Israel Adesanya will headline UFC Saudi Arabia against rising middleweight Shara Magomedov in Riyadh on Saturday 5 December, in his first fight since leaving longtime coach Eugene Bareman and City Kickboxing.
The UFC announced the five-round middleweight main event during its UFC Vegas 124 broadcast on Saturday (US time), with the card set for the ANB Arena in the Saudi capital, MMA Fighting reported.
The former two-time middleweight champion, now 37, is on a four-fight losing streak and has not won since knocking out Alex Pereira to regain the title at UFC 287 in April 2023.
He lost the belt to Sean Strickland on points at UFC 293 in Sydney in September 2023, then was stopped by Dricus du Plessis, Nassourdine Imavov and Joe Pyfer, most recently in Seattle in March.
His last appearance in Riyadh ended in a second-round TKO loss to Imavov in the main event of the UFC’s previous Saudi card in February 2025, theScore noted.
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Who is Shara Magomedov?
Magomedov, 32, is 17-1 as a professional and 6-1 in the UFC. His only loss was a lopsided decision defeat to Michael “Venom” Page at UFC Saudi Arabia in February 2025, and he has since beaten Marc-Andre Barriault and Michel Pereira.
The UFC’s official Brazilian site lists Adesanya ninth and Magomedov 15th in the middleweight rankings, and said the fight will be Magomedov’s first UFC main event.
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Magomedov called out Adesanya in 2024 and again in June, CBS Sports reported.
First fight since City Kickboxing exit
Adesanya announced in July that he had parted ways with City Kickboxing in Auckland and Bareman, and in September he was filmed training at Freestyle MMA Performance Centre in Sydney alongside UFC featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski and Mauricio Ruffy, MMA Junkie reported.
Adesanya has strong Australian ties inside the Octagon too. He won the undisputed middleweight title by knocking out Robert Whittaker at UFC 243 at Marvel Stadium in Melbourne in October 2019.
Machado Garry v Amosov in co-main event
The co-main event is also a five-round fight, with former welterweight title challenger Ian Machado Garry facing former Bellator champion Yaroslav Amosov. It will be Machado Garry’s first fight since losing to Islam Makhachev at UFC 330 in August.
The rest of the main card features Serghei Spivac v Mario Pinto at heavyweight, Levan Chokheli v Islam Dulatov at welterweight, Mairon Santos v Akbar Abdullaev at lightweight and Ion Cutelaba v Magomed Tuchalov at light heavyweight.
UFC Saudi Arabia will be the promotion’s final Fight Night event of 2026, one week before UFC 335, MMA News reported.
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