Top Five UFC Fights To Look Forward To In September

September’s stacked with stellar UFC scraps to look forward to across four cards. Quintin van Jaarsveld highlights the five most-anticipated match-ups, with two title bouts being chief among them.

Ciryl Gane v Serghei Spivac

Saturday, September 2 SA time

Top-10 heavyweights clash in the month’s first main event in Paris, where local hero Gane will look to show a surging Spivac that there are levels to mixed martial arts. 

The French phenom has established himself as one of the elite 265-pounders on the planet. A former interim champion and currently ranked second, Gane suffered a quick submission loss to Jon Jones in their title fight in March and is determined to bounce back in front of his home crowd. 

As for Spivac, he entered the top 10 for the first time thanks to a submission win over two-time title challenger Derrick Lewis in February, which stretched his win streak to three.

The eighth-ranked Moldovan faces another step up in competition in the French capital, where an upset win will see him truly arrive.

Manon Fiorot v Rose Namajunas

Saturday, September 2 SA time

The co-headliner of UFC Paris has plenty of intrigue as well as it sees former two-time strawweight champion Namajunas make her flyweight debut.

One of the greatest and most popular fighters in women’s MMA history, “Thug” seeks to add the 125-pound belt to her legacy and looks to fast-track herself into title contention by taking down the No 2-ranked contender in her first flyweight fight. 

France’s Fiorot, on the other hand, is undefeated in the UFC and will receive a hero’s welcome as she returns to action following knee surgery. A win over Namajunas would be the biggest of her career and set her up for a shot at the belt, so the stakes are high and the crowd will be hyped.

Israel Adesanya v Sean Strickland

Sunday, September 10 SA time

It’s not the fight the world – and South African fight fans in particular – wanted, but the main event of UFC 293 at the Qudos Bank Arena in Sydney is a tantalising title fight in its own right. 

Dricus du Plessis had cemented himself as the number one contender with a stunning knockout win over former champion Robert Whittaker in July but with too short of a turnaround to make the pay-per-view card Down Under, the South African star’s historic grudge match with middleweight king Adesanya has to wait. 

Instead, “The Last Stylebender” will defend the title against American scrapper Strickland. “Tarzan” is out there, a crass and curious character with no filter, but inside the Octagon, he’s a crisp and calculated striker who won’t take a backward step to the champion. 

One of the best strikers to ever grace the Octagon, Adesanya regained the 185-pound belt with a knockout of rival Alex Pereira in April and is confident he can run through the tough Strickland to set up the much-anticipated showdown with Du Plessis.

Alexa Grasso v Valentina Shevchenko

Sunday, September 17 SA time

Grasso is a history-maker, having produced one of the biggest upsets of all time to dethrone the dominant Shevchenko and become the first-ever female Mexican UFC champion and she’ll make more history when she headlines the MMA leader’s maiden Mexican Independence Day card at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

Grasso seized the flyweight title with a nasty rear-naked choke in March and seeks to prove it was no fluke by vanquishing the longest-reigning women’s champion in UFC history in the rematch. 

Shevchenko racked up seven title defences in her historic reign as 125-pound queen and is hell-bent on reclaiming the belt and bouncing back from what was her first loss since 2017 and only the third defeat of her career.

Rafael Fiziev v Mateusz Gamrot

Sunday, September 24 SA time

The action will be thick and fast when these two top-10 lightweights face off in the main event of UFC Vegas 79 at the APEX.

Fiziev, ranked one spot above Gamrot at No 6, is looking to rebound from his Fight of the Night loss to Justin Gaethje, which snapped an impressive six-fight win streak.

As for Gamrot, who held both featherweight and lightweight gold in KSW, he’s 5-2 in the UFC and aiming to build on his split decision victory over Jalin Turner in March.

Both men are pace-pushing predators, so you can bet this will be a banger.