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UFC 330: Building Out the Philadelphia Card
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UFC is coming to South Philly this summer for the first time since 2019. That was a Fight Night between Edson Barboza and Justin Gaethje way back before the pandemic. This will actually be our first numbered event since 2011, when Tito Ortiz fought Rashad Evans at the arena formerly known as Wells Fargo Center.
This past weekend, the promotion revealed the card for UFC 329, which will be headlined by Max Holloway and Conor McGregor in Las Vegas. That clears some things up for 330, which is rumored to be headlined by Islam Makhachev vs. Ian Machado Garry for the Welterweight title:
If true, this is a great fight to headline 330 in Philly. Makhachev is the UFC’s pound-for-pound #1 fighter and Garry is 17-1 with just a single decision loss to the undefeated Shavkat Rakhmonov. It’s one of the most compelling title fights they can make at this point.
Now, to the rest of the card, some notes and some spit balling.
Would the UFC give us two title fights on this card? I don’t think they have to if Islam is headlining.
It’s possible they use Alexander Volkanovski and Movsar Evloev to headline UFC 331 for the 145 pound title, though it’s possibly we could get a Mackenzie Dern or Valentina Shevchenko title defense as the co-main. Neither fighter is currently booked, and Dern could defend against former champ Zhang Weili if Zhang comes back down to 115 pounds after attempting and failing to secure the flyweight belt. The only other title fight they could conceivably give us is a Petr Yan vs. Merab Dvalishvili trilogy.
As for the Philly-area fighters:
- Sean Brady defeated Joaquin Buckley handily at UFC 328 a little more than a week ago. He barely took any damage and can be booked for this card, though his options are limited. He’s already fought and lost to Michael Morales, while Carlos Prates has done enough to get the winner of Islam vs. Garry. There’s Jack Della Maddalena, who got beat up pretty badly by Prates a few weeks back, and otherwise Sean would have to fight down in the rankings if he wants to be on this card. He’s on the record saying he wants to fight on 330, but only if it makes sense for him, though he would welcome a matchup with former champ Kamaru Usman. A Belal Muhammad rematch is conceivable if Belal gets through his upcoming fight against Gabriel Bonfim.
- Joe Pyfer should fight on 330. He’s top 8 at 185 pounds and could conceivably fight Caio Borralho, Dricus Du Plessis, or Anthony Hernandez. Brenden Allen is booked. Nassourdine Imavov has done enough to earn a rematch with Sean Strickland for the belt, while Khamzat Chimaev is supposed to be moving up to 205.
- Kyle Daukaus is fighting on the UFC White House card in June against Bo Nickal. 330 would be short turnaround for him unless he gets through unscathed.
- Pat Sabatini beat William Gomis at 328 in Newark. Not a great fight, and he would be the first to tell you that, but he is on a four-fight win streak and should get a decent opponent on this card.
- Andre Petroski lost by TKO this past Saturday night in Vegas. If he’s booked for 330 he’d get about three months to recover.
- Jeremiah Wells was supposed to fight Nicolas Dalby this past weekend, but Dalby had to pull out with an injury. Wells is fresh.
- Bassil Hafez hasn’t fought since 2024. Would be good to see him out there again.
- Bill Algeo is retired.
- Chris Daukaus is no longer fighting in the UFC.
You could pull in some of the Jersey fighters too, like Erin Blanchfield or Jim Miller, if he wants to keep it going. Of course, you are not required to have local fighters on a Philly card, you’d just assume a lot of them would like to perform in their home region.
Anyway, I could go for something like this:
- Islam Makhachev vs. Ian Machado Garry (Welterweight title fight)
- Mackenzie Dern vs. Zhang Weili (Strawweight title fight)
- Joe Pyfer vs. Caio Borralho
- Sean Brady vs. Kamaru Usman
- Payton Talbott vs. Raul Rosas Jr.
- Erin Blanchfield vs. Alexa Grasso
- Uros Medic vs. Yaroslav Amosov
- Pat Sabatini vs. Dan Ige
- Jeremiah Wells vs. Oban Elliott
- Bassil Hafez vs. Chidi Njokuani
- (early prelims here)
Something like that. This is kind of hard! Who knows what they’re cooking up behind the scenes.
But whatever – if we get Islam vs. Garry and then a good co-main, it will be a worthwhile card. The atmosphere should be great.
Kevin has been writing about Philadelphia sports since 2009. He spent seven years in the CBS 3 sports department and started with the Union during the team's 2010 inaugural season. He went to the academic powerhouses of Boyertown High School and West Virginia University. email - k.kinkead@sportradar.com