What’s at stake for Canadian fighters at UFC Fight Night in Winnipeg

The UFC’s return to Winnipeg is chock full of Canadian mixed martial arts talent.

Burlington, Ont.’s Mike Malott will become the first Canadian to headline a UFC event in Canada in a decade when he faces Brazil’s Gilbert Burns in a five-round welterweight main event.

The stakes for Malott heading into Saturday’s 13-bout Fight Night card at Canada Life Centre are straightforward. Any win over Burns will result in Malott cracking the 170-pound contender rankings when they update next week.

An impressive knockout or submission victory, on the other hand, would send a message to the rest of the division that Malott is ready to begin taking on the top 10 contenders in the weight class.

Malott is one of nine Canadians scheduled to compete on the card this weekend, so with that in mind, let’s look at what’s at stake for the others.

Charles Jourdain: Saturday’s co-main event is a bantamweight contest between Beloeil, Que.’s Jourdain and American Kyler Phillips, two fighters heading in opposite directions. After getting knocked out by featherweight contender Jean Silva two years ago, Jourdain dropped down from 145 pounds to the 135-pound division where he has gone 2-0 with submission wins over Victor Henry in 2024 and over Davey Grant six month ago in Vancouver.

“The loss to Jean Silva was quite tremendous loss because even though he’s a fantastic fighter – I’m not taking anything away from him – this is where I realized I was riding a wave of talent instead of being a professional,” Jourdain told Sportsnet this week. “So, I became a professional when it comes to taking care of the mind, taking care of the body, and now I’ve never been bigger. I’m actually stronger and bigger than when I was a featherweight … so everything changed (after) that night.”

The 30-year-old Canadian used a guillotine technique to submit both Henry and Grant and it’ll be a real feather in his chapeau if he can get a stoppage win in Winnipeg considering Phillips has never been finished in his mixed martial arts career.

Phillips, 30, is 12-4 as a pro with all four losses being via decision, including one early in his career to Henry, but he also has gotten the better of contenders such as Song Yadong and Raoni Barcelos.

Mandel Nallo: It took the 36-year-old until the twilight of his fighting career to finally make it to the UFC, but a first-round knockout win this past September on Dana White’s Contender Series earned him a shot in the big show. Now, he gets to debut in front of a home crowd against experienced English kickboxer Jai Herbert, who has shared the cage previously with the likes of Ilia Topuria and Renato Moicano.

Nallo is former training partner of Georges St-Pierre at Tristar Gym and fought eight times under the Bellator MMA banner from 2017 to 2023. He has won five consecutive fights by first-round stoppage, one of which earned him Samourai MMA’s vacant lightweight title in the summer of 2024.

Jasmine Jasudavicius: The popular Niagara Top Team member had been closing in on women’s flyweight title contention, however her five-fight winning streak was snapped by Manon Fiorot just 74 seconds into her most recent appearance in Vancouver in October. Jasudavicius gets her first chance to regroup against Karine Silva on the main card. It’s another home game for Jasudavicius, who fought on both Canadian cards last year and has fought in her home country in five of her past eight overall. The 37-year-old from St. Catharines, Ont., is the No. 7-ranked contender at 125 pounds, while her 32-year-old Brazilian opponent has lost two of her past three and has gone the distance in each of her past four fights.

Jamey-Lyn Horth: A spot in the rankings is on the line when Horth faces American JJ Aldrich on the prelims. Horth, 36, has won two in a row and showed off her power in December in a two-minute knockout of Tereza Bleda. It was Horth’s first stoppage win in four years and it earned her a step-up in competition. Aldrich enters the weekend ranked No. 14 in the women’s flyweight division 125 pounds with wins in three of her past four. Horth and Jasudavicius are friends and often train together so the fact both are competing on the same card could end up being a good omen.

Julien Leblanc: The 34-year-old from Gatineau, Que., is one of three Canadians and one of six total fighters this weekend making their UFC debuts. Leblanc has been finding success in Canadian promotions Unified MMA and Samourai MMA the past few years with five consecutive wins and three in a row by KO/TKO. Leblanc gets to show whether or not he is a UFC-calibre middleweight. His opponent, Robert Valentin, was a finalist on The Ultimate Fighter 32 in 2024 but is 0-3 in UFC bouts and is coming off a 70-second knockout loss to Ateba Gautier in July.

Melissa Croden: Calgary’s bantamweight has gotten off to a hot-cold start to her UFC career. She debuted in October with a third-round TKO, but then had that momentum dissipate due to a decision loss in her sophomore showing in December. Croden, 34, lost a decision to Luana Santos in December after winning her UFC debut by TKO at UFC Vancouver a couple months earlier. Her opponent, Darya Zheleznyakova, is coming off a decision win over Melissa Mullins last summer to improve to 2-1 in the UFC. Zheleznyakova, 30, has also alternated wins and losses during her brief UFC tenure.

Tanner Boser: He’s back! The Alberta heavyweight has returned to the UFC for the first time in nearly three years. Boser went 5-5 in the UFC from 2019 to 2023. He had knockout wins over Ovince Saint Preux and Philipe Lins and two of his losses were decision to multiple-time heavyweight title contender Ciryl Gane and former champ Andrei Arlovski. Boser’s most recent match in the UFC was when he debuted at 205 pounds and was stopped by Ion Cutelaba in the opening round. The 34-year-old returned to heavyweight and is coming off a TKO win at a UAE Warriors event 10 months ago. His opponent is 35-year-old striker Gokhan Saricam of Turkey who’s making his UFC debut.

Jamie Siraj: This is perhaps the feel-good story of the entire UFC Winnipeg card. A few years ago, it wasn’t certain Siraj would be alive in 2026 let alone competing in the UFC. The 31-year-old, who is from Lower Mainland in B.C., made his professional debut in 2014 and holds a 14-3 record but his career and life nearly ended earlier this decade. There was a four-year span from mid-2019 to mid-2023 during which Siraj did not compete due to life-threatening health issues. Siraj got a brain infection in 2020, ended up in a coma and then developed an autoimmune disease. 

Long story short, Siraj slowly recovered and returned to fighting where he has gone 6-1 since his comeback. He now makes his UFC debut against American John Yannis in a 135-pound preliminary matchup. Siraj is coming off consecutive second-round submission victories and his only loss since 2016 happened early last year against Diego Brandao, a UFC veteran and past winner of The Ultimate Fighter who has been having tons of success on the regional scene recently. Other than that loss, Siraj is 11-1 over the past decade.

Canadian fighters went 4-2 at UFC 315 in Montreal last May (Malott and Jasudavicius were among the winners on that card) and went 5-2 at UFC Vancouver (Malott, Jourdain and Croden won on that card; Jasudavicius lost)

Projected bout order for UFC Winnipeg below (subject to change):

— Gilbert Burns vs. Mike Malott

— Kyler Phillips vs. Charles Jourdain

— Mandel Nallo vs. Jai Herbert

— Jasmine Jasudavicius vs. Karine Silva

— Thiago Moises vs. Gauge Young

— Dennis Buzukja vs. Marcio Barbosa

— Julien Leblanc vs. Robert Valentin

— Tanner Boser vs. Gokhan Saricam

— Melissa Croden vs. Darya Zheleznyakova

— Mitch Raposo vs. Allan Nascimento

— JJ Aldrich vs. Jamey-Lyn Horth

— John Castaneda vs. Mark Vologdin

— Jamie Siraj vs. John Yannis