What to watch for at UFC Fight Night: Taira vs. Park

It has been more than two months since the UFC last held an event at its home base in Nevada, but the organization returns to the UFC Apex this weekend for a Fight Night card featuring a slew of up-and-comers.

There was a main event switch-up earlier this week after Amir Albazi was not given medical clearance to compete against fellow flyweight contender Tatsuro Taira and was replaced by undefeated Hyun Sung Park, who has a huge opportunity to shake up the 125-pound rankings.

Park had been initially booked to face one-time title challenger Steve Erceg on Aug. 9 but jumped at the opportunity to partake in his first UFC main event. He is a 10-0 pro with three stoppage wins at the UFC level. 

The 29-year-old from South Korea submitted Seung Guk Choi in his debut in February 2023 following his perfect run on Road to UFC in 2022. He followed that up with a technical knockout of Shannon Ross and a rear-naked choke win over Carlos Hernandez, the latter of which was less than three months ago.

Taira, 25, enters the weekend as the No. 6-ranked flyweight contender. The Japanese star is 16-1 in mixed martial arts and looking to bounce back from his first pro loss, a five-round split decision to former title challenger Brandon Royval in October.

Park is currently unranked and the listed underdog against Taira, although he is a capable and competent fighter anywhere this bout goes, with five submission wins and four by KO/TKO on his record. An upset of Taira would potentially see him land a spot in the top 10 after just his fourth UFC appearance.

Here’s what else to look for this weekend at the UFC Apex…

FOTN frontrunners: For what this card lacks in established star power — opponents Karol Rosa and Nora Cornolle are the only ranked fighters outside of Taira on the card, with Rosa at No. 10 and Cornolle at No. 12 at women’s bantamweight — the competition for the Fight of the Night bonus should be stiff.

Taira already has four performance bonuses in his seven UFC appearances and is coming off a Fight of the Night performance in his most recent appearance when he went five rounds with Royval. Park has finished all three of his UFC opponents and is four years older than Taira, although Taira is the more experienced fighter who has faced a much higher level of competition in his career thus far.  

The flyweight feature has all the makings of an exciting scrap and there are a handful of other tantalizing style matchups that should be fan-friendly affairs.

The two bouts preceding the main event, in particular, are probably the top two contenders for the Fight of the Night bonus.

Lightweights Mateusz Rebecki and Chris Duncan are both aggressive fighters riding positive momentum. Duncan has submitted his past two opponents with guillotine chokes and Rebecki is coming off a decision win over Myktybek Orolbai at UFC 308 in what was unanimously considered one of the best fights of 2024.

An interesting tidbit with this matchup is the fact that the pair trained in close proximity at American Top Team in Florida leading up to the bout, even taking a photo with one another after sharing the mats earlier this year. Duncan did clarify that they’ve never directly trained together or sparred together, though, which made it an easy decision to accept the fight.

Rebecki, 32 from Poland, is 20-2 in MMA with a 4-1 UFC record since debuting in the organization in 2023. Duncan, also 32 years old with a 4-1 UFC record, is a rugged Scotsman who has been one of Dustin Poirier’s top training partners in the past. 

“We’re just going to get in there and clash it out until there’s a winner,” Duncan told Sportsnet this week. “I would love to knock him out.”

The only other lightweight matchup on the card is Elves Brener vs. Esteban Ribovics, which should also be a contender for Fight of the Night.

Brener has his back against the wall, so to speak, coming off back-to-back losses to Orolbai and Joel Alvarez. The 27-year-old Brazilian is a teammate and training partner of Charles Oliveira and is equally dangerous on the feet or with submissions.

Ribovics, meanwhile, is coming off back-to-back Fight of the Night performances — a split decision win over Daniel Zellhuber at the Sphere last September and a split decision loss to Nasrat Haqparast in March. Ribovics tends to prefer keeping his fights standing, but did win four of his first five pro bouts by submission. 

A dark horse contender could be the bantamweight contest between Rinya Nakamura and Nathan Fletcher that’ll serve as the featured preliminary bout. Both are skilled grapplers, with Nakamura being an Olympic-level wrestler in his native Japan, while Fletcher possesses slick submission skills. This could be a delight for those who enjoy scrambles on the ground and technical battles for position.

Topuria 2.0? Kevin Vallejos is one of the more intriguing names in the UFC’s featherweight division, even garnering some comparisons to former 145-pound and current 155-pound champion Ilia Topuria based on his fighting style. The 23-year-old from Argentina has an abundance of confidence and punching power. He’s 15-1 in MMA with 11 wins coming by KO/TKO, including his UFC debut in March when he finished Seung Woo Choi in just over three minutes. 

Vallejos’s lone setback as a pro was a loss that has aged quite well. He dropped a decision to the red-hot Jean Silva on the Contender Series back in 2023 but has gone 4-0 with four stoppages since then. He’s taking on Santa Ana, Calif.’s Danny Silva, who’s 10-1 in MMA and a perfect 2-0 at the UFC level with split decision wins over Josh Culibao and Lucas Almeida. Vallejos is roughly a four-to-one betting favourite, but if this fight stays standing, it could be closer than the odds suggest.

We’ll see if Vallejos resembles Topuria once the pair are in the cage but it’s clear he’s aware of the comparisons and has had some fun with it on social media.

International flair: There are 11 different countries being represented at the Apex this weekend. Brazil leads the way with seven athletes followed by the United States with six. Argentina and Japan have two fighters apiece competing Saturday with South Korea, Scotland, Poland, France, England, Russia and Venezuela also represented. There are also eight different weight classes in action, ranging from women’s strawweight (115 pounds) to middleweight (185 pounds).

Below is the projected bout order for UFC Fight Night: Taira vs. Park…

— Tatsuro Taira vs. Hyun Sung Park

— Mateusz Rebecki vs. Chris Duncan

— Elves Brener vs. Esteban Ribovics

— Karol Rosa vs. Nora Cornolle

— Neil Magny vs. Elizeu Zaleski dos Santos

— Danny Silva vs. Kevin Vallejos

— Rinya Nakamura vs. Nathan Fletcher

— Rodolfo Vieira vs. Tresean Gore

— Nick Klein vs. Andrey Pulyaev

— Austin Bashi vs. John Yannis

— Rafael Estevam vs. Felipe Bunes

— Piera Rodriguez vs. Ketlen Souza