Fight By Fight Preview | UFC Fight Night: Blanchfield vs Barber

Top 5 standouts Erin Blanchfield and Maycee Barber face off in this weekend’s highly anticipated main event.

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Blanchfield enters sporting a 7-1 record in the UFC and 13-2 record overall, having rebounded from her loss to Manon Fiorot last March with a gutsy, rallying win over Rose Namajunas in November. The 26-year-old has wins over three ranked opponents, while also besting Miranda Maverick before she made her way into the Top 15, with her only setbacks coming against the recent French title challenger and streaking Dana White’s Contender Series (DWCS) grad Tracy Cortez by split decision in a bout many feel that the New Jersey native did enough to merit the victory in.

Barber returns to action for the first time in a little over a year, aiming to extend her current run of success to seven. She earned an emphatic second-round stoppage win over Amanda Rivas two fights back, and posted the biggest win of her career in her most recent effort, out-working Top 10 mainstay Katlyn Cerminara at UFC 299 last March.

There has been a ton of action in the flyweight division as of late, with champ Valentina Shevchenko recently defending her title in a battle with Fiorot, and Natalia Silva and Jasmine Jasudavicius continuing their good form with victories on the same card in Montreal. This is an opportunity for each of these talented women to score a marquee win and make their respective cases for title contention or, at the very least, maintain their spot in the pecking order heading into the back half of the year.

Additional Main Card Bouts

Mateusz Gamrot vs Ludovit Klein

Seventh-ranked lightweight Mateusz Gamrot squares off with streaking Slovakian Ľudovit Klein in a fascinating pairing that occupies the co-main event slot this weekend

Goff punched his ticket to the UFC with a first-round stoppage win over Shimon Smotritsky on Season 6 of the annual talent search series, following it up with a similar effort in his promotional debut. Last time out, the 26-year-old from Groton, Connecticut dropped a Fight of the Night decision to fellow DWCS alum Trey Waters.

Dating back to his fifth fight on the regional circuit, Brahimaj has been consistently inconsistent, alternating wins and losses over his last 11 bouts. He returned from a two-year, injury-induced absence last May, losing to Themba Gorimbo, but earned an emotional first-round stoppage win over Mickey Gall at home in New York at UFC 309 in November.

Dustin Jacoby vs Bruno Lopes

Dustin Jacoby and Bruno Lopes square off in this main card matchup between light heavyweights at very different points in their UFC journeys.

After arriving in the UFC with a perfect 6-0 mark and six straight first-round finishes, Reese has gone 2-2 over his first four trips into the Octagon, bookending wins over Julian Marquez and Jose Daniel Medina with first-round knockout losses to Cody Brundage and Azamat Bekoev. The 31-year-old Texan is all-action, all the time, so expect him to come out of the gates quickly and look to get back to his finishing ways.

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Todorovic similarly reached the UFC with an unblemished professional record, but has struggled to find success since ascending to the biggest stage in the sport. The 31-year-old Serbian has gone 3-5 over eight starts, and returns to Las Vegas looking to snap a two-fight skid.

There is a very strong likelihood that this one ends inside the distance, as Reese has only seen the scorecards once in 10 bouts and Todorovic has required the insights of the cageside officials twice in 17 career starts. Settle in and buckle up because chances are this one is going to be all gas, no brakes.

Preliminary Card Pairings

Jafel Filho vs Allan Nascimento

Brazilian flyweights collide as Jafel Filho faces off with compatriot Allan Nascimento.

Vieira competes for the first time since pushing impending title challenger Kayla Harrison to her limits at UFC 307 in October, while Chiasson makes the walk having earned consecutive stoppage wins over Pannie Kianzad and Mayra Bueno Silva in 2024. The duo has been scheduled to face off twice before, and do so here with a chance to cement their place in the Top 5 hanging in the balance.

Trevin Giles vs Andreas Gustafsson 

Andreas Gustafsson and Trevin Giles meet in a 180-pound catchweight bout on Saturday’s prelims.

The 34-year-old Gustafsson earned his place on the roster with a second-round mauling of Pat Pytlik last season on Dana White’s Contender Series, extending his record to 11-2 in the process. Giles steps in for Jeremiah Wells, hoping to halt a three-fight slide that has seen him land on the wrong side of the results in matchups with Mike Malott, Carlos Prates, and Gabriel Bonfim.

Kurt Holobaugh vs Jordan Leavitt

DWCS and TUF alum Kurt Holobaugh makes his second start of 2024 this weekend, welcoming Jordan Leavitt back to action for the first time since November 2023.

Oki collected a split decision win over Timmy Cuamba in his promotional debut last year, but fell into a guillotine choke and was put to sleep by Chris Duncan in his most recent outing. Aswell, who dropped a split decision to Bogdan Grad last season on the annual talent search series, is 10-2 overall and a former Fury FC featherweight champion.

Rayanne Dos Santos vs Alice Ardelean

The weekend’s action opens in the strawweight division, as Rayanne Dos Santos takes on Alice Ardelean.

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Dos Santos, who lost to Denise Gomes on Dana White’s Contender Series in 2022 before winning the Invicta FC title, has been on the unhappy end of consecutive split decision verdicts to start her UFC career. After a game showing in her short-notice debut against Shauna Bannon at UFC 304, Ardelean dropped another decision, this time to Melissa Martinez, in her most recent outing to fall to 9-7 overall.