Fight By Fight Preview | UFC Fight Night: Emmett vs Vallejos
Setting The Table For Saturday’s Prospect-Laced Return To The Meta APEX
By E. Spencer Kyte
Following an exciting night at T-Mobile Arena on Saturday with UFC 326, the action stays in Las Vegas and shifts back to the Meta APEX for a Fight Night event headlined by a fascinating featherweight battle between Josh Emmett and Kevin Vallejos.
Backed by a Top 10 matchup in the strawweight division and a fun mix of pairings across a number of weight classes, this weekend’s fight card offers up a little bit of everything and is giving “catch you by surprise” vibes to start the week.
Here’s a closer look at what’s on tap.
Main Event: Josh Emmett vs Kevin Vallejos
For the second time this year, the APEX plays host to a main event featuring an established hand and an emerging talent, but this one comes with a fun little wrinkle in the form of Emmett’s hellacious power.
The 41-year-old veteran has struggled to find positive results of late, entering off consecutive losses and having dropped four of five, but you have to look beyond the results and recognize who he’s been facing to see why it doesn’t matter as much here. Emmett has been on a steady diet of Top 15 talent for the last bunch of years, including an interim title bout and going the distance with Ilia Topuria, and will absolutely look to lean on that experience advantage when he shares the Octagon with Vallejos on Saturday.
“El Chino” is enjoying the positive benefits of the “You’re only as good as your last fight” adage right now because his last fight was a nasty second-round stoppage win over Giga Chikadze at the end of last year. He made tremendous in-fight adjustments in that bout to quiet the concerns that surfaced following his tough decision win over Danny Silva, and now he gets the chance to show he’s ready to face Top 10 talent by dispatching Emmett.
Power — and how each man doles it out and deals with it — feels like it may be the deciding factor here, as Emmett carries it in both hands and can change a fight with one clean shot, while he’s also only ever been knocked out once, which means he’s likely to be a little more willing to step into the pocket. The interesting twist is that he struggled to cut off the cage two fights back against Lerone Murphy and if Vallejos can utilize his footwork and keep Emmett chasing, he has the tools to frustrate him from the outside, thereby avoiding the power shots.
Additional Main Card Matchups
Amanda Lemos vs Gillian Robertson
While it always sucks when a fight is postponed at the 11th hour, this one getting pushed back from December to now works out well, as it gets much better real estate and the attention it deserves as an intriguing Top 10 pairing.
Lemos is in a weird position: she’s lost two of three but also holds a fairly recent win over current champ Mackenzie Dern. Getting out-grappled has been her Achilles heel of late, and yet Robertson isn’t the kind of super-physical grinder that has been giving her fits. How she looks here is going to tell us a lot about where she fits in the division at the moment.
“The Savage” has been thriving over her last four fights and, since returning to strawweight on the whole, save for a hiccup against Tabatha Ricci. She’s shown a willingness to utilize ground-and-pound rather than just hunt submissions of late, but also feels like one of those ascending talents in serious need of a marquee win against someone that isn’t calling it a day or who has struggled to crack the Top 10.
Fights like this are fascinating because, depending on how things play out, we could learn a ton about either woman, neither woman, or both women, and the only way to figure that part out is to sit back and see how things unfold. Both have something to prove here, and the delay will hopefully have made them a little antsy to get in there and settle things.
Ion Cutelaba vs Oumar Sy
The light heavyweight division could use an infusion of fresh names to challenge the established set that make up much of the Top 15, and this weekend, Ion Cutelaba is tasked with helping determine whether Oumar Sy could be one of those names.
I’ve come to think of Cutelaba like a great supporting actor, a real classic “That Guy” like John Carroll Lynch — someone that knows their role, is freakishly consistent, and every so often steals the show, like Lynch did in Zodiac. Cutelaba dropped a split decision last time out, but he’s 3-2 over his past five fights and the kind of frantic, dangerous force that should test Sy in this one.
This is the beginning of Year 3 on the UFC roster for the French light heavyweight, who carries a 3-1 mark into the Octagon on Saturday. On one hand, he looked sharp rebounding from his first career loss with a stoppage win over Brendson Ribeiro in Paris, but if he’s going to make a push for a place in the rankings and start taking meaningful steps forward in the division, it needs to start here.
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Will Cutelaba have a standout performance that leaves everyone talking about him, or can Sy turn in another strong showing and start building some momentum for a Top 15 assignment?
Andre Fili vs Jose Miguel Delgado
Not only is this a classic “veteran versus prospect” pairing, but it also pits them against one another at different times than usual, which makes things a little more interesting.
Fili comes into this one off a split decision win over Christian Rodriguez, and brandishing a massive edge in experience. The arrival of his son Valor last year has really brought focus and a shift in mindset, and it wouldn’t be the least bit surprising to see a razor-sharp performance from the former Sacramento staple who now calls Las Vegas home.
Delgado earned stoppage wins in each of his first two appearances last year, including a 26-second mauling of Hyder Amil at UFC 317 that rocketed him towards the rankings and earned him a quick and sharp step up in competition. He faltered in Abu Dhabi in October, though, missing weight and dropping a decision to Nathaniel Wood, and kicks off his sophomore campaign needing a return to form.
Traditionally, we get this kind of fight when the veteran is scuffling, and the prospect is ascending, but Fili looked sharp last time out and is full of confidence, while Delgado is the one with something to prove. This feels like a potential Fight of the Night contender, if it gets that far.
Marwan Rahiki vs Harry Hardwick
Marwan Rahiki made such an impression on UFC CEO Dana White last season on the Contender Series that his promotional debut this weekend comes on the main card.
The Moroccan-born, Australia-based featherweight got walloped in the initial moments of his fight with Ananias Mulumba, but gathered himself and eventually went on the offensive, securing a second-round stoppage win and a contract. He’s 7-0 as a professional with a 100-percent finishing rate and gets an immediate measuring stick assignment here.
You have to feel for Hardwick a little, as the Cage Warriors standout finally got a short-notice opportunity last September, only to have his legs cut out from under him up a division against Kaue Fernandes. Now back in his familiar surroundings, “Houdini” gets a chance to show that his success under one of the top shingles in Europe wasn’t all smoke and mirrors.
Rahiki is a bundle of excitement and energy, but Hardwick is a tough out that has fought solid competition the whole way through and should be a stern test for the newcomer on Saturday.
Vitor Petrino vs Steven Asplund
The main card opens with a heavyweight banger between Dana White’s Contender Series alums looking to further advance up the ranks in the shallow heavyweight division.
Petrino has gone 2-0 with a pair of finishes since moving up a weight class last year, submitting Austen Lane before face-planting Thomas Petersen in Rio in October. The Cristiano Marcello protégé remains a physical specimen and a work in progress, but his power is lethal, and his potential is real.
Asplund is one of those guys you just want to root for — a blue-collar dude that used to weigh 500-plus pounds, talks a bunch of wildness in his interviews, and always looks to bring it when he steps inside the cage. Size-wise, he’s the genuine article at six-foot-five and 260 pounds, plus he swings hammers, which means he “Concrete” should remain a fan favorite for the foreseeable future.
Can Petrino keep it rolling and pick up a third straight heavyweight win, or will Asplund show he’s more than a lovable galoot and put himself on the doorstep of the Top 15 after just two UFC appearances?
Preliminary Card Pairings
Charles Johnson vs Bruno Silva
Ranked flyweights face off in the preliminary card finale, aiming to make a statement as business in the 125-pound weight class begins to pick up.
Johnson is one of the more enigmatic fighters on the roster, having knocked out both champion Joshua Van and rising star Lone’er Kavanagh, who he replaces here, while also having little to offer in his UFC 324 clash with Alex Perez that ended with him getting stopped in just over three minutes. Silva has also been hit-or-miss in amassing a 5-4 record with one no contest through his first 10 UFC starts, though he enters this one off a great effort against HyunSung Park last October in Vancouver.
Chris Curtis vs Myktybek Orolbai
Chris Curtis and Myktybek Orolbai clash here in a battle of intriguing welterweights looking to show they’re ready to take on ranked competition.
Curtis has solid overall success at middleweight, but opted to move back down to the 170-pound ranks last year, returning with a split decision win over fellow game veteran Max Griffin. Orolbai came back up to welterweight after a couple starts at different intervals, registering a knockout win over Jack Hermansson to go along with his debut submission of Uroš Medić that continues to age nicely.
Bolaji Oki vs Manoel Sousa
It’s a battle of DWCS grads as Class of ’23 alum Bolaji Oki welcomes recent graduate Manoel Sousa to the Octagon for the first time.
Oki has alternated wins and losses since touching down in the UFC, beating Timmy Cuamba and Michael Aswell Jr. while falling to Chris Duncan and Mason Jones. Sousa collected a third-round stoppage win over Mexican prospect Cristian Perez to claim his spot on the roster and arrives with a 13-1 mark, where his only loss came against unbeaten standout Archie “King” Colgan.
Luan Lacerda vs Hecher Sosa
Fresh off his first UFC win, Brazilian Luan Lacerda looks for a second straight win as he faces off with promotional newcomer Hecher Sosa.
Following a two-year absence, Lacerda returned to action in Rio de Janeiro last October and submitted Saimon Oliveira to earn his first UFC victory. A member of last year’s DWCS class, Sosa earned his contract the day after his father’s passing and aims to add to his 11-fight winning streak by registering a victory in his first UFC start on Saturday.
Bia Mesquita vs Montse Rendon
Multiple-time BJJ world champion Bia Mesquita aims to maintain her unbeaten record in the cage as she makes her second UFC appearance this weekend in a clash with Montse Rendon.
Mesquita dominated her debut against Irina Alekseeva, submitting the overmatched Russian in the second round while showing that her elite grappling could make her an immediate force in the bantamweight division. Rendon collected her second UFC win last September, edging out Brazilian newcomer Alice Pereira on the cards to move to 7-1 overall.
Elijah Smith vs SuYoung You
Second-year bantamweights meet here as Elijah Smith faces off with South Korea’s SuYoung You.
Smith sent shockwaves through the division with is viral slam knockout win over Toshiomi Kazama in August and finally returns to action looking to build on his seven-fight winning streak in his first start of 2026. You picked up a pair of decision wins in his rookie campaign, advancing to 9-1 with two no contests over his last dozen fights and 16-3 overall.
Piera Rodriguez vs Sam Hughes
More than three years after their first meeting, Piera Rodriguez and Sam Hughes run it back in Saturday’s opener with both looking to add to their winning ways.
Rodriguez has earned back-to-back decision wins to move to 11-2 overall, showing improved grappling and her trademark feistiness along the way. Hughes, who landed on the wrong side of the results the first time around, has won three straight and touches down in Las Vegas off a dominant second-round submission win over Shauna Bannon.
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UFC 326 - Holloway vs Oliveira 2 --- UFC Fight Night 270 - Evloev vs. Murphy (coming...)
