2023.
Buckley moved to welterweight five months before Usman’s last fight, and in the time the ex-champ has been away, “New Mansa” has emerged as a contender. The St. Louis native posted four wins last year, capping things off with a dominant win over Covington in a fight that was stopped due to a cut, but had largely been one-way traffic up to that point.
It’s so difficult to know what to expect from Usman and how to rate him coming into this one because while he’s lost three straight, two of those were competitive title bouts — one of which he was winning right until the last minute — and the other was a game effort on short-notice, up a division against an undefeated wrecking machine set to challenge for the middleweight title in August.
CATCH UP ON THE ULTIMATE FIGHTER: Episode 1 Recap | Episode 2 Recap
The pressure is on “The Nigerian Nightmare” to show that he still has something left in the tank, while Buckley gets the opportunity to slide into ATL and potentially extend his winning streak by beating one of the top champions in the history of the division.
UFC Fight Night: Hill vs Rountree Jr. — Saturday, June 21 (Baku, Azerbaijan)
Rafael Fiziev vs Ignacio Bahamondes
The penultimate bout of the UFC’s maiden voyage to Azerbaijan features Top 10 lightweight Rafael Fiziev squaring off with ascending DWCS grad Ignacio Bahamondes.
Fiziev, who represents the host nation when he competes, enters the bout on a three-fight slide, having suffered a knee injury during his fight with Mateusz Gamrot in between his twin losses to Justin Gaethje. The 32-year-old had been sidelined for nearly 18 months when he jumped in with Gaethje for a second time in March, and is likely to be a little more dialed in now that he’s gotten a fight under his belt again.
Bahamondes has gone 6-2 since graduating to the UFC as a member of the DWCS Class of 2020, pushing his overall record to 17-5 in the process. He heads to Baku on a three-fight winning streak, having earned consecutive first-round finishes over Christos Giagos, Manuel Torres, and Jalin Turner to land on the doorstep of the Top 15 in the lightweight division.
Will Fiziev collect a victory in front of the partisan crowd at Baku Crystal Hall or will Bahamondes keep rolling and force his way into the Top 10?
Jamahal Hill vs Khalil Rountree Jr.
Hopefully the third time is the charm as Jamahal Hill and Khalil Rountree Jr. once again look to share the Octagon, this time in Azerbaijan.
FULL FIGHTS: Dvalishvili vs O'Malley 1 | O'Malley vs Sterling | Dvalishvili vs Nurmagomedov | Peña vs Nunes 1 | Harrison vs Holm
This marks Hill’s third attempt to collect his first win since claiming and then relinquishing the light heavyweight title in January 2023. After suffering a ruptured Achilles tendon the following summer, “Sweet Dreams” has landed on the wrong side of things against both Alex Pereira and Jiri Prochazka.
Rountree Jr. parlayed five straight wins into an unexpected championship opportunity against Pereira last year at UFC 307, where he showed his mettle by taking the first two rounds off the Brazilian marauder before ultimately getting stopped in the fourth. He has put the inconsistency of his early career behind him, and will look to cement his standing as a contender by dispatching the former champion here.
Originally scheduled to face off last summer and then again earlier this year in Kansas City, these two are likely getting sick of being stationed opposite one another without getting the chance to punch the other in the face, but all that should come to an end here, and a big effort on either side would put the winner in the thick of the title chase heading into the back half of the year.
UFC 317: Topuria vs Oliveira — Saturday, June 28 (Las Vegas, NV)
Brandon Royval vs Manel Kape
Prior to the flyweight belt going up for grabs, Brandon Royval and Manel Kape will face off in a bout that is likely to determine the next title challenger in the 125-pound weight class.
ATHLETE PROFILES: Brandon Royval | Manel Kape
The 32-year-old Royval had an excellent year in 2024, earning a pair of hard-fought wins over Brandon Moreno and Tatsuro Taira to maintain his standing as one of the top contenders in the flyweight division. Over the course of his five-year UFC career, Royval is 7-3, having avenged his loss to Moreno, with his other two setbacks coming against current champ Alexandre Pantoja.
Now in his fifth year on the roster, Kape is finally closing in on the position many forecasted he would claim straight out of the gates, having earned victories in back-to-back outings last year to move to 6-1 over his last seven bouts. “Starboy” has looked special at times, and if he can tap into that kind of effort here, he may finally punch his ticket to a championship opportunity.
Stationed at No. 1 and No. 6 in the rankings, respectively, it feels like the winner of this one will be next in line for a title shot. There are no guarantees, but the potential should prompt each man to be at their absolute best when they make the walk on June 28 in Las Vegas.
Alexandre Pantoja vs Kai Kara-France
Flyweight champ Alexandre Pantoja returns to International Fight Week, defending his title against Maori powerhouse Kai Kara-France.
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Pantoja claimed the title with a grimy decision win over Moreno two summers ago, and has since successfully defended the title three times. Last time out, the American Top Team representative ran roughshod over Japanese challenger Kai Asakura, submitting him two minutes into the second round.
After being out for more than a year, Kara-France returned with a bang last August, rolling into UFC 305 in Perth and stopping local boy Steve Erceg in the first round. The City Kickboxing man has been a staple near the top of the division for the last several years and has the kind of power that can shift a fight on a dime if he connects.
Will it be “And Still” or “And New” when the dust settles after this one?
Ilia Topuria vs Charles Oliveira
Ilia Topuria and Charles Oliveira close out UFC 317 in a clash for the vacant UFC lightweight title.
Topuria moves up to the 155-pound ranks after one of the most impressive two-fight efforts in recent memory last year. In February, he marched in and knocked out Alexander Volkanovski to claim the featherweight title, and then in October, he did the same to Max Holloway to defend his belt and move to 16-0 overall.
Former champion Oliveira split a pair of appearances in 2024, dropping a competitive bout with Arman Tsarukyan at UFC 300 in April before dominating his rematch with Michael Chandler at UFC 309 in New York City. “Do Bronxs” has fought just three times since losing the belt to Islam Makhachev in October 2022 and will look to become the first person to win the UFC lightweight title twice with a victory here.
I get goosebumps thinking about this fight, as there is just so much on the line in addition to the lightweight title.
Topuria has a chance to continue one of the most ridiculous (in a good way) runs in UFC history, while Oliveira can make history on multiple fronts by registering a win. Stylistically, it’s a fascinating matchup between the pressuring former featherweight king and the opportunistic and wily Brazilian, and no matter who leaves Las Vegas with the title in their carry-on, we should have plenty of outstanding options to consider for the second half of 2025.
UFC 316: Dvalishvili vs O'Malley 2 took place live from Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey on June 7, 2025. See the final Prelim & Main Card Results, Official Scorecards and Who Won Bonuses - and relive the action on UFC FIGHT PASS!