UFC 325 will serve as the second of three straight weeks of UFC action before the promotion takes a bye week for Valentine’s Day on the night of February 14. This week the legendary Octagon heads to the Southern Hemisphere, where it will be well into Sunday, February 1 when the fighting begins.
Sydney’s Qudos Bank Arena will host the second flagship show in as many weeks after MMA’s No. 1 promotion in the world kicked off the year. Live coverage begins Saturday afternoon at 5:00 PM ET/2:00 PM PT on the UFC’s new streaming home, Paramount Plus, with the early preliminaries. This portion of the show will be simulcast on UFC Fight Pass.
Late prelims follow at 7:00 PM ET/4:00 PM PT on Paramount Plus before the five-fight main card wraps up the evening at 9:00 PM ET/6:00 PM PT. If no adjustments are made to the itinerary, the final version of UFC 325 will feature a 14-match series this weekend.
UFC 325 Featured Preliminary: Junior Tafa vs. Billy Elekana
At the top of the bill for the undercard, the light heavyweights enter the cage when Junior Tafa (6-4 MMA, 2-4 UFC) fights Billy Elekana (9-2 MMA, 2-1 UFC). All fights mentioned herein are three advertised rounds of five minutes per round.
Tafa will make his seventh walk into the Octagon on Saturday night at UFC 325 after posting a 2-3 record in his last five bouts. Last time out, he was on the receiving end of a second-round arm-triangle choke submission from Tuco Tokkos (11-5 MMA, 1-2 UFC) in Atlanta on June 12.
A planned fight against Ibo Aslan in Perth at the end of September never materialized as the former suffered an injury. This has given Tafa almost eight months to leave the cage, but how will he fare in UFC 325 now that he has been given a clean bill of health?
On the other side, Billy Elekana is 4-1 over the past five games. He has been on the active roster in the UFC for a year now and has won two fights in a row. On November 1, he scored one entry in the first round (rear-naked choke) victory over Kevin Christian (9-3 MMA, 0-1 UFC) in his UFC promotional debut.
He has proven impressive in the early days of his UFC career. Can he keep it up on Saturday night?
UFC 325 Co-Featured Prelim: Cam Rowston vs. Cody Brundage
The undercard fight at UFC 325 on Saturday night takes place at 185 lbs. Cam Rowston (13-3 MMA, 1-0 UFC) clashes with Cody Brundage (11-7-1, 1 NC MMA, 5-6-1, 1 NC UFC) in the former’s second UFC appearance. Rowston enters his second fight in the company with a 5-0 mark in his last five trips to the cage. On September 27, he made his first walk into the Octagon by finishing Andre Petroski (13-5 MMA, 8-4 UFC) in the first round.
Rowston made his UFC debut a month after winning his contract Contender series in the summer of 2025, but can he play 2-for-2 in the promotion? Tune in and find out.
Meanwhile, Cody Brundage will make the walk Saturday on the strength of a 1-2-1 record with one no-contest in the past five bouts. On August 9, he lost to Eric McConico (10-4-1 MMA, 1-2 UFC) via split decision at the now Meta Apex in Enterprise, NV. Brundage hasn’t won in almost a year, so will he find himself back in victory lane on Saturday?
UFC 325: Jacob Malkoun vs. Torrez Finney
The UFC 325 undercard also sees more middleweight action this weekend as Jacob Malkoun (8-3 MMA, 4-3 UFC) meets Torrez Finney (11-0 MMA, 1-0 UFC). Malkoun enters Saturday’s event with a 3-2 record over the course of his last five fights.
However, it has been a long time since he has had the chance to take the walk. To find the last time he fought inside the legendary Octagon, you have to set the time machine to March 30, 2024. That night, he stopped the aforementioned Andre Petroski with ground and pound in less than a minute in the second round after a collision.
Canceled matches are a recurring theme for Malkoun and his camp. Of his last five scheduled fights inside the cage, three were postponed without a punch being thrown.
By the time UFC 325 kicks off on Saturday, 22 months and one day will have passed since Malkoun last set foot in the Octagon. What has he done to shake off the ring rust?
In the other corner, Torrez Finney, like Cam Rowston in the co-featured prelim, will make his second UFC appearance on Saturday. He has remained undefeated in his professional career so far.
Last April, he made his UFC debut successfully with a split-decision victory over Robert Valentin (10-6, 1 NC MMA, 0-3 UFC.) This is a man who had to move on Contender series three times before finally landing his contract in the promotion. How will he do on Saturday? Only time will tell.
Rest of the preliminaries:
The UFC 325 undercard concludes with the following fights:
- A welterweight fight between Jonathan Micallef (8-1 MMA, 1-0 UFC) and Oban Elliott (12-3 MMA, 3-1 UFC,)
- a featherweight battling Kaan Ofli (12-4-1 MMA, 1-2 UFC) with Yizhaha (26-5 MMA, 1-2 UFC,)
- the Road to UFC lightweight final pitting Dom Mar Fan (8-2 MMA, 2-0 Road to UFC) against Sang UK Kim (13-3 MMA, 2-0 Road to UFC)
- the Road to UFC featherweight final against Sebastian Szalay (10-1 MMA, 2-0 Road to UFC) and Keiichiro Nakamura (7-1 MMA, 2-0 Road to UFC,)
- the Road to UFC bantamweight final pairing Sulangrangbo (10-3 MMA, 2-0 Road to UFC) vs. Lawrence Lui (7-1 MMA, 2-0 Road to UFC,)
- and the Road to UFC flyweight final that pairs Namsrai Batbayar (9-1 MMA, 2-0 Road to UFC.) with Aaron Tau (11-1 MMA, 2-0 Road to UFC.)
What fight or fights are you looking forward to in the preliminaries of UFC 325? Let us know in the comments.
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