Noche UFC is back in Glendale this weekend, and the main event changed hands before fight week even started.
The fourth annual Noche UFC lands at Desert Diamond Arena on Saturday, September 12, during Mexican Independence Day weekend. Jean Silva still headlines — but Yair Rodriguez is out with an undisclosed injury, and Jose Miguel Delgado, a Dana White’s Contender Series alum fighting out of Glendale, stepped in on short notice to face the No. 6-ranked featherweight.
UFC’s official fight-by-fight preview frames it as Silva’s second straight Noche main event. Last year in San Antonio he was stopped by Diego Lopes after a wild swing fight; he bounced back with a January win over Arnold Allen. Delgado, 28, grew up in Yuma, already has two wins this year (Andre Fili, then Austin Bashi in July), and takes the home Octagon with Silva ranked and himself unranked — a stylistic mismatch UFC expects to start fast.
The rest of the main card is thick. Former two-time flyweight champion Brandon Moreno meets The Ultimate Fighter 33 winner Joseph Morales in what the preview calls Moreno’s first Noche appearance and a return to the building where he first won the flyweight title at UFC 263. Morales arrives off a second-round submission of Alibi Idiris at UFC 319 and a first-round guillotine of Matt Schnell.
A week after women’s flyweight turned over, Manon Fiorot (No. 2) and Alexa Grasso (No. 3) meet in a bout the preview says suddenly matters even more. Fiorot is 8-1 in the UFC after pushing Valentina Shevchenko the distance at UFC 315 and finishing Jasmine Jasudavicius in Vancouver. Grasso answered a rough stretch with a brutal finish of Maycee Barber. With Shevchenko said to be out for the next year and a vacant-title fight booked next month in Utah, the winner here sits in a strong spot for the first crack at that new champion.
Heavyweights Waldo Cortes Acosta and Curtis Blaydes collide in a Top 10 matchup — Cortes Acosta is listed No. 5 on the event page after a 10-3 Octagon run and a recent decision loss to Alexander Volkov; Blaydes is No. 6. Featherweight prospects Tommy McMillen and Marwan Rahiki, both Contender Series Season 9 grads with consecutive stoppage wins, get a main-card showcase. The main card opens with No. 8 bantamweight David Martinez against Dan Ige, who is dropping to 135 for the first time after a successful test cut.
Prelims start at 2:00 p.m. EDT (11:00 a.m. PT). The main card is live on Paramount+ at 5:00 p.m. EDT (2:00 p.m. PT), with doors at 10:00 a.m. PT. Ceremonial weigh-ins are Friday at Desert Diamond Arena (doors 2:30 p.m. PT, fighters on the scale at 4:00 p.m. PT).
Main card
- Jean Silva vs Jose Miguel Delgado (featherweight main event)
- Brandon Moreno vs Joseph Morales (flyweight)
- Tommy McMillen vs Marwan Rahiki (featherweight)
- Manon Fiorot vs Alexa Grasso (women’s flyweight)
- Waldo Cortes Acosta vs Curtis Blaydes (heavyweight)
- David Martinez vs Dan Ige (bantamweight)
Prelims
- Tim Elliott vs Edgar Chairez (flyweight)
- Ignacio Bahamondes vs Muslim Salikhov (welterweight — Bahamondes’ debut at 170)
- Yousri Belgaroui vs Djorden Santos (middleweight)
- Drakkar Klose vs Tommy Gantt (lightweight)
- Rafa Garcia vs Rongzhu (lightweight)
- Sean King vs Jessie Rosas (featherweight — joint UFC debuts; Rosas is the older brother of Raul Rosas Jr.)
- JJ Aldrich vs Regina Tarin (women’s flyweight)
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