The UFC’s women’s flyweight division has been in the spotlight all throughout May and the month will conclude with two of the top young talents in the weight class going toe-to-toe at the UFC Apex this weekend.
Top-five contenders Erin Blanchfield and Maycee Barber get the main event treatment Saturday in Las Vegas, and the winner, especially if they get their hand raised in impressive fashion, will be on the doorstep of title contention.
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Women’s flyweight contenders Erin Blanchfield and Maycee Barber meet in a main event at the UFC Apex. Watch UFC Fight Night action on Saturday, May 31 on Sportsnet 360 and Sportsnet+ with coverage beginning at 7 p.m. ET / 5 p.m. PT.
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The only women above them in the official 125-pound rankings at the moment are reigning champion Valentina Shevchenko, streaking No. 1 contender Natalia Silva, recent title challenger Manon Fiorot and former champion Alexa Grasso.
Shevchenko defended her gold belt earlier this month at UFC 315 with a competitive five-round decision win over Fiorot, and Silva earned a dominant three-round win over Grasso two fights earlier.
Also on that Montreal card, Canada’s Jasmine Jasudavicius picked up a Performance of the Night-winning first-round submission of former strawweight champion Jessica Andrade. Blanchfield and Barber are ranked No. 4 and No. 5, respectively, while Jasudavicius moved up to the No. 6 spot thanks to that victory and should have a close eye on this matchup since both could potentially be future opponents.
Blanchfield is 7-1 in the UFC since debuting in the organization in 2021 and turned 26 early this month; Barber is 9-2 at the UFC level since her 2018 debut and turned 27 a couple weeks ago. The pair were scheduled to fight at UFC 269 late in 2021, yet Barber withdrew and Blanchfield fought and beat Miranda Maverick instead.
Barber routinely bloodies her opponents during her fights, but she’ll need to avoid being taken down and put on her back if she hopes to have similar success against a touted grappler like Blanchfield
There’s some mystery about which version of Barber will show up this weekend. She is a winner of seven in a row but has only fought once since her breakthrough win over Amanda Ribas two summers ago. Barber came out on the winning side against Katlyn Cerminara (née Chookagian) in her most recent appearance, but that was nearly 15 months ago at this point.
Blanchfield is 7-1 in the UFC with her lone loss being a five-round unanimous decision to Fiorot in their title eliminator 14 months back.
The skilled jiu-jitsu black belt rebounded from that loss to Fiorot — a fight during which Blanchfield failed on all of her takedown attempts and was out-struck in every round — with a five-round decision win over former two-time strawweight champ Rose Namajunas this past November in Edmonton.
Quality co-main: The penultimate bout on Saturday’s card should be a leading contender for Fight of the Night. Mateusz Gamrot has been a top-10 lightweight for several years now and the No. 7-ranked 155-pound contender holds a notable past win over top-ranked Arman Tsarukyan and is returning to action for the first time since a narrow split decision loss to Dan Hooker at UFC 305 last August.
Gamrot, 34 from Poland, will stand across the cage from Ludovit Klein, who’s riding a seven-fight unbeaten streak. Klein, 30 from Slovakia, is unranked and will be taking a leap up in competition. Klein’s best win to date was over Ignacio Bahamondes, a 2023 victory that has aged very well.
Opponent swap at welterweight: Billy Ray Goff was originally scheduled to face Seok-hyun Ko this weekend, and Ramiz Brahimaj was contracted to fight Oban Elliott. After a visa issue forced Elliott off the card, the UFC booked Elliott vs. Ko for June 21 when the UFC debuts in Baku, Azerbaijan and paired Goff and Brahimaj together at the Apex.
Mederos off card with illness: MarQuel Mederos announced on his social media that he “had to withdraw from this weekend’s fight due to being seriously ill the last few days.” Mederos, who was set to face fellow lightweight Bolaji Oki, explained he “couldn’t train, couldn’t eat, and wasn’t able to safely make weight,” so the organization found a replacement opponent for Oki who’ll now compete against UFC newcomer Michael Aswell.
New ‘UFC Debut’ patches unveiled: The trading card company Topps announced Wednesday that this weekend’s card will be the first to feature new patches that’ll be on the shorts of UFC newcomers.
“UFC athletes will now wear a Debut Patch on their gear for their first fight,” the company stated on social media. “After the bout, the patch will go into a 1/1 signed trading card.”
Andreas Gustafsson and Michael Aswell will be the first two athletes to don the patch when they each make their respective debuts. And speaking of those two athletes…
Plenty of DWCS alumni in action: Half of the fighters scheduled to compete will be familiar with the venue. A whopping 11 athletes set to fight Saturday, Gustafsson and Aswell among them, earned their start in the UFC with performances on Dana White’s Contender Series, which also takes place at the Apex each year.
Below is the full fight card and projected bout order for UFC Fight Night: Blanchfield vs. Barber…
— Erin Blanchfield vs. Maycee Barber
— Mateusz Gamrot vs. Ludovit Klein
— Ramiz Brahimaj vs. Billy Ray Goff
— Dustin Jacoby vs. Bruno Lopes
— Zachary Reese vs. Dusko Todorovic
— Jafel Filho vs. Allan Nascimento
— Ketlen Vieira vs. Macy Chiasson
— Trevin Giles vs. Andreas Gustafsson
— Kurt Holobaugh vs. Jordan Leavitt
— Bolaji Oki vs. Michael Aswell
— Rayanne dos Santos vs. Alice Ardelean