UFC Fight Night: Burns vs Brady event preview and full card as several bouts get sadly canceled at the last minute
06/09/2024 13:16
Following a week's break, the UFC returns to the Apex in Las Vegas this weekend for a solid Fight Night card headlined by two of the best welterweights in the world, Gilbert Burns and Sean Brady.
Despite a string of bouts sadly falling through at the last minute, this weekend's UFC Fight Night card is arguably one of the better Apex-based events of the past few months – with fans in need of a quick guide through the fights and fighters to keep an eye on.
UFC Fight Night: Burns vs Brady – Date and start time
UFC Fight Night: Burns vs Brady, also known as UFC Vegas 97, UFC Fight Night 242 and UFC on ESPN+ 100, is scheduled to go down live from the Apex in Las Vegas on Saturday, September 7.
The preliminary card kicks off from 1 PM PT, 4 PM ET and 9 PM GMT – with the main card starting from 4 PM on the West Coast, 7 PM on the East Coast and midnight here in the UK.
UFC Fight Night: Burns vs Brady – Full card
UFC Vegas 97: Main Card
- Gilbert Burns vs Sean Brady
- Jessica Andrade vs Natalia Silva
- Kyle Nelson vs Steve Garcia
- Matt Schnell vs Cody Durden
- Trevor Peek vs Yanal Ashmouz
The main event of UFC Vegas 97 sees former welterweight title challenger Gilbert Burns returning to action against 16-1 American contender, Sean Brady.
'Durinho' is coming off back-to-back losses to Belal Muhammad and Jack Della Maddalena; although fans would do right to remember how that fight with 'Remember the Name' was taken on short notice, and the Brazilian was getting the better of JDM prior to a last-round KO.
This weekend will be Sean Brady's first appearance of 2024, having bounced back from his own loss to the newly crowned welterweight champion with a third-round submission of Kelvin Gastelum in December 2023.
With Brady ranked #8 and Burns ranked #6 in the welterweight division, the winner could see themselves jump up as high as the #5 spot currently retained by Colby Covington, who also hasn't fought since December 2023.
In the co-main event of the evening, former UFC champion and fan favorite brawler Jessica Andrade faces the surging Natalia Silva, in what should be an all-out war between two of Brazil's top female stars.
Andrade is hoping that a big win could tempt the legendary Joanna Jedrzejczyk out of retirement for an inaugural women's BMF title fight, whilst Silva is looking to extend her outstanding winning streak to 12 in a row.
Should Silva earn a statement win this weekend in Las Vegas, don't be surprised to hear the 17-5 flyweight prospect calling for a number-one contender's matchup; especially with champion Alexa Grasso set to defend her flyweight title next weekend at UFC 306.
Elsewhere on the card, Steve 'Mean Machine' Garcia, who has 13 career wins by KO/TKO, returns to action against Kyle Nelson, with the Canadian 'Monster' coming off a brutal first-round finish of Bill Algeo earlier this year.
Speaking of knockouts, Trevor Peek vs Yanal Ashmouz is expected to be a 'Fight of the Night' contender with 12 of their 16 combined wins coming by way of KO/TKO.
UFC Vegas 97: Prelims
- Rong Zhu vs Chris Padilla
- Isaac Dulgarian vs Brendon Marotte
- Felipe Dos Santos vs Andre Lima
- Yi Zha vs Gabriel Santos
- Jaqueline Amorim vs Vanesa Demopoulos
- Andre Petrovski vs Dylan Budka
- Zygimantas Ramaska vs Nathan Fletcher
All things considered, fans should be in store for a solid preliminary card as well, with a host of fresh faces and highly entertaining athletes set to throw down in Las Vegas.
Fighters to keep an eye on here include Isaac Dulgarian, who is 6-1 as a pro and looking to bounce back from a decision loss to Christian Rodriguez; undefeated 9-0 Brazilian Andre Lima, who takes on the ever-entertaining Felipe Dos Santos, and England's own 8-1 TUF star Nathan Fletcher.
There are also two newcomers set to make their promotional debuts this weekend; Rong Zhu, who takes on Chris Padilla, and Yi Zah, who takes on Gabriel Santos.
Rong Zhu is a Chinese athlete who is 25-5 as a professional with 21 of those wins coming inside the distance, with Yi Zah also representing China with a 25-4 record and 19 victories via finish – both fighters made their way to the promotion through the 'Road to UFC' series.
UFC Fight Night: Burns vs Brady – The bouts we were meant to see
Whilst this weekend's Fight Night card is certainly better than those that we've seen of late at the UFC Apex, there were several fights that were sadly canceled or postponed due to various unforeseen circumstances.
- Calvin Kattar vs Kyle Nelson – Kattar withdrew with undisclosed injury.
- Aiemann Zahabi vs Marcus McGhee – Fight removed from the card.
- Matt Schnell vs Alessandro Costa – Costa withdrew with shoulder injury, replaced by Durden.
- Ovince Saint Preux vs Ryan Spann – OSP withdrew with illness, fight re-booked for UFC 307 in October.
The opening fight of the night between Zygimantas Ramaska and Nathan Fletcher was originally booked for UFC Fight Night: Cannonier vs Borralho last month, with an injury on the Englishman's part forcing the bout to be postponed to this weekend.
Overall, whilst any Fight Night card at the Apex decidedly suffers from the lack of atmosphere, this weekend's action is thankfully a far more interesting event than those we've seen of late.
