UFC Kansas City: What Time Does Tonight's Fight Card Start?
The UFC Kansas City fight card goes down tonight, with a main event that has repercussions for the UFC welterweight rankings.
The headlining bout of the UFC Kansas City event sees Ian Machado Garry (15-1), who is looking to rebound from his first career loss, against Carlos Prates (21-6) , a man who is 4-0 with the UFC. Prates is not only undefeated during his UFC run, which began in February 2024, he has four knockout wins and four 'Performance of the Night' bonuses. None of Prates's UFC contests have gone past the second round. Machado Garry had an 8-0 promotional record heading into his UFC 310 bout opposite Shavkat Rakhmonov. Rakhmonov won that contest via unanimous decision. Machado Garry has three finishes with the UFC, all knockouts. His past four fights have gone the distance.
The UFC Fight Night co-main event sees former UFC light heavyweight title challenger Anthony Smith (38-21) facing Zhang Mingyang (18-6) at 205 pounds. Smith has announced his plans to retire following tonight's event. He enters the card on a two-fight losing skid. Mingyang is 2-0 in the UFC with two first-round knockout wins and two fight-night bonuses.
Date: Saturday, April 26
Location: T-Mobile Center in Kansas City, MO
Main Card Start Time: 9:00 p.m. ET on ESPN2
Preliminary Card Start Time: 6:00 p.m. ET on ESPN+
Ian Machado Garry vs. Carlos Prates
Anthony Smith vs. Zhang Mingyang
Giga Chikadze vs. David Onama
Michel Pereira vs. Abus Magomedov
Randy Brown vs. Nicolas Dalby
Ikram Aliskerov vs. André Muniz
Matt Schnell vs. Jimmy Flick
Evan Elder vs. Gauge Young
Chris Gutiérrez vs. John Castañeda
Da'Mon Blackshear vs. Alatengheili
Malcolm Wellmaker vs. Cameron Saaiman
Jaqueline Amorim vs. Polyana Viana
Timothy Cuamba vs. Roberto Romero
Chelsea Chandler vs. Joselyne Edwards
Ian Machado Garry (15-1) has an 8-1 record under the UFC banner. The 27-year-old has five decisions and three knockouts. In June 2024, Machado Garry defeated Michael 'Venom' Page at UFC 303 to earn his eighth straight win under the UFC banner. However, he tasted defeat in his next outing, dropping a decision to Shavkat Rakhmonov at UFC 310.
Machado Garry initially came across as a Conor McGregor clone, but the confident Irish fighter has found his own personality as a competitor who is more than willing to take on the toughest the competitors the UFC can book him against, something he did again in accepting this fight on short notice.
Machado Garry is the No. 7 ranked UFC welterweight.
Carlos Prates (21-6) joined the UFC in 2023 with a knockout win on a Dana White's Contender Series card. Since then, the 31-year-old has gone 4-0 with the UFC, winning each of those fights by knockout. Prates also earned performance bonuses for each of his four knockouts. In his most recent outings, Prates scored an August 2024 stoppage of Li Jingliang before moving on to defeat Neal Magny via TKO on a UFC Fight Night Card in November.
Prates, a member of The Fighting Nerds team, is on an 11-fight winning streak overall.
The UFC had Prates booked to face Geoff Neal at UFC 314, but that fight fell apart when Neal withdrew from the contest in late March. With that, Prates was moved to the top of this fight card when Garry agreed to face him on short notice.
Prates is the No. 13 fighter in the UFC's official 170-pound rankings.
Stay tuned for more coverage from the UFC Kansas City fight card. Including live UFC Kansas City results, reactions, recaps and video highlights during tonight's event.
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