Who said New Year’s Eve was an off day for combat sports news?
On Tuesday, we saw a steady flood of information roll in on fights scheduled for the first quarter of 2025. A few of these bouts will likely be main or co-main events for upcoming cards.
Youssef Zalal is getting an opportunity to take a huge step toward title contention in the UFC’s featherweight division. On Tuesday, he was a guest on the Jaxxon podcast and confirmed his next fight is against No. 10-ranked Calvin Kattar at UFC Vegas 102 on February 15.
Few fighters in the featherweight division have been as hot as Zalal.
After failing in his first stint with the UFC back in 2020, Zalal has rebounded with an impressive streak. He’s won six fights in a row, with the last three coming in the UFC. He now draws the veteran Kattar, who is in desperate need of a victory.
Kattar has lost three in a row and four of his last five fights. A loss to Zalal may not push Kattar out of the rankings, but it will put him on the cusp of becoming unranked. Also on the UFC Vegas 102 card, Andre Petroski announced via his Instagram account that he will face Rodolfo Vieira.
Moving into March, UFC 313 from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas will feature Armen Petrosyan facing Brunno Ferreira in a fight likely destined for the prelims.
The bout will be Petrosyan’s first since he was knocked out by Shara Magomedov’s double spinning backfist in November at UFC 308. Ferreira and Petrosyan share something in common: both were stopped by someone named Magomedov at UFC 308. Ferreira fought valiantly on the same card but lost via submission to Abus Magomedov.
Later in March, on the 29th at UFC Mexico, Joe Pyfer will clash with Kelvin Gastelum in what could be an explosive middleweight encounter. After another unsuccessful attempt at welterweight, Gastelum is coming back up to middleweight for the fight with Pfyer.
Pyfer and Gastelum are among the most dangerous strikers in the division. The winner of this bout could earn Performance of the Night honors and secure one of the biggest early moments of the year.
On the undercard, Yazmin Jauregui will face Dione Barbosa in a strawweight battle. Both women are coming off losses in their last fights. However, both still have an opportunity to move toward a ranking at 115 pounds.
The winner will remain in the advancement section of the UFC’s matchmaking. The loser will likely find themselves falling in the eyes of the promotion’s matchmakers.
The MMA community is still awaiting some major details on the futures of Alex Pereira, Ilia Topuria, Jon Jones, Belal Muhammad, Valentine Shevchenko, Alexandre Pantoja and others.
For now, the fights that leaked on New Year’s Eve mixed with what we already know about UFC 311 and UFC 312 provide even more excitement for the promotion heading into the New Year.
