UFC 320 notebook: Pereira talks tough weight cut, Gautier gets new opponent

Good news, fight fans. Rising middleweight star Ateba Gautier will remain on the UFC 320 card this weekend after the organization found him a short-notice replacement opponent.

The 23-year-old knockout artist from Cameroon will look to improve to 3-0 in the UFC in the featured preliminary bout against promotional newcomer Treston Vines.

Gautier was originally scheduled to face Ozzy Diaz, who withdrew earlier this week due to injury.

Vines is a 29-year-old American fighting out of Alabama with a 10-3 professional record. Vines has won three in a row by stoppage and four consecutive fights overall in the past 18 months. His three pro losses have all been via first-round KO/TKO, though, which does not bode well entering this specific matchup.

Gautier is 8-1 in MMA with seven straight KO/TKO wins, with all but one on his current streak happening in the opening round. “The Silent Assassin” earned a UFC contract with a second-round stoppage of Yura Naito one year ago on the Contender Series and is off to a 2-0 start in 2025 after stopping Jose Medina with a knee in March and knocking out Robert Valentin with punches in just 70 seconds in July.

Pereira talks difficult weight cut, heavyweight title: Alex Pereira is looking to regain the light heavyweight title in Saturday’s main event when he faces Magomed Ankalaev for the second time this year. During a media scrum on Tuesday, Pereira was asked for his thoughts on the upcoming heavyweight title matchup between champion Tom Aspinall and challenger Ciryl Gane. Pereira said he believes it’ll be Aspinall’s most difficult matchup to date because of Gane’s patient style.

Pereira was also asked if he’d prefer to finish his career at light heavyweight or at heavyweight. The 38-year-old Brazilian responded through a translator: “I really don’t know. We’ll have to wait and see. Obviously, my body gets heavier (as I age). I don't know how long I can cut to 205, so we're just going to have to see and take it fight by fight.”

Pereira, who regularly gets above 240 pounds in between fights, is a former world kickboxing champion who debuted in the UFC as a middleweight, eventually becoming the 185-pound champion when he defeated Israel Adesanya at UFC 281 in 2022. He moved up to the 205-pound division after losing to Adesanya in their immediate rematch in 2023.

While he was the 205-pound champion, before losing to Ankalaev at UFC 313 in March, Pereira was often asked about potentially moving up to heavyweight to attempt to become the UFC’s first three-division champion. Currently, Pereira is one of only 10 fighters in UFC history to win titles in two different weight classes.

Sandhagen not overwhelmed by challenge at hand: Merab Dvalishvili is one of the most dominant champions in mixed martial arts currently, but Cory Sandhagen doesn’t view his UFC 320 opponent as anything more than a fellow high-level professional.

“It’s fun to make superheroes out of people,” Sandhagen told Sportsnet this week. “It’s fun. I get it, but he’s a human and he can lose and I’m gonna be the guy to do it.”

Even though the current champ has been saying he plans on becoming the first fighter to KO Sandhagen, the challenger says he is fully prepared for Dvalishvili’s usual wrestling-heavy game plan and that he has been training with a slew of big, strong lightweight wrestlers during his preparations.

“I couldn’t have asked for a better camp this time around,” Sandhagen said before slyly adding that he’s going to flip the script on Dvalishvili. “I’m just going to offensive wrestle Merab the entire time. If he’s going to strike with me, then I’m going to wrestle him the whole time because maybe he has gotten really good at striking. We’ll see.”

Sandhagen has 63 per cent takedown defence during his UFC career and struggled in that department in his 2024 decision loss to Umar Nurmagomedov, getting taken down five times in that 25-minute bout — once in each round.

Dvalishvili, meanwhile, is only successful on 35 per cent of his takedown attempts, but he is relentless with some of the best cardio in the sport. The 34-year-old Georgian champ averages 5.84 takedowns per 15 minutes and holds the UFC record for most total takedowns with 97 after breaking Georges St-Pierre’s longstanding record of 90 total takedowns earlier this year.

Dvalishvili already eyeing Yan rematch: It would be unfair to suggest the undisputed men’s bantamweight champion is overlooking the task at hand this weekend, but it’s also safe to say Merab Dvalishvili is confident he will defend his title against Sandhagen in the UFC 320 co-main event.

The reigning 135-pound kingpin is looking for his 14th consecutive win overall, and if Dvalishvili can pick up his third title defence in 2025, he’ll join an exclusive club. The only champions in UFC history to date to earn three title defences in the same calendar year are: Frank Shamrock (1998), Tito Ortiz (2001), Matt Hughes (2002), Chuck Liddell (2006), Demetrious Johnson (2013), Kamaru Usman (2021), and Alex Pereira (2024).

Dvalishvili told Sportsnet’s Aaron Bronsteter he also hopes to fight a fourth time later this year, and specifically mentioned Petr Yan as the opponent he wants. Yan is a former two-time bantamweight titleholder riding an impressive three-fight winning streak and holds a previous win over Sanghagen. Dvalishvili said that after he beats Sandhagen this weekend, he hopes to face Yan later this year to get his fourth title defence of 2025.

Dvalishvili began his year with a decision win over Umar Nurmagomedov at UFC 311 in January and submitted Sean O’Malley at UFC 316 in June. One of Dvalishvili’s best wins during his current hot streak was a five-round decision over Yan 2.5 years ago in a non-title matchup, and the current champ thinks Yan has done enough to work his way back into contention.

Chiasson hopes changing camps pays off: Macy Chiasson is still hanging onto her top-five spot in the women’s bantamweight rankings, but the veteran knew if she’s going to one day challenge for the title, something had to change. Chiasson picked up two Performance of the Night awards during her perfect 2024 campaign, but had her winning streak snapped by Ketlen Vierira in May.

Ahead of her UFC 320 matchup with Yana Santos, Chiasson made significant changes to her preparations by changing coaches and teams.

“I need to make sure I have the right people around me, and I finally feel like I’m around people that align with my goals,” Chiasson explained to Diana Belbita.

Chiasson is the No. 5-ranked contender at 135 pounds, while Santos is No. 10 coming off a win over former champion Miesha Tate and looking to extend her current winning streak to three in a row.

Below is UFC 320’s projected bout order for (subject to change):

MAIN CARD 

— Magomed Ankalaev vs. Alex Pereira (for light-heavyweight title)

— Merab Dvalishvili vs. Cory Sandhagen (for bantamweight title)

— Jiri Prochazka vs. Khalil Rountree Jr.

— Josh Emmett vs. Youssef Zalal

— Abusupiyan Magomedov vs. Joe Pyfer

PRELIMINARY CARD

— Ateba Gautier vs. Treston Vines

— Edmen Shahbazyan vs. Andre Muniz

— Chris Gutierrez vs. Farid Basharat

— Daniel Santos vs. Joosang Yoo

— Macy Chiasson vs. Yana Santos                                           

— Patchy Mix vs. Jakub Wiklacz

— Punahele Soriano vs. Nikolay Veretennikov

— Ramiz Brahimaj vs. Austin Vanderford

— Veronica Hardy vs. Brogan Walker