The Road to UFC Season 3 tournament will kick off in May, with the addition of a new weight class this year.
While previous Road to UFC tournaments have featured four men’s divisions from flyweight to lightweight, this year, a women’s strawweight division has been added. As a result, no lightweight tournament will be held as part of Road to UFC 3.
Promotion officials recently announced the news, as well as the (mostly) full brackets for all four weight classes.
The Asia-centric series sees fighters competing for the chance to land a UFC contract. The opening round will be held across two events on May 18 and 19, 2024 at the UFC Performance Institute in Shanghai, China.
A handful of fighters are returning to the tournament from prior seasons, including Japan’s Shohei Nose, and ONE Championship alum Xie Bin. The recently announced opening round match-ups break down as follows:
Flyweight
- Jiniushiyue vs. Dong Hoon Choi
- John Almanza vs. Angao Bisht
- Ruel Panales vs. Toki Matsui
- Kiru Singh Sahota vs. Yin Shuai
Bantamweight
- Soo Young Yoo vs. Shohei Nose
- Daermisi Zhawupasi vs. Ran Ozaki
- Kyu Sung Kim vs. Tokitaka Nakanishi
- Jieleyisi Baergeng vs. TBD
Featherweight
- Shin Haraguchi vs. Jun Young Hong
- Zhu Kangie vs. Tatsuya Ando
- Masuto Kawana vs. Young Jae Song
- Xie Bin vs. Hamid Amiri
Women’s strawweight
- Feng Xiaocan vs. Kiran Singh
- Huang Feier vs. Miki Motono
- Priya Sharma vs. Dong Huaxiang
- Shi Ming vs. Ye Dam Seo
