Topping the list of the new additions is a dynamite featherweight matchup between a pair of former Cage Warriors champions, as former 135-pound champion Nathaniel Wood takes on France’s former featherweight champion Morgan Charriere.
Both men became stars in leading European promotion Cage Warriors and captured championship gold before eventually making the jump to the world stage with the UFC. Wood eventually moved up to featherweight and has won four of his five UFC fights as a 145-pounder. Most recently he outpointed Daniel Pineda at UFC 304 in Manchester to claim the 20th win of his career.
Charriere, meanwhile, is 2-1 with the UFC since his move to the big show in 2023. His latest outing saw him claim a stunning second-round knockout of Gabriel Miranda at UFC Paris last September.
Featherweight FIREWORKS 💥 #UFCLondon
🏴 @TheProspectMMA vs @Morgan_Chapa 🇫🇷 pic.twitter.com/sAKzB6Oeoo
— UFC Europe (@UFCEurope) January 14, 2025
Also added to the card for London is an explosive lightweight clash between England’s Jai Herbert and America’s Chris Padilla. Former Cage Warriors lightweight champ Herbert will make the walk for his ninth UFC fight, and will do so on the back of a decision win over Rolando Bedoya at UFC Abu Dhabi.
He’ll face Padilla, who extended his win streak to five with his second UFC win, a second-round doctor stoppage TKO of Rongzhu at the UFC APEX last September.
Joining them on the fight card is a flyweight matchup between English hot prospect Lone’er Kavanagh and Brazil’s Felipe dos Santos. Kavanagh has looked phenomenal thus far in his MMA career, both under the Cage Warriors banner, and on Dana White’s Contender Series, where he claimed a jaw-dropping one-shot knockout win to earn his spot in the UFC. He then won his Octagon debut with a unanimous decision victory over undefeated Jose Ochoa at UFC Macau last November.
He’ll take on Dos Santos, who has gone 1-2 in the UFC so far, but has been thrown to the wolves early in his career. His lone win, against Victor Altamirano, is sandwiched by a pair of losses to highly-ranked contender Manel Kape and undefeated Brazilian Andre Lima. He’ll look to bounce back and claim his second UFC victory at the expense of Kavanagh, on the Englishman’s home soil.
It gets better and better 🤩
Three more fights announced for #UFCLondon 🇬🇧 pic.twitter.com/KdZyB7BtYD
— UFC Europe (@UFCEurope) January 14, 2025
Finally, there’s a bantamweight matchup between Nathan Fletcher and Caolan Loughran. Former Cage Warriors bantamweight champ Loughran has gone 1-2 in the Octagon so far, with losses to Taylor Lapilus and Jake Hadley either side of a victory over Angel Pacheco.
Fletcher, meanwhile, signed with the UFC in 2023 and claimed a second-round arm-triangle choke finish of Zygimantas Ramaska to claim a big win on his Octagon debut. Now he’ll face Loughran in an England vs. Ireland matchup at The O2 Arena.
The four additions take the list of confirmed bouts to 10, with the card still awaiting a main event, and possibly one or two more matchups.
UFC London: Confirmed fights
- Jan Blachowicz vs. Carlos Ulberg – light heavyweight
- Molly McCann vs. Istela Nunes – women’s flyweight
- Alonzo Menifield vs. Oumar Sy – light heavyweight
- Jai Herbert vs. Chris Padilla – lightweight
- Marcin Tybura vs. Mick Parkin – heavyweight
- Lone’er Kavanagh vs. Felipe dos Santos – flyweight
- Christian Leroy Duncan vs. Andrey Pulayev – middleweight
- Shauna Bannon vs. Puja Tomar – women’s strawweight
- Nathaniel Wood vs. Morgan Charriere – featherweight
- Nathan Fletcher vs. Caolan Loughran – bantamweight
