UFC Saudi Arabia: 20 Fun Tidbits, Facts And Storylines | UFC Betting Sites

After absolutely dreadful UFC Vegas 93 show — where Alex Perez suffered a knee injury at the hands of Tatsuro Taira (recap) — Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) travels to Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. In the main event, Robert Whittaker takes on surging Middleweight, Ikram Aliskerov, on short notice (details), while Sergei Pavlovich clashes with Alexander Volkov in a Heavyweight showdown in the co-feature.

UFC Saudi Arabia has several fun fights, and the atmosphere should be incredible because its the promotion’s super important debut in The Kingdom, so before it all goes down tomorrow morning (Sat., June 22, 2024) on ABC/ESPN+, let’s checkout some random storylines, tidbits and statistics ahead of showtime …

First Time In The Kingdom!

UFC will hold its first-ever event in The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia this weekend. Obviously, the promotion has held several events in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, but never 588 miles away in Saudi.

UFC was supposed to hold a card in Riyadh earlier this year; however, the event got pushed to tomorrow (here’s why).

Cursed!

UFC Saudi Arabia must have broken a mirror because the card has fallen apart and is being held together with duct tape (just like UFC 303). The original main event between Khamzat Chimaev and Whittaker got canceled one week before the event (details), while seven other fights got canceled and/or re-arranged.

It has truly been June gloom for UFC.

Stakes

When Whittaker vs. Chimaev was announced, UFC CEO, Dana White, revealed the matchup was a Middleweight title No. 1 contender elimination match. Well, now it seems unclear because Chimaev is out and Whittaker is now facing a dangerous (and unranked) fighter.

Is there anyone clamoring for a third fight with Israel Adesanya or a rematch with Dricus Du Plessis? It does not feel like it, especially when there is Sean Strickland, who defeated Adesanya for the title and had an incredibly close fight with Du Plessis.

But hey, Strickland got a title shot off of defeating an unranked Abus Magomedov.

They Called, He Said, ‘Yes’

Aliskerov is fighting Whittaker — the No. 3-seeded Middleweight — on just 10 days notice, which is huge task. The 31-year-old Russian was supposed to fight last weekend in UFC Vegas 93’s co-main event against Antonio Trocoli (I’ll get to him later), but was literally pulled during media day.

Aliskerov has been amazing thus far in UFC, running through both of his opponents in the first round. And, his only loss of his professional career is to Chimaev back in 2019 (and not in UFC).

No one knows how high his ceiling is but a win over Whittaker would be massive. Will he get a title shot? No, but he’ll be close.

UFC Fight Night: Whittaker v Aliskerov Ceremonial Weigh-in

Russia Vs. Russia

The co-main event features two massive Heavyweights from Russia — Pavlovich and Volkov — setting up a good ‘ole fashioned Russian showdown.

Pavlovich is coming off his second Octagon loss against Tom Aspinall at UFC 295 for UFC’s interim Heavyweight championship (watch highlights), while Volkov is on his second best run in the promotion, rattling off three straight wins (all via knockout).

Obviously, Pavlovich is a knockout artist with all of his finishes coming by way of knockout. Volkov has only been knocked out once in UFC (to Derrick Lewis, in a fight he was dominating).

Something has to give …

Friends Forever?

Pavlovich and Volkov will collide tomorrow night, but they are actually good friends and have trained with each other often.

The pair of Russian fighters did not want to fight each other; however, in UFC, it doesn’t matter … unless your Daniel Cormier and Cain Velasquez.

UFC’s Yo-Yo Dietician

During UFC Saudi Arabia media day, UFC staple, Kelvin Gastelum, revealed he was concerned about his weight. He successfully returned to Welterweight back in Dec. 2023 at UFC Austin; however, this fight week, he failed.

Indeed, his fight with Daniel Rodriguez got moved to 185 pounds and, according to Rodriguez, he lost a lot respect for The Ultimate Fighter (TUF) winner.

Gastelum had been plagued with weight problems in his early UFC career, forcing him to Middleweight for past eight years. And it looks like the weight problems have come back, unfortunately.

‘Missing Weight’ Show

Oh, and get this … one month ago Gastelum debuted a new show on his YouTube channel: Missing Weight. In the show he gave a rating to, “the best tacos ever.”

You literally can’t make up this stuff.

D-Rod Returns

It has been 13 months since Rodriguez has last competed inside the Octagon. He was last in action against Ian Garry, getting knocked out in the first round (watch highlights). Prior to that, he was submitted by Neil Magny (see that here).

“D-Rod” was supposed to return to action at UFC Noche against Santiago Ponzinibbio, but he tested positive for Ostarine and was suspended. The suspension was cut short because of a tainted supplement.

Welcome To UFC!

Three fighters are making their Octagon debuts at UFC Saudi Arabia.

Antonio Trocoli (12-3) faces Sharabutdin Magomedov. Trocoli has had a long road to get into UFC mostly because of his doing. He won a contract on season three of Contender Series; however, he pissed hot for nandralone and was suspended for nine months, which granted his UFC release. The Brazilian went back to the regional scene, scored a first round submission win and then has three UFC fight cancelations — one in 2022 and two this year. Tricoli holds a 77 percent finish rate with five submission wins. Oh, and he’s married to Mackenzie Dern.
Felipe Lima (12-1) fights Muhammad Naimov. Lima has been one of the best young prospects out of UFC and now he gets his chance. He is the former OKTAGON MMA Bantamweight champion, holding a 50 percent finish rate.
Magomed Gadzhiyasulov (8-0) takes on Brendson Ribeiro. Gadzhiyasulov comes from season seven on Contender Series where he mauled Jose Medina. The Russian fighter holds a 63 percent finish rate with five knockouts.

Ahoy!

“Shara Bullet” Magomedov makes his highly anticipated return tomorrow afternoon after not fighting since UFC 294. “The Pirate” is a extremely fun striker to watch and has a lot of hype around him because of his style, but also because he basically fights with one eye.

No one really knows how good Magomedov can be because the thought is he can’t fight in the United States because of his eye, but according to his manager, it’s untrue.

After his fight in Saudi Arabia, he flys straight to Las Vegas, Nevada, for UFC 303 and then Hollywood, Calif., for a spot in a movie.

Can Dalby Pull Another Upset?

Another hot prospect returns on the “Prelims” this weekend, Rinat Fakhretdinov. He has a lot of hype — and rightfully so — running through three of his opponents, including Kevin Lee (watch highlights).

Fakhretdinov fought to a draw in his last outing, which pumped the breaks on his hype a little bit. Now, he gets a stiff test in Nicolas Dalby, who knocked off a prospect in last outing.

Dalby has been counted out in several of his UFC fights and always finds a way to win. Will he do it here?

Road To UFC Finals

Xiao Long faces Chang Ho Lee in the Bantamweight Road To UFC finals, which should have taken place early this year (Xiao pulled out).

The winner of the fight will be rewarded a UFC contract. Both men have finishing ability with Xiao crushing Lee with experience.

UFC Saudi Arabia Fight Leader

The fighter with the most career fights competing at UFC Saudi Arabia is Volkov (47).

UFC Saudi Arabia Fight Rookie

The fighter with the least amount of career fights competing at UFC Saudi Arabia is Gadzhiyasulov (8).

UFC Saudi Arabia Knockout King

The fighter with the most amount of career knockouts competing at UFC Saudi Arabia is Volkov (24).

UFC Saudi Arabia Submission Savant

The fighter with the most amount of career submissions competing at UFC Saudi Arabia is Kang Kyung-ho (12).

Winners And Losers

Fifteen fighters are coming off wins, six are coming off losses and one is coming off a dreaded draw (Fakhretdinov).

Multi-Divisions

Here are the divisions that will be on display this Saturday:

One Heavyweight fight
Two Light Heavyweight fights
One Welterweight fight
Three Middleweights
OneLightweight fights
One Featherweight fight
Two Bantamweight fights

Beta Dog

According to DraftKings, the “biggest” underdog at UFC Saudi Arabia is Trocoli at +425.

Remember that MMAmania.com will deliver LIVE round-by-round, blow-by-blow coverage of the entire UFC Saudi Arabia fight card right here, starting with the ESPN/ESPN+ “Prelims” matches, which are scheduled to begin at 12 p.m. ET, then the remaining main card balance (on ABC/ESPN+) at 3 p.m. ET.

To check out the latest and greatest UFC Saudi Arabia: “Whittaker vs. Aliskerov” news and notes be sure to hit up our comprehensive event archive right here.