This week, Dana White and company head to the Big Apple of New York City and the world’s most famous arena, Madison Square Garden, for this year’s penultimate pay-per-view. Including Saturday night’s card, there are only four shows left on the UFC’s 2025 schedule.
Live coverage begins Saturday night at 6:00 PM ET/3:00 PM PT from Madison Square Garden with the UFC 322 prelims. The early preliminaries can be viewed via streaming video at ESPN+ And UFC Fight Pass within the United States. If you watch the early heats of this event on traditional television, FX will carry them live.
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Late prelims air at 8:00 PM ET/5:00 PM PT on ESPNNEWS and ESPN+ in the United States before the evening concludes with a five-fight main card on ESPN+ pay-per-view at 10:00 PM ET/7:00 PM PT. Barring any late changes to the fight order, the final version of UFC 322 will feature a series of 14 MMA fights.
UFC 322 Main Event: UFC Welterweight Championship: [C] Jack Della Maddalena vs. Islam Makhachev
At the top of the bill on Saturday evening, welterweight supremacy is at stake during the UFC 322 Main Event. Current UFC welterweight champion Jack Della Maddalena (18-2 MMA, 8-0 UFC) puts his title on the line for the first time against former UFC lightweight champion Islam Makhachev (27-1 MMA, 16-1 UFC). This main event is an advertised maximum of five rounds of five minutes per round to close out the show.
Jack Della Maddalena comes to UFC 322 on Saturday night having compiled a 5-0 record in his last five fights as part of an ongoing 18-fight winning streak. Back on the night of May 10 at UFC 315 in Montreal, he dethroned Belal Muhammad (24-4, 1 NC MMA) as UFC welterweight champion with a unanimous decision victory after 25 minutes of action.
Saturday’s fight will serve as the first defense of the title for Della Maddalena and his camp. He’s worked hard throughout his career to get where he is today, but in the meantime, there’s a man on the other side who wants to end his reign as welterweight champion late Saturday night.
Islam Makhachev moves up from 155 for the UFC 322 main event this weekend. He himself has a 5-0 record in his last five fights and has won 15 fights in a row ahead of UFC 322 on Saturday.
He most recently made his fourth and final defense of the UFC Lightweight Championship with a first-round submission via D’arce choke with 55 seconds left on Jan. 18 in Anaheim in the main event of UFC 311.
If you were tasked in a month or so with making a list of the best fights of the year, this main event could certainly end up at or near the top. Who will emerge as the winner?
UFC 322 Co-Main Event: UFC Women’s Flyweight Championship: [C] Valentina Shevchenko vs. Zhang Weili
Immediately before that, the co-main event of the evening takes place in the women’s flyweight division. Championship action is the focus of the co-headliner bout as incumbent champion Valentina Shevchenko (25-4-1 MMA, 14-3-1 UFC) takes on former UFC strawweight champion Zhang Weili (26-3 MMA, 10-2 UFC) in the latter’s 30th career MMA fight.
A maximum of five rounds of five minutes per round also applies to this competition. Shevchenko will make the move this weekend after going 3-1-1 in her last five fights. She is currently undefeated in her last three fights.
On May 10 at UFC 315 in Quebec, she defended her title with a unanimous decision victory over Manon Fiorot (13-2 MMA, 8-1 UFC) in the evening’s co-main event. Valentina Shevchenko has a stranglehold on the UFC Women’s Flyweight Championship.
The strawweight title has been on the line in each of her last twelve fights, with a record of 10-1-1 in those fights. She is familiar with the commitment placed before her. Will the 13th consecutive title fight be a lucky 25 minutes (or less) of action for Shevchenko once the weekend is over?
Meanwhile, Zhang Weili moves up from flyweight for this co-main event on Saturday, with a record of 5-0 in her last five outings dating back to June 2022. Most recently, she made her final defense of the UFC Strawweight Championship with a unanimous decision win over Tatiana Suarez (11-1 MMA, 8-1 UFC) in Australia.
This will be one of Zhang’s biggest challenges in her career. Can she stop Shevchenko from an 11th victory in a UFC title fight?
UFC 322: No. 2 contender Sean Brady vs. No. 8 contender Michael Morales
Also on the main card of UFC 322 is a welterweight bout that pairs No. 2 contender Sean Brady (18-1 MMA, 8-1 UFC) with No. 8 contender Michael Morales (18-0 MMA, 6-0 UFC). This is a three-round fight of five minutes each and will impact the future of the welterweight championship after Saturday night regardless of the winner.
Brady makes the walk in New York City this weekend on the strength of a 4-1 record in his last five MMA fights dating back to 2021. At this point, he has won two fights in a row.
In March, he scored a fourth-round submission by guillotine choke against Leon Edwards (22-5, 1 NC MMA, 14-4, 1 NC UFC) in the UFC London main event. This was Brady’s second straight guillotine choke entry in all competitions, and it also earned him a $50,000 (USD) bonus for the Performance of the Night Award after the show.
Will Brady take an all-important step toward a shot at the UFC welterweight championship? Tune in and find out.
In the other corner, Michael Morales has not lost so far in his career. On May 17, he stopped Gilbert Burns (22-9 MMA, 15-9 UFC) in the first round at the UFC Apex facility in Enterprise, NV.
Although Michael Morales is ranked No. 8 at welterweight, a seventh straight win under the UFC banner would do wonders for him. Can he get into the title picture on Saturday?
Rest of the map
UFC 322’s main card is rounded out by a welterweight bout between No. 4 contender Leon Edwards (22-5, 1 NC MMA, 14-4, 1 NC UFC) and No. 8 contender Carlos Prates (22-7 MMA, 5-1 UFC) and a lightweight bout matching No. 9 contender Beneil Dariush (23-6-1 MMA, 17-6-1 UFC) with No. 13 contender Benoit Saint-Denis (15-3, 1 NC MMA, 7-3 UFC.)
What main card fights are you looking forward to in UFC 322? Let us know in the comments.
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