Before top-10 bantamweight contenders Song Yadong and Deiveson Figueiredo headline a UFC Fight Night event at Galaxy Arena on Saturday, the Macau venue played host to the latest round of Road to UFC matchups.
Road to UFC is a tournament-style series that began in 2023 and features top international prospects, mostly from Asia and the surrounding areas, where fighters compete for a shot at winning an official UFC contract.
It serves a similar purpose to American-based series Dana White’s Contender Series and The Ultimate Fighter.
Day 1 and Day 2 of the fifth season were each capped off with a popular Chinese fighter thrilling the home crowd with a dominant first-round victory.
UFC lightweight Rongzhu headlined the first day of action on Thursday with a 70-second technical knockout of Victor Martinez.
Rongzhu, 26, from Sichuan, won the 155-pound tourney on Season 2 of Road to UFC in 2024 and is 7-1 in his past eight outings. He was coming off back-to-back UFC victories over Kody Steele and Austin Hubbard prior to dismantling Martinez.
Eight of the nine other matchups on Day 1 of action were tournament quarterfinals for Season 5. Four were in the featherweight bracket and the other four were in the bantamweight tournament.
Five of the eight advancing fighters earned stoppage victories, including touted 22-year-old Australian prospect George Mangos, who improved to 9-1 in mixed martial arts.
DAY 1 RESULTS
-- Rong Zhu def. Victor Martinez by TKO
-- Xie Bin def. Yudi Cahyadi by TKO
-- George Mangos def. Yuito Yanagawa by KO**
-- Ahejiang Ailinuer def. Lim Gwan-woo by unanimous decision**
-- Kasib Murdoch def. Yunosuke Minami by submission (arm-triangle choke)*
-- Dagiisuren Chagnaadorj def. Regezhen by split decision**
-- Rabindra Dhant def. Kimbert Alintozon by TKO*
-- Ryo Tajima def. Ti Haitao by split decision*
-- Song Young-jae def. Jin Aoi by submission (rear-naked choke)**
-- Chungreng Koren def. Ryuho Miyaguchi by submission (rear-naked choke)*
*bantamweight QF bout
**featherweight QF bout
Friday’s action was headlined by Shi Ming tapping out Puja Tomar with an opening-round arm-triangle choke to win the Season 4 women’s flyweight tournament, which began in 2025.
Ming is 31 and fights out of Yunnan, China. She joins Rongzhu, plus other UFC competitors Rinya Nakamura, Hyun Sung Park, Chang Ho Lee, Su Young You and Rei Tsuruya — who competes on Saturday’s UFC Fight Night event at the same venue — on the list of notable Road to UFC tournament winners.
The second day featured the quarterfinals in the Season 5 men's flyweight and women's strawweight tournaments, with half the bouts going the distance.
DAY 2 RESULTS
-- Shi Ming def. Puja Tomar by submission (arm-triangle choke)
-- Namsrai Batbayar def. Yin Shuai by TKO
-- Ji Niushiyue def. Kaito Oda by unanimous decision*
-- Farida Abdueva def. Feng Xiaocan by TKO**
-- Joseph Larcinese def. Ryoga Arimoto by split decision*
-- Meng Bo def. Arisa Matsuda by unanimous decision**
-- Takaya Suzuki def. Otgonbaatar Boldbaatar by TKO*
-- Park Bo-hyun def. Dong Huaxiang by split decision**
-- Takeru Uchida def. Eros Baluyot by submission (rear-naked choke)*
-- Machi Fukuda def. Anelya Toktogonova by TKO**
*men’s flyweight QF bout
**strawweight QF bout
7:29
