ROAD TO UFC Season 4 Kicks Off in Shanghai with Opening Round Set for May 22-23

LockerRoom Team

29 Apr 2025

The UFC Performance Institute Shanghai will host the opening round of ROAD TO UFC Season 4 on May 22 and 23, showcasing top MMA prospects from the Asia-Pacific region in a high-stakes tournament format. The back-to-back fight nights will feature 32 athletes across four weight divisions — flyweight, bantamweight, featherweight, and lightweight — each aiming to earn a UFC contract.

Each division kicks off with four first-round bouts, forming the initial brackets for the “win and advance” tournament. Alongside the tournament matchups, the event will include three non-tournament bouts and the featherweight final from Season 3, pitting China’s Zhu Kangjie against Xie Bin.

ROAD TO UFC Season 4 will air live in prime time across Asia, with two episodes per day: the first at 7 p.m. CST and the second at 9 p.m. CST.

ROAD TO UFC Season 4 Opening Round Matchups

Flyweight Tournament

• Agulali (11-1, China) vs. Mridul Saikia (8-0, India)
• Wataru Yamauchi (7-1, Japan) vs. Namsrai Batbayar (7-1, Mongolia)
• Yin Shuai (17-5, China) vs. Kai Yoshida (6-1, Japan)
• Rio Tirto (8-0, Indonesia) vs. Aaron Tau (8-1, New Zealand)

Bantamweight Tournament

• Kuya Ito (17-8-1, Japan) vs. Sim Kai Xiong (6-1, Singapore)
• Sulang Rangbo (8-3, China) vs. Peter Danesoe (8-3, Thailand)
• Ti Haitao (16-5, China) vs. Lawrence Lui (5-1, New Zealand)
• Rui Imura (12-4, Japan) vs. Van Y Nghiem (5-1, Vietnam)

Featherweight Tournament

• Keiichiro Nakamura (5-1, Japan) vs. EohJin Park (8-1-1, Korea)
• Li Kaiwen (14-6, China) vs. DongHyun Seo (7-2-1, Korea)
• Sebastian Szalay (7-1, Australia) vs. Ahejiang Ailinuer (15-3, China)
• Jin Aoi (14-5-1, Japan) vs. ChangMin Yoon (7-2-1, Korea)

Lightweight Tournament

• Yuji Yannick Ephoeviga (11-0, Japan) vs. Dom Mar Fan (6-2, Australia)
• Jack Becker (13-5, Australia) vs. JaeHyun Park (7-3, Korea)
• Ren Yawei (8-3, China) vs. Deni Daffa (6-1, Indonesia)
• SangWook Kim (11-3, Korea) vs. Daichi Kamiya (6-0, Japan)

Non-Tournament Bouts

• Lightweight: Aziz Khaydarov (21-6, Tajikistan) vs. Adilet Nurmatov (13-2, Kyrgyzstan)
• Welterweight: Taiyilake Nueraji (11-1, China) vs. Kitt Campbell (14-7, Australia)
• Strawweight: Feng Xiaocan (10-3, China) vs. Arisa Matsuda (6-0, Japan)

ROAD TO UFC Season 3 Featherweight Final

• Zhu Kangjie (20-4, China) vs. Xie Bin (13-4, China)