Calvin Kattar (Photo by Mike Lawrie/Getty Images)
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Who said New Year’s Eve was a day off for martial arts news?
On Tuesday, we saw more and more information coming in regarding games scheduled for the first quarter of 2025. Some of these matches could be main events or semi-main events on future cards.
Yousef Zalal has the opportunity to take a big step towards title contention in the UFC’s featherweight division. On Tuesday, he was a guest on Jackson’s podcast and confirmed that his next fight will be against No. 10 ranked Calvin Kattar at UFC Vegas 102 on February 15th.
There are few fighters as hot as Zalal in the featherweight division.
After failing in his first stint in the UFC in 2020, Zarrar bounced back with an impressive streak. He has won six straight fights, the last three coming in the UFC. This time he took on veteran Qatar, who was desperate for a win.
Qatar has lost three games in a row and four of their last five matches. Losing to Zalal may not knock Qatar out of the rankings, but it will push them to the brink of dropping them. Also on the UFC Vegas 102 card, Andre Petroski announced on his Instagram account that he will face Rodolfo Vieira.
Armen Petrosyan will take on Bruno Ferreira at UFC 313, which will be held in March at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, in what is expected to be a qualifying bout.
This will be Petrosyan’s first fight since he was knocked out by a double spinning backfist from Shara Magomedov at UFC 308 in November. Ferreira and Petrosyan have something in common. Both were stopped by a guy named Magomedov at UFC 308. Ferreira fought valiantly on the same card, but lost by submission to Abs Magomedov.
In late March, Joe Pifer faces Kelvin Gastelum in what could be an explosive middleweight showdown at UFC Mexico on the 29th. After another failed attempt at welterweight, Gastelum is set to return to middleweight for the fight with Fire.
Pifer and Gastelum are among the most dangerous strikers in the division. The winner of this match will earn Performance of the Night honors and potentially secure one of the biggest moments of the early part of the year.
On the undercard, Yazmin Jauregui will take on Dione Barbosa in a strawweight bout. Both fighters are coming off losses in recent fights. However, both still have a chance to advance toward the 115-pound rankings.
The winner will remain in the promotion section of UFC matchmaking. The loser will likely end up in the eyes of the promotion’s matchmakers.
The MMA community is still waiting for important details regarding the futures of Alex Pereira, Ilia Topria, Jon Jones, Belal Muhammad, Valentine Shevchenko, Aleksandr Pantoja, and more.
For now, the matches leaked on New Year’s Eve are mixed in with what we already know about UFC 311 and UFC 312, adding even more excitement to the promotion heading into the new year.
