By UFC 303 was supposed to mark Conor McGregor’s return to the octagon. But his highly-anticipated bout against Michael Chandler was scuttled (for now) due to an injury McGregor suffered in the lead-up to the fight.
But credit the UFC, which moved swiftly to replace the main event and salvage a pay-per-view card that suffered a few other setbacks. And the new main event should be plenty exciting for fight fans: Alex Pereira and Jiri Prochazka are squaring off again, with the light heavyweight title Pereira won against former champ Prochazka last November on the line.
Follow along with USA TODAY Sports for updates and highlights from UFC 303:
Pyfer just ended the prelims with a bang. He knocked out Barriault with some heavy punches just 1:25 into the fight. Three of the four prelims ended with stoppages. Hopefully the action continues on the main card.
Brian Ortega has been scratched from his UFC 303 fight, but his opponent is still set to compete.
Ortega is sick and running a 103-degree fever, Jon Anik relayed on the broadcast. Jeff Mullen of the Nevada State Athletic Commission said on the broadcast Ortega was “medically unable to compete.”
Diego Lopes is still hopping into the octagon, though. He will be taking on Dan Ige, who was tapped as a (truly unprecedented) last-minute replacement. Mullen said that Ige is cleared to compete because he’s fought recently enough that all his medicals are up to date in the eyes of the commission.
A card that has faced plenty of hurdles has somehow, some way cleared another one.
Fili defeated Swanson in a split decision. Two judges gave the fight to Fili (29-28) while one judge ruled it 29-28 in favor of Swanson.
Now we’re cooking. Jean Silva delivered a second consecutive knockout on this card by dropping Charles Jourdain with a vicious uppercut. It brought the fight to a sudden close at 1:22 of the second round. Silva did miss weight before the fight, however.
We have our first stoppage! Payton Talbott proved why he was a massive favorite in this fight, dropping Ghemmouri to the canvas with a brutal right and following it up with strikes that caused the ref to stop the fight just 19 seconds in.
Robertson closed out the early prelims with an impressive unanimous decision victory (30-27, 30-27, 30-26). Waterson-Gomez announced her retirement after the bout in an emotional scene. The UFC played a very nice tribute video for her and Waterson-Gomez delivered a heartfelt speech.
Not a lot happened in this one. The competitors were implored to be more active multiple times by the ref and were booed when the final horn sounded. The judges ruled it a split decision in Buday’s favor (30-27, 29-28 to one 29-28 card for the 45-year-old Arlovski).
In a match defined by wild grappling, it was Tsuruya — in his UFC debut — who emerged victorious. He earned a unanimous decision victory with scores of 29-28 on all three scorecards.
Oliveira and Simon went the distance, with Oliveira securing the victory by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28).
The early prelims begin at 6 p.m. ET Saturday. Prelims are then slated to begin at approximately 8 p.m. ET with the pay-per-view card beginning around 10 p.m. ET.
Early prelims and prelims for UFC 303 will air on ESPN and can be streamed via ESPN+. The pay-per-view card can be purchased via ESPN+.
The UFC returns to a usual haunt for 303 — Las Vegas’ T-Mobile Arena.
Main card
- Alex Pereira (champ) vs. Jiri Prochazka (light heavyweight)
- Diego Lopes vs. Dan Ige
- Anthony Smith vs. Roman Dolidze (light heavyweight)
- Mayra Bueno Silva vs. Macy Chiasson (women’s bantamweight)
- Ian Machado Garry vs. Michael Page (welterweight)
Prelims
- Joe Pyfer vs. Marc-Andre Barriault (middleweight)
- Cub Swanson vs. Andre Fili (featherweight)
- Charles Jourdain vs. Jean Silva (featherweight)
- Payton Talbott vs. Yanis Ghemmouri (bantamweight)
Early Prelims
- Michelle Waterson-Gomez vs. Gillian Robertson (women’s strawweight)
- Andrei Arlovski vs. Martin Buday (heavyweight)
- Rei Tsuruya vs. Carlos Hernandez
- Ricky Simon vs. Vinicius Oliveira
Speculation that the McGregor-Chandler fight might be in trouble began when the UFC suddenly called off a June 3 press conference that was set to be staged in Dublin. Ten days later, UFC President Dana White announced the fight was off the 303 card with an injury sidelining McGregor. That injury has since been revealed to be a broken toe.
McGregor last fought in July 2021, when he lost via doctor’s stoppage after he broke his leg in a fight against Dustin Poirier.
| Alex Pereira | vs. | Jiri Prochazka |
| 10-2-0 | Record | 30-4-1 |
| Brazil | Country | Czechia |
| 6-4 | Height | 6-3 |
| 220 | Weight | 218 |
| 79 inches | Reach | 80 inches |
| 44 inches | Leg reach | 45 inches |
Alex Pereira defeated Jiri Prochazka by second-round TKO in their battle for the then-vacant light heavyweight championship at UFC 295 in November.
Before capturing the light heavyweight title, Pereira — a kickboxing standout — was the middleweight champ. He defeated Israel Adesanya by TKO at UFC 281 in December 2022 to win that belt, but Adesanya got revenge in the rematch at UFC 287 in April 2023 by knocking out Pereira to recapture the title.
Pereira moved up to light heavyweight after the defeat. He has one successful title defense since winning the belt in November, knocking out Jamahal Hill at UFC 300 in April.
Jiri Prochazka defeated Glover Teixeira via submission at UFC 275 in June 2022 to win the light heavyweight title. But he never got to stage a proper defense, vacating the title due to injury. His next time in the octagon was his loss to Pereira in November 2023.
