UFC 321 delivers an exciting Main Card on Saturday in Abu Dhabi

UFC 321 fight week continues. This week, Dana White’s promotion heads to the United Arab Emirates for the second pay-per-view event of the 10th month of 2025. The Etihad Arena is the venue for this weekend’s action.

Live coverage of UFC 321 starts early at 10am ET/7am PT. In the United States, if you watch via direct-to-consumer streaming, ESPN+ is the place for hammer to hammer battles from Abu Dhabi.

If you happen to watch UFC 321 on traditional television, ESPN’s college football coverage on Saturdays makes FX the place to watch the prelims. The main card action concludes the day at 2:00 PM ET/11:00 AM PT on ESPN+ pay-per-view.

After an undercard lightweight fight between Abdul-Kareem al-Selwady and Matheus Camilo scrubbed Thursday, after the former withdrew from the show, 13 fights remain intact on the schedule. It’s a main card all night on Saturday.

UFC 321 Main Event: UFC Heavyweight Championship: [C] Tom Aspinall vs. #1 contender Ciryl Gane

Topping Saturday night’s schedule is a championship doubleheader, culminating with the fight for the UFC Heavyweight Championship in the evening’s UFC 321 main event. Incumbent heavyweight champion Tom Aspinall (15-3 MMA, 8-1 UFC) will make his first defense of the title since being elevated to permanent champion last summer against No. 1 contender Ciryl Gane (13-2 MMA, 10-2 UFC). This is a five-round fight of five minutes per round.

Champion Aspinall will make the walk this weekend with a 4-1 record in his last five fights. Currently he has won three fights in a row. Last time out, he scored a first-round knockout against Curtis Blaydes (19-5, 1 NC MMA, 14-5, 1 NC UFC) in exactly one minute with counter punches to ground and pound shots.

This turned out to be Aspinall’s only defense of the interim heavyweight championship. Nearly a year passed between that fight and when UFC CEO Dana White announced that former UFC heavyweight champion Jon Jones would retire from active competition and Aspinall would become the permanent champion.

How much ring rust does Aspinall have and can he defend the title on Saturday night? Tune in and find out.

On the other side, Ciryl Gane enters his fourth UFC Heavyweight Championship fight on Saturday after going 3-2 in his last five bouts. He has emerged victorious from his last two fights in a row.

Last December, he got his hand raised in a split decision victory over Alexander Volkov (38-11 MMA, 12-5 UFC) in Las Vegas at UFC 310. During his UFC tenure, he has gone 1-2 in title fights.

Ciryl Gane’s chances at the UFC Heavyweight Championship could be running out. Will his fourth title fight result in his second title win?

UFC 321 Co-Main Event: Free UFC Strawweight Championship: #1 Contender Virna Jandiroba vs. No. 5 contender Mackenzie Dern

Immediately prior to the UFC 321 co-main event, the vacant UFC Strawweight Championship will be on the line. No. 1 contender Virna Jandiroba (22-3 MMA, 8-3 UFC) and No. 5 contender Mackenzie Dern (15-5 MMA, 10-5 UFC) will battle to become the ninth champion in the history of the UFC’s strawweight division. This is also a fight of five rounds of five minutes per round.

This is a rematch of a fight from December 2020. That evening, Dern defeated Jandiroba (unanimous decision) after three rounds at UFC 256

Jandiroba will enter UFC 321 with a record of 5-0 in her last five fights. On April 12, she defeated Yan Xiaonan (19-5, 1 NC MMA, 9-4 UFC) by unanimous decision at UFC 314 in Miami. All cards fall into place for Virna Jandiroba. How will she fare here?

Meanwhile, Mackenzie Dern has gone 3-2 in her five most recent fights. On the first card of the year, she stopped Amanda Ribas (12-7 MMA, 7-6 UFC) with an armbar submission in the third round at the UFC Apex.

During her media availability session Wednesday, Dern said she didn’t spend any time fighting Jandiroba in her recent training camp, so can she get a second win over her?

UFC 321: No. 2 contender Umar Nurmagomedov vs. No. 9 contender Mario Bautista

Also on the main card of UFC 321 will be a bantamweight affair between No. 2 contender Umar Nurmagomedov (18-1 MMA, 6-1 UFC) and No. 9 contender Mario Bautista (16-2 MMA, 10-2 UFC). Nurmagomedov enters the weekend with a 4-1 record over his past five games.

On January 18, Nurmagomedov headed to Anaheim for UFC 311, losing by unanimous decision to Merab Dvalishvili, thwarting his bid to become UFC bantamweight champion. While a fighter can be dangerous when he is on a good streak, he can be just as dangerous after a loss.

Another win could mean another shot at the championship once his next fight takes place. His opponent is no slouch, however, as in the other corner, Mario Bautista has posted a 5-0 record in his previous five trips to the cage.

On June 7, he scored a unanimous decision victory over Patchy Mix (20-3 MMA, 0-2 UFC) in Newark, NJ at UFC 316. On Thursday afternoon, Mix saw his 2024 Bellator win overturned to a no-contest against Magomed Magomedov by the French MMA Federation due to a positive drug test. The Mohegan Tribe Department of Regulation, which conducted its own drug test on Mix, a test that came back negative for marijuana, later revealed that it could maintain Mix’s win.

Bautista has won eight straight fights dating back to February 2022. He’s already secured a top-10 spot at bantamweight, so can he push himself closer to the championship conversation?

Rest of the map:

The UFC 321 main card will be supplemented with the following fights:

• A pivotal heavyweight matchup between No. 2 contender Alexander Volkov (38-11 MMA, 12-5 UFC) and No. 5 contender Jailton Almeida (22-3 MMA, 8-1 UFC)
• and a light heavyweight bout against No. 7 contender Aleksandar Rakic ​​(14-5 MMA, 6-4 UFC) with No. 5 contender Azamat Murzakanov (15-0 MMA, 5-0 UFC).

What fight or fights on the UFC 321 main card are you looking forward to? Let us know in the comments.