The first Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) event in March has a new main event.
UFC Vegas 103 goes down Sat., March 1, 2025, from inside the UFC Apex in Las Vegas, and up until today, there was no main event because No. 1 ranked Flyweight Brandon Royval pulled out of his scheduled fight with No. 6 seeded Manel Kape but now, “Starboy” has a new opponent.
No. 8 ranked Asu Almabayev is stepping up to face Kape in a five-round main event, according to Kazakhstan outlet Sportilinet.
For what it’s worth, Almabayev has had two opponent switches on the same card. He was scheduled to face former title challenger Steve Erceg and then Allan Nascimento. Erceg is now facing Brandon Moreno, and it is unknown if Nascimento will stay on the card.
Photo by Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC
Kape (20-7) has had horrendous luck since joining the promotion in 2021, as he has now had 10 canceled fights.
Nevertheless, the 31-year-old got back into the win column in his last outing when he stopped Bruno Silva in the third round at UFC Tampa (watch highlights).
While his scheduled fight with Royval was seen as a No. 1 contender fight for a chance to run it back with champion Alexandre Pantoja, a win over a surging Almabayev could still get him a crack at UFC gold.
Almabayev (21-2) is in a fantastic situation because he gets his first UFC main event against a title contender, and the win catapults him into title discussion. The Kazakhstan fighter is riding a 17-fight win streak.
To check out UFC’s upcoming schedule of events, click here.
