UFC Fight Night: Walker vs. Zhang
| UFC Fight Night: Walker vs. Zhang | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 The poster for UFC Fight Night: Walker vs. Zhang | ||||
| Promotion | Ultimate Fighting Championship | |||
| Date | August 23, 2025 | |||
| Venue | Shanghai Indoor Stadium | |||
| City | Shanghai, China | |||
| Event chronology | ||||
| ||||
UFC Fight Night: Walker vs. Zhang (also known as UFC Fight Night 257 and UFC on ESPN+ 115) is an upcoming mixed martial arts event produced by the Ultimate Fighting Championship that will take place on August 23, 2025, at the Shanghai Indoor Stadium in Shanghai, China.[1]
Background
The event will mark the promotion's second visit to Shanghai and first since UFC Fight Night: Bisping vs. Gastelum in November 2017. It will also be the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic that the UFC has returned to Mainland China.[1] The promotion was originally expected to make their return to the location at UFC Fight Night: Song vs. Gutiérrez in December 2023, before moving that event to Las Vegas due to undisclosed reasons.[2]
A light heavyweight bout between Johnny Walker and Zhang Mingyang is scheduled to headline this event.[3]
Shi Ming and Bruna Brasil were expected to meet in a women's strawweight bout at the event.[4] However, the pairing was pulled in order to serve as the featured bout of the Road to UFC Season 4 semifinals event a day earlier.[5]
A welterweight bout between Song Kenan and Kiefer Crosbie was scheduled for this event.[6] However, Song withdrew from the fight for unknown reasons and was replaced by promotional newcomer Taiyilake Nueraji.[7]
In addition, a middleweight bout between Michel Pereira and Marco Tulio was also scheduled for this event.[8] However, Tulio withdrew from the fight for unknown reasons and was replaced by returning veteran Kyle Daukaus.[7]
Fight card
| Main card (ESPN+) | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Weight class | Method | Round | Time | Notes | |||
| Light Heavyweight | Johnny Walker | vs. | Zhang Mingyang | ||||
| Featherweight | Brian Ortega | vs. | Aljamain Sterling | ||||
| Heavyweight | Sergei Pavlovich | vs. | Waldo Cortes-Acosta | ||||
| Flyweight | Su Mudaerji | vs. | Kevin Borjas | ||||
| Welterweight | Taiyilake Nueraji | vs. | Kiefer Crosbie | ||||
| Preliminary card (ESPN+) | |||||||
| Lightweight | Maheshate Hayisaer | vs. | Gauge Young | ||||
| Flyweight | Lone'er Kavanagh | vs. | Charles Johnson | ||||
| Lightweight | Rong Zhu | vs. | Austin Hubbard | ||||
| Middleweight | Michel Pereira | vs. | Kyle Daukaus | ||||
| Featherweight | Yi Zha | vs. | Westin Wilson | ||||
| Bantamweight | Xiao Long | vs. | You Su-young | ||||
| Light Heavyweight | Uran Satybaldiev | vs. | Diyar Nurgozhay | ||||
See also
References
- ^ a b Farah Hannoun (2025-05-22). "UFC returns to Shanghai in August for Fight Night event". mmajunkie.usatoday.com. Retrieved 2025-05-22.
- ^ Damon Martin (2023-11-15). "UFC Shanghai card expected to shift to Las Vegas on Dec. 9". mmafighting.com. Retrieved 2025-05-22.
- ^ Marina Magomedova (2025-05-21). "Source: Walker to fight Zhang on August 23 at UFC Shanghai event". telecomasia.net. Retrieved 2025-05-22.
- ^ Gaspar Bruno (2025-06-12). "Hostile environment! Bruna Brasil faces Chinese rival at UFC Shanghai in August". agfight.com. Retrieved 2025-06-12. (in Brazilian Portuguese)
- ^ Staff (2025-06-25). "UFC returns to Shanghai with a blockbuster main event battle of ranking light heavyweights Johnny Walker (#12) vs Zhang Mingyang (#14)". ufc.com. Archived from the original on 2025-06-26. Retrieved 2025-06-26.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link) - ^ Harry Kettle (2025-07-10). "UFC Shanghai: 'Walker vs Mingyang' fight card & start tsimes". bjpenn.com. Retrieved 2025-07-11.
- ^ a b Drew Beaupre (2025-08-05). "UFC reportedly brings back fighter after nearly 3 years to save Shanghai matchup". si.com. Retrieved 2025-08-05.
- ^ Luís Antonio Cardoso (2025-06-12). "Duelo eletrizante entre brasileiros é anunciado para UFC China; veja detalhes". superlutas.com.br. Retrieved 2025-06-13. (in Brazilian Portuguese)
- ^ "UFC Fight Night: Walker vs. Zhang". Ultimate Fighting Championship. Retrieved 2025-06-26.
