Umar Nurmagomedov vs Song Yadong Headlines UFC Shanghai Fight Card
The UFC returns to China on Saturday with a bantamweight main event that sits just outside the title picture and could move the winner a lot closer to it. Umar Nurmagomedov vs Song Yadong headlines UFC Fight Night from the Pudong Development Bank Shanghai Oriental Sports Center, matching a former championship challenger against a hometown contender coming off a statement finish.
Nurmagomedov (20-1, 8-1 UFC) is the No. 2 ranked fighter at 135 pounds and has won twice since the only loss of his career. Those decisions over Mario Bautista and former flyweight champion Deiveson Figueiredo followed his January 2025 title-fight defeat to Merab Dvalishvili.
Song (23-9-1, 12-4-1 UFC), ranked No. 6, is making his sixth UFC main-event appearance and will have the Shanghai crowd behind him. He answered a January decision loss to Sean O’Malley by submitting Figueiredo in the second round of a May main event in Macau.
A win will not put either man in the Octagon next for the belt. Champion Petr Yan and Dvalishvili are already booked for a trilogy at UFC 333 on Oct. 24, but Saturday’s result still matters because it will show who belongs in the conversation once that fight is over.
Song had earlier tried to sell the matchup as simple. “For me if I fight Umar it’s easy fight for me. I’m so confident,” he said in an Inside Fighting interview, a line he later told MMA Junkie was meant to build the fight.
Nurmagomedov did not let it pass. “It’s going to be bad news for him in cage if he thinks it’s going to be an easy fight,” he told MMA Junkie this week. “I’m not an easy fight for nobody. Never.”
He also clarified an earlier translated remark that made it sound as if he had called Song a punching bag. Nurmagomedov said he had been frustrated by the O’Malley loss because he believed it would push Song out of title contention, and he still described the Chinese veteran as a tough, experienced fighter.
The Dagestani standout had been scheduled to meet David Martinez in Abu Dhabi on July 25 before that bout was pulled and Martinez was promised a later date. This Shanghai booking became the replacement, and both men made weight, with Nurmagomedov at 135.5 pounds and Song at 136.
The five-rounder is the centerpiece of the UFC’s third visit to Shanghai and its second straight year in the city after UFC Fight Night: Walker vs. Zhang in August 2025. Prelims start at 3 p.m. China Standard Time, with the main card at 6 p.m. local.
The co-main event keeps a Chinese star in prime time. No. 4 strawweight Yan Xiaonan (19-5) meets No. 14 Denise Gomes (12-3) in Yan’s first fight on home soil since 2018.
Yan, China’s first female UFC athlete and a former title challenger against Zhang Weili at UFC 300, is returning from a decision loss to Virna Jandiroba and a long layoff. Gomes has won four in a row, beating Tecia Pennington, Elise Reed, Karolina Kowalkiewicz, and Eduarda Moura.
Another bantamweight fight pairs former RIZIN champion Kai Asakura (22-6) with veteran Aoriqileng (26-13). Asakura finally got his first UFC win in May, knocking out Cameron Smotherman in the first round after submission losses to Alexandre Pantoja and Tim Elliott during a difficult run at flyweight.
Flyweight occupies a large share of the rest of the main card. Alex Perez (26-10) rematches Su Mudaerji (19-7) after their Macau meeting ended in a no contest, while unbeaten newcomers Bilal Hasan (9-0, 1 NC) and Nilson Rojas (9-0) open the featured portion of the show.
Light heavyweight kickboxing champion Liu Ce (3-1) makes his UFC debut against Levi Rodrigues Jr. (5-1). Rodrigues replaced Junior Tafa, who withdrew for undisclosed reasons, and both men weighed in at 206 pounds.
The prelims still carry consequences of their own. Road to UFC Season 4 flyweight winner Namsrai Batbayar meets Andre Lima at a 127-pound catchweight after Lima missed by a pound and was fined 20 percent of his purse.
Rei Tsuruya faces Kevin Borjas at flyweight, Jack Jenkins takes on Sean Woodson at featherweight, and Xiao Long meets UFC newcomer Francesco Nuzzi at bantamweight. Lawrence Lui vs. Hector Santiago stays at 135 pounds.
Former ONE strawweight champion Xiong Jingnan and Julia Polastri both missed the 116-pound limit, coming in at 117 and 118.5, and their bout proceeds at catchweight. Ding Meng vs. Cameron Nelson closes the early action at welterweight.
UFC Fight Night: Nurmagomedov vs. Song streams on Paramount+, with prelims at 3 a.m. ET and the main card at 6 a.m. ET. Saturday will not crown the next bantamweight title challenger on the spot, but it will decide which of these two contenders still has a real claim after Yan and Dvalishvili meet in October.