The Australian fans were left satisfied at the conclusion of the UFC 325 preliminary card in Sydney after home fighters had a successful time in the cage at Qudos Bank Arena.
Sydney’s own Cameron Rowston picked up a technical knockout win over Cody Brundage, much to the delight of the home crowd.
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The 31-year-old is the latest member of the City Kickboxing team to gain momentum at the UFC level.
Rowston earned a contract through Dana White’s Contender Series in August and won his UFC debut in September when the organization held an event in Perth. After stopping Brundage, Rowston has now won six consecutive pro bouts overall, with five of those wins coming by stoppage.
Victoria’s Jonathan Micallef also had the Australian on their feet as he extended his winning streak by putting Oban Elliott to sleep with a rear-naked choke. Micallef has now won four in a row, with three coming by submission.
Also on the prelims, American Billy Elekana submitted New Zealand’s Junior Tafa in the featured preliminary card matchup, and it could spell the end of Tafa’s UFC tenure.
Tafa fell to 6-5 as a pro and 2-5 in the UFC. He hadn’t fought since a July loss to Tuco Tokkos and had been scheduled to fight in Perth this past September, but withdrew from his matchup the day before the event due to illness.
Elekana has now won three consecutive UFC outings with two rear-naked choke wins in a row.
Middleweight Jacob Malkoun returned for the first time since March 2024 and became the first person to beat Torrez Finney. Malkoun out-landed Finney 151-42 in total strikes and added two takedowns en route to a unanimous decision.
Melbourne’s Kaan Ofli edged out a split decision over China’s Yizha in a featherweight contest on the strength of his accurate power punches and 100 per cent takedown rate, defending all seven of Ofli’s attempts.
The first three bouts of the prelims were Road to UFC Season 4 tournament final matchups and not technically UFC bouts, even though they took place on the UFC 325 card. Road to UFC is a tournament-style series featuring top international prospects mostly out of Asia, where fighters compete for a shot at winning an official UFC contract. It serves a similar purpose to the purpose Dana White’s Contender Series and The Ultimate Fighter serve in North America.
Lawrence Lui won the bantamweight final with a split decision over Sulangrangbo; Dom Mar Fan beat Sangwook Kim by unanimous decision to win the lightweight tourney; Keiichiro Nakamura pulled off a dramatic third-round knockout after against fellow featherweight Sebastian Szalay after Szalay had won the first two rounds on all three judges’ scorecards.
Initially, there were supposed to be four such Road to UFC matchups. However, the flyweight final was cancelled on Friday after Aaron Tau missed weight and even attempted to trick the athletic commission in a controversial moment on the scale. Tau was scheduled to face Namsrai Batbayar.
UFC 325 marked the eighth UFC event in Sydney and the 21st time the organization has been to Australia. The card was headlined by a featherweight title rematch between Alexander Volkanovski and Diego Lopes.
