UFC Fight Night 253 at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas on Saturday night features a main event between flyweights Manel Kape and Asu Almabayev.
Kape (20-7 MMA, 6-3 UFC) enters the fight sixth in the division rankings, and will face Almabayev (21-2, 4-0) after Brandon Royval, the No. 1 contender, was forced to withdraw due to injury. It presents a big opportunity for the eighth-ranked Almabayev.
Kape said this week that he didn’t pull out of the bout because he will fight any challenger UFC lines up for him, and that he views this as a “title eliminator.”
“The deeper message is that I trust myself, I trust my skills, and I trust my game,” he told UFC.com this week. “And I’m gonna win, whoever they put in front of me.”
Kape is coming off a third-round stoppage win over Bruno Silva in Tampa, Fla., in December that put him back in the title picture. He compared the shorter Almabayev to Silva this week.
“I believe his face is going to be full of blood, because he’s going to be right there, and I have a longer reach,” Kape said.
Almabayev has strung together four consecutive wins to begin his UFC career, and has now won 17 consecutive fights overall. The 31-year-old is coming off a decision victory over Matheus Nicolau.
Almabayev opened as the +220 underdog at BetMGM, but those odds have flipped to -275 as he has been backed by 80 percent of the fight bets and 62 percent of the money. Meanwhile, Kape’s odds have shifted from -275 to -210.
The co-main event is a fight between middleweights Cody Brundage (10-6, 4-5) and Julian Marquez (9-5, 3-4).
Brundage, 30, is coming off a winless 2024, while the 34-year-old Marquez is looking to snap a three-fight losing streak of his own — all by knockout and one coming in each of the past three years.
Marquez is the -120 favorite but in a fight between friends and former training partners, Brundage has drawn 79 percent of the bets and 70 percent of the money at +100.
“This is the business we’re in. It has nothing to do with the friendship that we have, has nothing to do there,” Marquez said. “We both have to fight for our job.”
The main card begins at 7 p.m. ET on ESPN+.
OTHER MAIN CARD FIGHTS:
NASRAT HAQPARAST (17-5, 9-4) vs. ESTEBAN RIBOVICS (14-1, 3-1)
Haqparast, 29, enters on a four-fight winning streak in the lightweight division, although just one of those came in 2024. Ribovics, 28, won both of his fights last year to run his own streak to three, but enters with less experience in the Octagon than his opponent.
It’s a key fight for both as they attempt to climb toward the top-15.
“He has a lot more fights than me. He has a lot more experience in the UFC,” Ribovics said. “But I want the glory. I’m going for the glory. And besides the experience, I want it more than him.”
Ribovics is the -250 favorite, while Haqparast (+200) has been backed by 73 percent of the fight bets and 54 percent of the money.
HYDER AMIL (10-0, 2-0) vs. WILLIAM GOMIS (14-2, 4-0)
Amil, 34, is undefeated as a professional, with nine of those fights ending early. It’s an interesting featherweight matchup against Gomis, 27, who has won all four of his UFC fights and 12 straight overall.
Gomis opened at -175, with those odds moving to -200 despite drawing only 22 percent of the bets. Amil (+165) has also been backed by 57 percent of the money.
AUSTEN LANE (13-5, 1-2) vs. MARIO PINTO (9-0, 0-0)
A heavyweight fight between a pair of Dana White Contender Series alums sees Pinto make his promotional debut. The 37-year-old Lane, a former defensive lineman in the NFL, is coming off a unanimous decision win over Robelis Despaigne.
Pinto is the biggest favorite on the main card at -600, which has led the public to back Lane with 70 percent of the money as his longshot odds have soared to +425.
–Field Level Media
