UFC on ESPN: Barboza vs. Chikadze
The poster for UFC on ESPN: Barboza vs. Chikadze
Promotion	Ultimate Fighting Championship
Date	August 28, 2021 (2021-08-28)
Venue	UFC Apex
City	Enterprise, Nevada, United States
Attendance	Not announced[1]
Event chronology
UFC on ESPN: Cannonier vs. Gastelum UFC on ESPN: Barboza vs. Chikadze UFC Fight Night: Brunson vs. Till

UFC on ESPN: Barboza vs. Chikadze (also known asUFC on ESPN 30 andUFC Vegas 35) was amixed martial arts event produced by theUltimate Fighting Championship that took place on August 28, 2021, at theUFC Apex facility inEnterprise, Nevada, part of theLas Vegas Metropolitan Area, United States.^[2]

A featherweight bout betweenEdson Barboza andGiga Chikadze headlined the event.^[3]

The Return of The Ultimate Fighter: Team Volkanovski vs. Team Ortega season finale took place at this event, featuring the tournament finals of both the middleweight and bantamweight divisions.^[4] Tresean Gore pulled out of the middleweight final againstBryan Battle due to a meniscus injury and was replaced by Gilbert Urbina.^[5]

A light heavyweight bout betweenDustin Jacoby and Askar Mozharov was scheduled for the event.^[6] However, Mazharov was removed from the event due to undisclosed reason and was replaced byDarren Stewart.^[7]

A welterweight bout between former interimUFC Lightweight Championship challengerKevin Lee andSean Brady was rescheduled for the event.^[8] The pairing was initially scheduled to take meet atUFC 264, but Lee withdrew due to an injury and the bout was scrapped.^[9] Subsequently, the bout was yet again cancelled after Brady withdrew due to a foot infection.^[10][11] Lee facedDaniel Rodriguez instead.^[12]

A flyweight bout between formerUFC Flyweight Championship challengerAlex Perez andMatt Schnell was rescheduled for the event.^[13] They were originally expected to meet atUFC 262, before Perez was forced to pull out due to undisclosed reasons.^[14] The pairing was eventually shifted toUFC Fight Night: Brunson vs. Till due to undisclosed reasons.^[15]

A women's bantamweight bout featuringJoselyne Edwards andZarah Fairn Dos Santos was expected to take place at this event.^[16] However, the contest was cancelled in late July as Edwards was removed from the event in favor of another bout againstJessica-Rose Clark atUFC Fight Night 196 in October.^[17]

Kevin Croom was expected to face Marcelo Rojo in a featherweight bout at the event.^[18] However, Croom was removed from the card in mid-August for undisclosed reasons. In turn, Rojo was rescheduled to faceJonathan Martinez the following week atUFC Fight Night: Brunson vs. Till.^[19]

Antônio Braga Neto andAbdul Razak Alhassan were expected to meet in a middleweight bout a week earlier atUFC on ESPN: Cannonier vs. Gastelum.^[20] They were eventually rescheduled for this event.^[21] However, Neto was pulled from the event on August 21 due to undisclosed reasons and the bout was scrapped.^[22]

A middleweight bout betweenAlessio Di Chirico and Aliaskhab Khizriev was also expected to take place at the event.^[23] However, the week before the event, Khizriev withdrew due to an undisclosed injury.^[24] Di Chirico was then scheduled to face Alhassan instead.^[22]

2004 Olympic silver medalist in wrestling and formerUFC Women's Bantamweight Championship challengerSara McMann was expected to meetKetlen Vieira in a women's bantamweight rematch at this event.^[25] They previously met atUFC 215, with Vieira winning via a second round arm-triangle choke.^[26] However, McMann announced in mid August that a "reinjury" forced her out of the bout.^[27]

A women's flyweight betweenTracy Cortez andJJ Aldrich was scheduled for the event.^[28] However, Cortez was pulled from the fight due to injury.^[29] She was replaced by promotional newcomerVanessa Demopoulos.^[30]

A bantamweight bout betweenMario Bautista andGuido Cannetti was expected to take place at the event.^[31] However, Bautistatested positive for COVID-19 and was pulled from the card.^[27] He was replaced by Mana Martinez.^[32] At the weigh-ins, Martinez weighed in at 140 pounds, four pounds over the bantamweight non-title fight limit. The bout proceeded at a catchweight and he forfeited 30% of his purse to Cannetti.^[33]

^[34]

The following fighters received $50,000 bonuses.^[35]

• Fight of the Night: No bonus awarded.
• Performance of the Night: Giga Chikadze,Gerald Meerschaert,Abdul Razak Alhassan, andPat Sabatini

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