Saturday’s fight card at Rogers Place in Edmonton features an impressive collection of talent, including a pair of former two-time champions, a two-time title challenger, and a couple more Top 5 ranked competitors mixed in to round out the final three fights of the night.
But this weekend’s return to the rink where Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl rack up points in impressive numbers also features a trio of streaking talents looking to take another step towards joining the elite set in their respective divisions, with one of them having the opportunity to take out one of the aforementioned tenured talents.
This is a fight card where promising fighters could push through en masse, and it wouldn’t be surprising if any one of the three athletes mentioned below led the way this weekend.
Here’s a closer look at a triumvirate of talents to pay close attention to on Saturday night in the latest edition of Fighters on the Rise.
Jhonata Diniz
Two fights into his UFC career and Diniz is already staring down an opportunity to punch his ticket to the Top 10 in a main card matchup with Derrick Lewis on Saturday.
The 33-year-old Brazilian only made the transition to MMA midway through 2022, but he’s already collected eight victories, including a contract-winning first-round finish on Season 7 of Dana White’s Contender Series. He picked up a second-round stoppage win over Austen Lane in his promotional debut in April, then returned to Las Vegas four months later and earned a unanimous decision victory over Karl Williams to move to 2-0 inside the Octagon.
As a mixed martial artist, Diniz is still raw and developing, but when it comes to the striking arts, he’s skilled and experienced, offering a diverse array of attacks honed during his years as a kickboxer. He’s shown in his first two UFC outings that he’s capable of mixing up his attacks and his levels, utilizing more kicks than most of his heavyweight counterparts, while targeting all three levels with regularity.
Full Edmonton Fight Card Preview
Saturday night marks a massive step up for Diniz, who goes from facing a winless Lane (he’s since earned his first UFC victory) and a fellow raw prospect in Williams to the man with the most knockout wins in UFC history.
Though he’s challenged for both the undisputed and interim heavyweight titles over the course of his career, this is really the area where the Houston native has thrived: standing in against solid, but untested, talents looking to take a big step forward at his expense. In most instances, Lewis has thwarted those advances, as he did in May when he dispatched Rodrigo Nascimento, but there is still a little Jekyll and Hyde to “The Black Beast” at times, and which one turns up in Edmonton will be key to determining how things shake out on Saturday night.
If Diniz is able to add a win over Lewis to his resume to wrap his rookie year on the roster, he’ll not only put himself in a position to make the Top Newcomers list at the end of the year, but earn himself a place in the rankings, maybe even the Top 10, as well. Lewis currently sits at No. 11 and a resounding effort against someone as respected and experienced could potentially catapult the Brazilian ahead of guys like Marcin Tybura and Jairzinho Rozenstruik.
It’s a big test and a big ask; now it’s time to see if Diniz is really ready to mix it up with the best of the best in the big boy division.
Aiemann Zahabi
It’s very rare that you’ll find a fighter on the best run of their career just a couple weeks ahead of their 37th birthday, but that’s precisely where Zahabi is heading into his clash with Pedro Munhoz this weekend in Edmonton.
More than seven years after making his UFC debut, the Montreal native heads into action on Saturday night riding a four-fight winning streak, having followed up his UFC 289 first-round knockout win over Aoriqileng by bouncing Javid Basharat from the ranks of the unbeaten in March. While some may have been hesitant to give Zahabi his due for the first three wins of his current run, he gave an outstanding account of himself against the previously unbeaten and highly regarded Basharat, losing the opening round on all three cards before rallying to take the second and third to earn scores of 29-28 across the board.
The Montreal native has never been in a hurry to chase opportunities, opting instead to pick his spots, hone his craft, and spend a great deal of time coaching, but he’s in the midst of an outstanding run of form right now and is clearly focused on striking while the iron is hot. This weekend’s pairing with Munhoz represents another step up in competition and another chance for the younger Zahabi to shine, while potentially taking yet another step forward in the ultra-competitive bantamweight ranks.
Although he’s fallen out of the Top 15, Munhoz remains one of the most respected and experienced veterans in the weight class — someone that has logged 21 appearances under the UFC banner, the vast majority of which have come against ranked opposition or emerging names looking to use him as a steppingstone to greater opportunities. He’s faced a handful of former champions (four to be exact), plus a bevy of contenders alike, and while it hasn’t always worked out in his favor, to a man they’ll tell you that Munhoz is a tough out that made them work for every inch of ground they gained inside the Octagon.
Zahabi is technical and crafty — smooth with his hands, good in the clinch, and slick on the ground if the situation arises — and he’s looked so much more confident and comfortable in the Octagon during the course of his winning streak than he did at the outset of his UFC run, when it felt like he was fighting to prove he belonged.
He’s clearly more than deserving of a spot on the roster, and if he can push his winning streak to five with a win over Munhoz this weekend, he could be looking at a date with a Top 15 opponent next time out.
Youssef Zalal
Two fights into his second tour of duty with the UFC, Zalal looks like the fully actualized version of the intriguing prospect that turned up the first time around.
When he first turned up in the UFC, Zalal was a solid prospect that was making a name for himself under the LFA banner, having dropped a couple decisions to slightly more experienced opponents while showing flashes of real upside. He hit the ground running, earning three straight decision wins in the span of seven months, but had his momentum halted by a short-notice replacement opponent named Ilia Topuria, which kicked off a four-fight stretch without a win that resulted in the Factory X Muay Thai representative getting bounced from the promotion.
UFC JOURNEY: Brandon Moreno vs Amir Albazi
Three first-round finishes put him back on the UFC radar, and since returning to the fold, he’s been dynamite in the Octagon, first submitting Billy Quarantillo, and then totally dominating and doing the same to Jarno Errens in August, where he picked up a Performance of the Night bonus for his efforts, as well.
Zalal has excellent length and a quality blend of weapons for the division, but what has changed is that he’s deploying them with confidence and consideration now, rather than just going out there and trying to figure things out on the fly. He’s picking his spots well, attacking when there are openings, and not rushing into things, which has resulted in a pair of dynamic finishes and a chance to make some real waves in the division now ruled by the first man to beat him in the UFC.
Saturday, he gets a serious test in the form of Jack Shore, the former Cage Warriors bantamweight champ who is looking to rebound after his last fight with Joanderson Brito was halted by the doctors. “Tank” is a tremendous grappler and gritty as can be, making this a real statement opportunity for Zalal in Edmonton.
This feels like the fight where we really find out if “The Moroccan Devil” is ready to make a serious push in the featherweight division, as Shore is a notoriously tough out with the skills to potentially stifle Zalal’s best offensive weapons.
Beating “Billy Q” will still register as the more noteworthy win for most, but the Welsh standout is the most complete fighter he’s faced since his return, and besting him would carry a great deal of weight, and show that Zalal is someone to keep very close tabs on in the 145-pound weight class heading into 2025 and beyond.
UFC Fight Night: Moreno vs Albazi took place live from Rogers Place in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada on November 2, 2024. See the final Prelim & Main Card Results, Official Scorecards and Who Won Bonuses - and relive the action on UFC FIGHT PASS!
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