When it comes to the current UFC schedule, UFC Fight Night 128 in Atlantic City, New Jersey is the latest card with fights booked right now. The event will take place on April 21.
The first fight announced for the event was a welterweight matchup between Siyar Bahadurzada and Luan Chagas. We now have three more additional bouts booked and ready! Most notably of the three is a bantamweight clash between top 15 talents, the veteran, Leslie Smith and the rising prospect, Aspen Ladd.
Both fighters were top contenders in Invicta FC prior to their UFC careers but for Ladd, she had fought there exclusively. The undefeated twenty-two year old, Ladd just made her UFC debut last October when she defeated the resilient striker, Lina Lansberg in dominant fashion. This fight with Smith actually makes the fight her second against a victim to the UFC featherweight champion, Cris Cyborg.
Since Leslie Smith took on Cris Cyborg at UFC 198, she has put on two very impressive performances against the likes of Irene Aldana(fight of the night) and Amanda Lemos. Even though she’s 35, Smith appears to be getting better with age. Stylistically, this will be a tough matchup for the Pleasant Hill, California native. It will be fun to see if she can overcome it.
As for the other two fights, we have a Flyweight showdown between the previously undefeated World Series of Fighting champion, Magomed Bibulatov and Ulka Sasaki. Bibulatov was one of the very best 125ers not in the UFC until he finally made his way over. He debuted with a very solid outing when he defeated Jenel Lausa. In his last fight though…Bibulatov got caught by the powerful boxer, John Moraga who knocked him out in just a minute and thirty-eight seconds and handing him his first loss.
And the final fight is a male bantamweight fight that pits Augusto Mendes against Merab Dvalishvili.
As the Fight Night 128 card continues to come together, who do you hope to see get added? What should the main event be?
This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 2/5/2018.