UFC and London are MMA’s peanut butter and jelly: A match made in heaven.
UFC London events are always a treat solely for the incredible atmosphere and passion the Brits deliver. In the promotion’s first U.K. appearance of 2025, former welterweight champion Leon Edwards returns to try and wash away the stain of his tough title loss against Belal Muhammad this past July. Australian contender Jack Della Maddalena was initially slated to battle “Rocky” until the call came to instead challenge the new champ Muhammad at UFC 315 in May, opening the door for Philadelphia’s Sean Brady to capitalize in a relatively short-notice main event.
The co-main event also holds high stakes, as light heavyweight title hopefuls Carlos Ulberg and former champion Jan Blachowicz look to make a case to be next for the recently crowned Magomed Ankalaev.
Any event outside of the UFC APEX generally carries extra excitement and the card lineups often reflect that. UFC London is no different and appears to potentially be another fun night overseas, but who gets their hands raised? Let’s break it down.
Betting odds courtesy of BetMGM.
UFC London cheat sheet (click the fight for our breakdown):
You’re only as good as your last fight. The age-old quote rings true once again in the oddsmakers’ eyes as former champion Edwards is an underdog to a short-notice opponent just one fight removed from his title loss. Somehow, this feels like an extended slap in the face to Muhammad.
Nonetheless, Brady is in a prime position to score his most significant career victory after falling similarly to Muhammad in October 2022 — Brady’s lone defeat in 18 professional fights. Aside from the champ, Edwards and Brady are arguably the most well-rounded welterweights in the promotion, with Brady carrying the edge in wrestling and Edwards being a technically superior striker — albeit a relatively low-volume striker.
Brady’s pace and pressure are his keys to victory in this fight, and attempting to reproduce Muhammad’s performance in the Edwards rematch is undeniably his best path to victory. He’ll surely go down that route. However, much has been made about the factors around Edwards heading into that failed title defense — whether it was a minor back injury or the fight taking place in the early morning hours in England to accommodate the U.S. pay-per-view time slot. For the sake of discussion, let’s say those elements played a factor; Edwards displayed remarkable growth in his takedown defense throughout his title reign when faced with notoriously great wrestlers Kamaru Usman and Colby Covington.
Where Usman and Covington failed against Edwards was the ability to mix in their overall games along with the wrestling threat to stifle Edwards. Even then, Usman found success in both of their final two encounters. Brady will enjoy great periods of success by replicating similar approaches, and we saw him go the five-round distance in his recent fight with Gilbert Burns. The guy is the truth and will vie for a title someday. I expect this one to be absurdly close and very possibly a split decision. It’s just hard to imagine Edwards won’t continue to get better at dealing with — and learning from — his experiences against fighters who are similar enough to Brady.
“Rocky” gets it done, but it’s a reluctant pick. Flip a coin, folks.
Pick: Edwards
Father time is undefeated. Blachowicz must get through both him and Ulberg on Saturday night.
It’s easy to forget that Blachowicz has been one of the best light heavyweights on the planet in the post-Jon Jones era. That’s because he hasn’t fought since July 2023, when he lost a split decision to the now-former champ Alex Pereira. Blachowicz is 42 years old and almost retired during his layoff following a grueling pair of shoulder surgeries. That type of extreme road doesn’t bode well for anyone’s chances of success in a professional tussle, let alone a man of Blachowicz’s experience and age.
Blachowicz has been a notoriously durable fighter throughout his 40-fight career, having only lost twice by knockout. Unfortunately for him, Ulberg is an absolute dynamo of a striker, possessing thunder in those New Zealand bricks he calls fists. Ulberg has also continued to improve in the grappling department, making him a threat in all areas. Against Blachowicz, he’ll look to use those growing talents defensively, all in the hopes of opening up one window to land a big shot on the former champ.
Pre-layoff, I’m taking Blachowicz all day in this one. But now? It just feels like it’s about that moment for age to catch up to the wielder of “Legendary Polish Power.”
Pick: Ulberg
Does the UFC secretly hate Kevin Holland?
Seriously. Counting this fight with Gunnar Nelson, the “Trailblazer” has had three of the worst stylistic matchups imaginable thrown his way as of late.
There’s no secret to what we get from Holland at this stage. The dude likes to strike — so much so that he doesn’t care if it’s in his best interest not to. (See the Stephen Thompson trouncing.) Physically, he has the edge over many opponents he’ll face, especially at welterweight, but Nelson again is a nightmare.
Once hailed as one of the brightest rising talents at 170 pounds, Nelson at some point just decided to become that guy you pluck from the darkness every once in a while to put someone in their place. He’s fought twice since 2019 — once in 2022 and once in 2023, beating Bryan Barberena and Takashi Sato.
Nelson has long been one of the UFC’s most physically difficult grapplers to deal with. He utilizes methodical transitions and top control to constrict his prey and find submissions. The only times Nelson struggles is really when someone can prevent his takedowns or match his grappling abilities. While Holland is sometimes sneaky from defensive positions (ask Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza), Holland simply won’t stop Nelson in this department.
Iceland’s favorite fighting son will soon secure the slowest three-fight win streak of all time.
Pick: Nelson
Molly McCann is a walking, breathing party — especially when she gets a fight on home soil.
“Meatball” has become somewhat of a “what if” case. She’s been her best self since she dropped from flyweight to strawweight in 2024, but it appears to have been too little, too late at 34 years old, as evidenced in her loss to Bruna Brasil this past July.
Alexia Thainara enters this bout as a replacement for Istela Nunes to make her promotional debut. The circumstances aren’t ideal, but they shouldn’t affect her too negatively, as she’s a kryptonite-type of style to McCann’s bruising brawler. Thainara is a capable submission threat and shouldn’t have an issue getting McCann to the mat as long as she avoids getting into a slugfest. Admittedly, strawweight “Meatball” has been less prone to do so thus far, but the London faithful could very easily bring out her old ways, as it somewhat did against Brasil.
Pick: Thainara
“The Epidemic” vs. “The Problem” is a pretty fun nickname clash. These guys are hazardous to the other’s health, aren’t they?
Jordan Vucenic has been a terror throughout his 16-fight professional career, winning Cage Warriors gold and earning victories over the likes of Paul Hughes and Morgan Charriere — a fellow UFC London combatant. Despite Chris Duncan’s superior UFC experience compared to his opponent, Vucenic has had a tougher strength of schedule throughout his run. Even his UFC debut was nothing to be ashamed of — he lost a unanimous decision against Guram Kutateladze, who we’ll discuss shortly.
From the level of competition in opponents to their finishing ability, Vucenic takes the cake and has serious potential to make waves as he continues to enter his prime as a lightweight.
Pick: Vucenic
Featherweight Nathaniel Wood has been a blast of a time. Spoiler alert: I’ve struggled mightily to pick against him throughout his entire featherweight run thus far, and I don’t think I even have. That won’t change this time, despite Morgan Charriere also being an equally wonderful deliverer of chaos.
Wood’s speed has carried over from bantamweight to make his sensational striking all the more dangerous at 145 pounds. He chains his combinations together beautifully, attacking from angles with in-and-out movement. However, what hasn’t translated in the heavier weight class for Wood is his power, which is likely what the oddsmakers see as his disadvantage against someone like Charriere.
Charriere has been an abusive striker throughout his career. He’ll take a couple to land a highlight-reel blow, and against Wood he’ll feel that in spades with the speed difference. This should be a close thriller of a fight and act as a great opener for Saturday’s the main card.
Pick: Wood
Shoutout to Uncrowned’s own “GC” Conner Burks for taking his talents to London, jerking the curtain in our first fight of the night. What can’t he do?
In all seriousness, Guram Kutateladze is a bad, bad man, and in hindsight has had a bizarre recent stretch of fights. The Georgian scored a big upset split decision win over top-10 staple Mateusz Gamrot in Gamrot’s UFC debut five years ago — then he lost back-to-back bouts and rebounded with a win over Vucenic. Yet here he is as the first fight of the night, albeit in a favorable matchup against Kaue Fernandes. Kutateladze appears to have pissed someone off in the UFC and could desperately use a big finish to get back toward the top 15, where he was after the Gamrot win.
Outside of that, there’s plenty of European flavor to get the London crowd hyped early on the prelims. This card is definitely one worth watching off the rip. Enjoy, ladies and gentlemen.
Quick picks:
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Chris Padilla (-105) def. Jai Herbert (-115)
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Lone’er Kavanagh (-325) def. Felipe dos Santos (+260)
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Marcin Tybura (+100) def. Mick Parkin (-120)
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Christian Leroy Duncan (-550) def. Andrey Pulyaev (+400)
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Puja Tomar (+150) def. Shauna Bannon (-185)
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Caolan Loughran (-105) def. Nathan Fletcher (-115)
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Guram Kutateladze (-450) def. Kaue Fernandes (+340)
