I’m taking hold, of every moment!
Given strength, by the breath of life!
I’m gonna stake my claim… I fight to surviiiiiive!
Kumite, kumite, kumite, kumite, kumite, kumite, kumite, kumite.
Now that we got that out of the way, let’s focus on that other overseas competition designed to find the best new fighters in the world. “Road to UFC” kicks off June 9 in Singapore with a 32-man grand prix tournament spread across four different weight classes, featuring combatants from Japan, Korea, Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia, India, and China.
The UFC tourney brackets are both embedded above and listed below.
Flyweight:
Choi SeungGuk (South Korea) vs. Rama Supandhi (Indonesia)
Qiu Lun (China) vs. Wallen Del Rosario (Philippines)
Horiyuchi Yuma (Japan) vs. Top Noi (Thailand)
Park HyunSung (South Korea) vs. Jeremia Siregar (Indonesia)
Bantamweight:
Maimaitituoheti Keremuaili (China) vs. Kazama Toshiomi (Japan)
Nakamura Rinya (Japan) vs. Gugun Gusman (Indonesia)
Kim MinWoo (South Korea) vs. Xiao Long (China)
Nose Shohei (Japan) vs. Wulijiburen (China)
Featherweight:
Yi Zha (China) vs. Sasu Keisuke (Japan)
Hong JunYoung (South Korea) vs. Matsushima Koyomi (Japan)
Lee JeongYeong (South Korea) vs. Xie Bin (China)
Lu Kai (China) vs. Angga Hans (Indonesia)
Lightweight:
Balajin (China) vs. Ki WonBin (South Korea)
Ailiya Muratbek (China) vs. Pawan Maan Singh (India)
Anshul Jubli (India) vs. Sho Patrick Usami (Japan)
Asikerbai Jinensibieke (China) vs. Kim Kyung Pyo (South Korea)
Non-tourney bouts:
205 lbs.: Zhang Mingyang (China) vs. George Tokkos (Ireland)
125 lbs.: Shaun Etchell (Tasmania) vs. Takeru Uchida (Japan)
115 lbs.: Seo YeDam (South Korea) vs. Josefine Knuttson (Sweden)
170 lbs.: John Adajar (Philippines) vs. Kim HanSeul (South Korea)
The opening round of the “Road to UFC” tournament will air on June 9 & 10 on UFC Fight Pass. The two remaining combatants from each bracket are expected to collide later this year. Aside from the winners, standout performances in both tourney and non-tourney competition are expected to lead to developmental contracts in both victory and defeat.
Capping off the fight week festivities will be the UFC 275 pay-per-view (PPV) event on June 11 at Singapore Indoor Stadium in Singapore, headlined by the light heavyweight title fight between Glover Teixeira (c) and Jiri Prochazka. Elsewhere on the card, Weili Zhang and Joanna Jedrzejczyk run it back for a spot in the 115-pound title chase.
For the rest of the UFC 275 fight card and PPV lineup click here.