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Road To UFC Season 4 Finale Preview
Mapping Out The Road To UFC 325 For Each Of Saturday’s RTU Finals Pairings
Introduced in the summer of 2022, Road to UFC has served as a pipeline for new talent from Asia and Oceania to find their way to the Octagon either through the tournaments or by showing out in non-tournament action early in the season.
Over the first three seasons, competitors like HyunSung Park, Rinya Nakamura, Rongzhu, Rei Tsuraya and Shi Ming have all earned their place on the UFC roster by successfully navigating the tournaments in their respective divisions. At the same time, two of the biggest success stories to date to emerge from the series — light heavyweight Zhang Mingyang and flyweight Wang Cong, both of whom are currently ranked — stood out in non-tournament matchups.
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This weekend at Qudos Bank Arena in Sydney, Australia, the four tournament finales for Season 4 of Road to UFC kick off UFC 325, so here’s a little refresher on how the quartet of compelling matchups came together before the action hits the Octagon on Saturday evening.
Lightweight Finale: SangWook “Frogman” Kim vs “Street Buddha” Dom Mar Fan
This year’s lightweight tournament finale is a classic “veteran versus prospect” pairing, as South Korea’s SangWook Kim squares off with Australian Dom Mar Fan.
Kim competed on the second season of RTU, earning a first-round submission win in the opening round before landing on the wrong side of the results in a semifinal showdown with eventual tournament winner Rongzhu. He registered a pair of wins on the regional circuit before returning to the fray this season and is one of only two contestants to earn finishes in both their quarterfinal and semifinal pairings on route to competing in the finale.
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A teammate of ascending lightweight Tom Nolan, the 25-year-old Mar Fan is 8-0 for his career in bouts against people not named Quillan Salkilld (against whom he lost twice). “Street Buddha” leaned on a sound all-around game and good fundamentals to garner decision wins in each of his first two outings and now looks to join Nolan on the roster by scoring the biggest win of his career over the South Korean “Frogman” in Sydney.
Featherweight Finale: Keiichiro Nakamura vs Sebastian “Seb” Szalay
Once-beaten talents on extended winning streaks face off in the featherweight finale as Keiichiro Nakamura takes on Sebastian Szalay.
If this were professional wrestling, Nakamura would be this season’s top heel as the confident Japanese prospect has enjoyed smirking at the partisan crowds and posting victories that have left them in stunned silence. His second-round knockout of Eoh Jin Park was brilliant, and his win over Kaiwen to advance to the finale was perhaps the best win of the season in terms of level of competition and experience.
Szalay opened the tournament with a unanimous decision win over experienced Chinese veteran Baergeng Jieleysi, who lost in the finals of Season 3 in November 2024 and was making his third appearances on in four seasons. The Luistro Combat Academy man followed that up with a 47-second of Chang Min Yoon in the semis, and with another win on Saturday, he’ll join his teammates Salkilld and Cody Haddon on the UFC roster.
Bantamweight Finale: Sulangrangbo vs Lawrence “Lok Yin” Lui
Intriguing talents from familiar camps clash in the bantamweight finale as Enbo Fight Club’s Sulangrangbo goes head-to-head with Lawrence Lui from City Kickboxing.
Despite the fact that he only turned 20 in July, Sulangrangbo has already amassed a 10-3 record as a professional and carries a 9-fight winning streak into UFC 325. Sporting tremendous height and reach for the division, the Chinese prospect has earned seven of his 10 wins inside the distance, including a first-round finish of RTU veteran Peter Danesoe in the opening round.
Lui has only lost once in his career, and that came by split decision against Eternal MMA champ and former Dana White’s Contender Series contestant Anthony Drilich. He has a comparable profile as his teammate Navajo Stirling in my opinion as you can see the obvious upside and the dynamic of training with an elite crew like the squad at City Kickboxing creates the possibility of him growing by leaps and bounds each time out.
Flyweight Finale: Aaron “Tauzemup” Tau vs Namsrai “Steppe Warrior” Batbayar
Aaron Tau and Namsrai Batbayar battle it out in the flyweight finale to kick off UFC 325, with the two hopefuls looking to join the quality string of tournament winners to graduate to the UFC roster over the first three seasons.
Another member of Auckland’s CKB squad, Tau turned in a game effort in defeat on Season 8 of Dana White’s Contender Series, losing to Elijah Smith by decision before making his flyweight debut three months later with a second-round stoppage win. He smashed Rio Tirto in the opening round and scored a unanimous decision win over Yin Shuai in the semis to advance to 11-1 overall and the doorstep of joining his Stirling, Carlos Ulberg and Cam Rowston as part of the second wave of CKB fighters advancing up the ranks.
Batbayar is the second finalist to earn finishes in both his quarterfinal and semifinal bouts, having pounded out a second-round win over Wataru Yamauchi in the opening round before submitting Agulali to advance to the finals this weekend. The 25-year-old from Mongolia is 9-1 overall with a 100 percent finishing rate, and his lone defeat came against RTU alum and UFC flyweight Nyamjargal Tumendemberel, who goes after his second straight win at UFC 326 when he takes on Cody Durden.
UFC 325: Volkanovski vs Lopes 2 took place live from Qudos Bank Arena in Sydney, Australia on January 31, 2026. 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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