Louisville takes center stage for UFC Fight Night featuring middleweight contenders (2024)

Any glutton for professional sports is getting their fill these days in Louisville.

The city welcomed an influx of horse racing fans a little more than a month ago for the thrilling Kentucky Derby 150. A few weeks later, golf fans descended on Valhalla for the PGA Championship.

On Saturday, all eyes will be on the cage at the KFC Yum! Center as Louisville hosts UFC Fight Night. Ranked middleweight contendersJared Cannonier(17-6) andNassourdine Imavov(13-4) will headline the event in the five-round bout at 8 p.m. It’s only the second time the Derby City has hosted the UFC and first since 2011.

Although there’s always been a presence of mixed martial arts, boxing and other forms of fighting in Louisville, the interest level has risen since the last time the city hosted the UFC.

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“There's plenty of gyms now that are training more for MMA,” said Derrick Logan, a Louisville native and longtime UFC and MMA fan. “At one point, some of the gyms were stagnant where when you first started, they were going over basic things, but now they have pretty much every machine that you would normally see in an MMA gym.

“There are so many MMA gyms that came out of nowhere over the years that everybody does it. So, for the UFC to be coming to Louisville, Kentucky, that is a huge deal.”

Earlier this week, Cannonier visited the Muhammad Ali Center to see the history of Louisville’s most iconic fighter. In addition to the tour, he watched a short film on Ali’s life and took pictures with memorabilia.

“I thought it was pretty informative,” Cannonier said in an article from the UFC. “A lot of things I didn't know about him. A lot of things that I did know, but got more in-depth detail about it, and I got to see all of the cool memorabilia, all the cool things that he’s done. A bunch of cool stories about his life before boxing, during boxing, his activism and his humanitarianism. So, it was really informative. We got a lot of good information. A lot of good energy from this place.”

Cannonier will make his return to the ring for the first time in almost a year. He’s won back-to-back fights after taking a unanimous victory over Marvin Vettori on June 17, 2023.

“I’m not trying to go five rounds. I’d rather not go more than one round,”Cannoniersaid. “I’d rather go in there, put my hands on you, you can’t take it. You say no. The ref says no. ... Or, your corner says no more. I’m always going for the finish. I fight for the finish. I fight to incapacitate you, so you don’t do it to me.”

Imavov most recently won a majority decision over Roman Dolidze on Feb. 3 and recorded TKOs in two of his last six fights.

“You can see in my last fight the way I walked in the cage, I was still smiling,” Imavov said through an interpreter, “so mentally, I’m way better than I used to (be) because I feel confident in my team. I’m better. Being better mentally is maybe the most important thing when you walk into the cage.”

Logan is looking forward to the fight, predicting it will be a slugfest.

“That's one thing I like about Jared Cannonier is he's a puncher,” Logan said. “He's a great fighter. Not so much the best on the ground, but that's how most of his opponents get the best of him is the fact that he's not the best at the ground game but ... (Imavov) has a great stand-up game.

“I think it's going to be a great fight. It's gonna be (a) slugfest. It's gonna be about who lands the most shots, I think, who gets hurt early.”

In addition to the two strikers, the Saturday night UFC card includes light heavyweights Dominick Reyes (12-4) and Dustin Jacoby (19-8-1); bantamweights Raul Rosas Jr. (8-1) and Ricky Turcios (13-3); and welterweights Miguel Baeza (10-3) and Punahele Soriano (9-4). In middleweight fights, Julian Marquez (9-4) is scheduled to face Zachary Reese (6-1) and Brunno Ferreira (11-1) is set to fightDustin Stoltzfus (15-5).

More: UFC's Louisville return features top middleweights vying for title contention

Reach Louisville football, women's basketball and baseball beat writer Alexis Cubit at acubit@gannett.com and follow her on X at @Alexis_Cubit.