It may not be the most stacked event on paper outside of the main event between Gilbert Burns and Mike Malott, but UFC Winnipeg does include some notable matchups and also features six different fighters that will be making their promotional debuts.
Jamie Siraj – Featherweight, 14-3
In a very late addition to this card, Canadian MMA veteran Siraj will enter the Octagon for the first time to face former Fury FC titleholder John Yannis, who was submitted by Austin Bashi in his own UFC debut last August.
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Boasting 11 finishes out of his 14 career victories, Siraj finally gets his UFC opportunity more than 12 years into his professional MMA career. “The Gremlin” looked to be within striking distance of the UFC in 2024 when he won the Tuff-N-Uff featherweight belt to cap off a nine-fight win streak.
After losing the belt to UFC veteran Diego Brandão, Siraj rebounded with back-to-back submissions, the first of which won him the 150-pound Battlefield Fight League title in his native Canada.
Mark Vologdin – Bantamweight, 12-4-1
Vologdin became one of the rare fighters to secure a UFC contract with a losing effort after he dropped a decision to Adrian Luna Martinetti on Dana White’s Contender Series last year, and he’ll meet eight-fight UFC veteran John Castañeda at UFC Winnipeg.
The 25-year-old was on a seven-fight win streak before coming up short against Martinetti and has never been finished. That win streak included four-straight finishes and an Allstars Fight Night bantamweight title run where he defended his title twice, and all but two of Vologdin’s victories have come inside the distance.
Gokhan Saricam – Heavyweight, 11-2
A seven-fight Bellator MMA veteran, Saricam’s UFC debut comes against Canadian Tanner Boser, who is returning to the promotion for the first time since 2023.
Saricam’s two losses came against Bellator standouts Steve Mowry and Oleg Popov, who was the heavyweight winner of last year’s PFL tournament. After a rematch with Mowry and replacement matchup with Danilo Marques fell through for the 2024 PFL season, Saricam made his way to Germany last year and picked up first-round finishes under the Fair FC and The Cage MMA banners.
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Julien Leblanc – Middleweight, 10-2
The second of three debuting Canadians at UFC Winnipeg, Leblanc find himself matched with former The Ultimate Fighter finalist Robert Valentin, who is in desperate need of a win to extend his own UFC career.
It’s not often the UFC brings in non-heavyweights that are already in their mid-30s, but Leblanc has impressed on his current five-fight win streak that includes three-straight finishes. The former Samourai MMA champion went the distance in four-straight fights between 2019 and 2023 and split results in those outings, but every other one of Leblanc’s fights have seen him get things done via stoppage.
Márcio Barbosa – Featherweight, 17-2
Currently lined as the biggest betting favorite of all the debuting UFC Winnipeg fighters by a significant margin, Barbosa is a dangerous finisher that prefers to get his work done during the first five minutes of his fights.
“Ticotô” was an easy choice for a UFC contract after he stopped Damon Wilson in the first round on Dana White’s Contender Series last year. The Brazilian has stopped four-straight opponents in the opening round, and he’ll step into the Octagon to face Dennis Buzukja this weekend after he was originally booked to meet Kangjie Zhu late last month.
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Mandel Nallo – Lightweight, 14-3
Also a contract winner on last year’s edition of Dana White’s Contender Series, Nallo’s promotional debut against Jai Herbert will come immediately before the UFC Winnipeg co-main event between Kyler Phillips and Charles Jourdain.
It takes something special to earn a UFC contract as a 36-year-old lightweight, and Nallo clearly made a strong impression on Dana White with his first-round finish of Samuel Silva. That marked the fourth time in a row that Nallo has finished an opponent in the opening frame, and he’s only gone past the second round twice so far in 17 professional MMA fights.
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