Preparations for UFC Abu Dhabi are progressing, with several new matchups officially announced for the card headlined by former middleweight champion Robert Whittaker taking on Reinier de Ridder.
Among the newly added bouts is the return of popular middleweight fighter Shara “Bullet” Magomedov. He is scheduled to face Marc-Andre Barriault at the event in Abu Dhabi.
Magomedov seeks to bounce back after experiencing his first defeat in the UFC against the highly-rated striker Michael “Venom” Page. Meanwhile, Barriault enters this fight following a significant knockout victory over Bruno Silva at UFC 315 last weekend.
In addition to Magomedov vs. Barriault, UFC has confirmed three additional contests for the Abu Dhabi event:
- A light heavyweight clash featuring ranked fighters Nikita Krylov (30-10) and Bogdan Guskov (17-3).
- A ranked flyweight encounter between Asu Almabayev (21-3) and Ramazan Temirov (19-3).
- A light heavyweight fight pitting Ibo Aslan (14-2) against Billy Elekana (7-2).
Nikita Krylov, currently ranked No. 10 in the light heavyweight division, is looking to rebound from a first-round knockout loss to Dominick Reyes at UFC 314 in April. Bogdan Guskov, ranked No. 14, is on a three-fight winning streak since his promotional debut loss to Volkan Oezdemir, recently submitting Billy Elekana at UFC 311 in January.
Both Asu Almabayev and Ramazan Temirov last competed at UFC Vegas 103 in March with differing results. The No. 8-ranked Almabayev saw his four-fight UFC winning streak end with a loss to Manel Kape in the main event. Conversely, Temirov secured a unanimous decision win over Charles Johnson earlier on the card, earning him the No. 13 spot in the flyweight rankings.
Ibo Aslan, a 2023 Contender Series standout, impressed with two knockout wins in his initial UFC appearances against Anton Turkalj and Raffael Cerqueira. However, his last outing resulted in a submission loss to Ion Cutelaba in February. Billy Elekana, a former PFL fighter, previously lost his UFC debut to Bogdan Guskov at UFC 311.
UFC Abu Dhabi is scheduled to take place on July 26 at the Etihad Arena.
