UFC Tonight: What You Need To Know About The UFC London Fight Card

Forbes

22-03-2025

LONDON, ENGLAND - MARCH 21: (L-R) Opponents Leon Edwards of Jamaica and Sean Brady face off during ... More the UFC Fight Night ceremonial weigh-in at The O2 on March 21, 2025 in London, England. (Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC)
The is back at 02 Arena in London, England for today's UFC London fight card. The UFC Fight Night features a main event between Leon Edwards and Sean Brady. Edwards, a former UFC welterweight champion, competes for the first time since losing his belt to Belal Muhammad in July 2024. The rising Brady is coming off back-to-back wins following a 2022 knockout loss to Muhammad. In the UFC London 2025 co-main event, former UFC light heavyweight champion Jan Blachowicz faces the charging Carlos Ulberg. Below is the pertinent information you need to know about tonight's UFC London fight card.
LONDON, ENGLAND - MARCH 21: Leon Edwards of Jamaica poses on the scale during the UFC Fight Night ... More ceremonial weigh-in at The O2 on March 21, 2025 in London, England. (Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC)
Leon Edwards (22-4-0-1) joined the UFC in late 2014. He was 8-1 at the time and coming off a successful defense of the BAMMA British welterweight title.
Edwards dropped his UFC debut, losing a split decision to Claudio Silva in November 2014. He then scored a knockout win and a 'Performance of the Night' bonus against Seth Baczynski. A decision victory over Pawel Pawlak followed.
In December 2015, Edwards faced Kamaru Usman on the early prelims of a UFC on Fox card. Usman won that contest by unanimous decision. That fight, which took place more than eight years ago, was the last time Edwards was on the losing end of a UFC contest.
Following his loss to Usman, Edwards picked up wins over Dominic Waters (decision), Albert Tumenov (submission), Vicente Luque (decision), and Bryan Barberena (decision). The victory over Barberena, which came on the main card of a September 2017 UFC Fight Night event in Rotterdam, earned Edwards the No. 15 spot in the welterweight rankings.
After that, Edwards went on a four-fight winning streak, picking up three decision wins and one TKO. That stretch of wins put him at No. 3 in the rankings. Edwards was initially booked to face former UFC welterweight champion Tyron Woodley in March 2020, but Edwards, who fights out of England, was forced to withdraw from that event due to COVID-19 restrictions after the card was moved from the UK to the US. The event was eventually scrapped.
After the Woodley fight was canceled, Edwards wanted to fight Jorge Masvidal, someone ranked ahead of him or for the UFC welterweight crown. With none of those fights being offered to him, Edwards was inactive. That inactivity resulted in the UFC removing him from the rankings, something he did not take well.
One day after the UFC removed Edwards from the rankings, the promotion announced Edwards vs. Khamzat Chimaev for a UFC Fight Night event in December 2020. With that booking, the UFC put Edwards back into the rankings at No. 3. That fight never took place as both fighters tested positive for COVID. Chimaev then pulled out of the rebooked fight because of lingering COVID effects. The UFC tried to book the bout again, but Chimaev was again forced out because he was still dealing with COVID issues. With that, the UFC booked the Edwards vs. Muhammad contest discussed above.
A decision win over Nate Diaz at UFC 263 in June 2021 followed for Edwards, which set up Edwards vs. then-champion Usman for the welterweight title in March 2023. Edwards. Behind on all three scorecards as the clock ticked down, Edwards delivered a perfectly placed and timed head kick that dropped Usman to the mat at 4:04 of the final round. With that, Edwards captured UFC gold.
Edwards defeated Usman in the March 2023 rematch by majority decision. He then defended the title in December 2023 with a unanimous decision win over Colby Covington.
Edwards was unbeaten in 13 fights heading into his UFC 304 fight against Belal Muhammad. Muhammad took the title from Edwards with a unanimous decision (48–47, 48–47, 49–46).
Edwards is the No. 1 fighter in the official UFC welterweight rankings. He was initially booked to face Jack Della Maddalena on this card, but Della Maddalena was moved to the main event of UFC 315 opposite Belal Muhammad.
LONDON, ENGLAND - MARCH 21: Sean Brady poses on the scale during the UFC Fight Night ceremonial ... More weigh-in at The O2 on March 21, 2025 in London, England. (Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC)
Leon Edwards vs. Sean Brady
Jan Blachowicz vs. Carlos Ulberg
Gunnar Nelson vs. Kevin Holland
Molly McCann vs. Alexia Thainara
Jordan Vucenic vs. Chris Duncan
Nathaniel Wood vs. Morgan Charrière
Jai Herbert vs. Chris Padilla
Lone'er Kavanagh vs. Felipe dos Santos
Marcin Tybura vs. Mick Parkin
Christian Leroy Duncan vs. Andrey Pulyaev
Shauna Bannon vs. Puja Tomar
Nathan Fletcher vs. Caolán Loughran
Guram Kutateladze vs. Kauê Fernandes
Saturday, March 22, 2025
02 Arena in London, England
Full fight card streams on ESPN+
Prelims: 1:00 p.m. ET
Main Card: 4:00 p.m. ET
LONDON, ENGLAND - MARCH 21: Jan Blachowicz of Poland poses on the scale during the UFC Fight Night ... More official weigh-in at The Hilton London Canary Wharf on March 21, 2025 in London, England. (Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC)
Blachowicz (29-10-1) has been with the UFC since October 2014. Since that time, the 41-year-old has compiled a 12-7-1 UFC record. Blachowicz won the vacant UFC light heavyweight title in September 2020 with a TKO victory over Dominick Reyes.
The Polish competitor defended his crown in March 2021 with a unanimous decision win over then-UFC middleweight titleholder Israel Adesanya. The loss was the first setback of Adesanya's career.
Glover Teixeira took the title from Blachowicz in October 2021, winning the UFC 267 contest via second-round submission.
Blachowicz has a 1-1-1 record since that defeat. In May 2022 he earned a TKO win over Aleksander Rakic. The ex-champ followed that by fighting Magomed Ankalaev to a draw in December 2022. In his most recent outing, Blachowicz lost a split-decision to Alex Pereira. That contest took place in July 2023.
Blachowicz was scheduled to face Rakic in a rematch in January, but that fight fell through because of an injury to Blachowicz's shoulder that required surgery.
Blachowicz is the No. 3 fighter in the official UFC light heavyweight rankings.
LONDON, ENGLAND - MARCH 21: Carlos Ulberg of New Zealand poses on the scale during the UFC Fight ... More Night official weigh-in at The Hilton London Canary Wharf on March 21, 2025 in London, England. (Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC)
Ulberg (11-1) made his UFC debut in March 2021 after winning a contract on a Dana White's Contender Series card. Ulberg's knockout win on the DWCS moved his record to 5-0. At the time Ulberg was known mostly as a member of the City Kickboxing team out of Auckland, New Zealand. Today, he is Carlos Ulberg, the N0. 6 ranked fighter in the UFC's light heavyweight division.
Ulberg's official UFC run began at UFC 259 with a loss. Kennedy Nzechukwu knocked out Ulberg in a Fight of the Night bonus-winning scrap on that night in March 2021.
Since that defeat, Ulberg has gone 7-0 with five stoppage victories. The 34-year-old is coming off a November 2024 decision win over former UFC light heavyweight title challenger Volkan Oezdemir.
Ulberg opened as a -200 favorite over the +165 Blachowicz. Today, Ulberg is a -300 favorite over Blachowicz, who comes in at +240. Most of the bets (64 percent) are on Blachowicz, while the money is in Ulberg's favor (73 percent).
Jan Blachowicz is a former UFC champ, and that carries some weight, but he is 42 years old and 1-2-1 in his past four fights, with that win coming via injury TKO. His last 'real' victory came against Israel Adesanya when the then-UFC middleweight champ moved up to 205 pounds to pursue UFC light heavyweight gold. Had this fight occurred during Blachowicz's run between 2019 and 2021, the pick would be easy. Seeing as it is 2025, the betting pick is more difficult.
Ulberg is younger, throws more, lands more, and has incredible power and speed. The timing is right for Ulberg in this fight. However, one most look at Ulberg's most recent win over Volkan Oezdemir, where Ulberg looked more hittable than he had in his first seven UFC bouts.
The betting pick is for Ulberg to win via decision, but there could be value in betting Blachowicz to win if the odds keep moving.
Stay tuned for more coverage for tonight's UFC Vegas London fight card: Edwards vs. Brady.