Garry-Morales exchange, O'Malley on Talbott, a Chimaev offer to Strickland, and Oct. 10 prices for UFC Fight Night: Allen vs. Duncan, Tuesday, Oct. 6.
Ian Machado Garry said Monday on Instagram that he has agreed to fight Michael Morales and that the date is locked in. "I've said YES. The date is locked in," he wrote. "Main event and you're making excuses already. UFC sent the date." MMA Fighting and Bloody Elbow both carried the post.
No fight has been announced. Morales, in a video on Sunday, called out welterweight champion Islam Makhachev, Carlos Prates and Shavkat Rakhmonov, and told Garry "F*ck you, Ian Garry," MMA Fighting reported. At a press conference this weekend he said a January fight is lined up against "a very tough opponent" who is "neither Prates or Ian Machado Garry," Bloody Elbow reported. The two accounts conflict, and the UFC has not backed either.
Update to yesterday's report that Morales said his next fight is Rakhmonov: MMA Fighting's Oct. 5 write-up of the same video has Morales calling Rakhmonov "the final boss of this division" and saying "I have mine for 2027," which reads as a call-out for later, not a booked fight. No other corrections.
Sean O'Malley said on The SuGuru Show that he was not offered Payton Talbott at the White House card in June and that Talbott "made it up." He said he will fight Talbott if Petr Yan loses the bantamweight title fight to Merab Dvalishvili at UFC 333 on Oct. 24 in Abu Dhabi, and that if Yan wins he wants a rematch with Yan instead. MMA Fighting and Bloody Elbow reported it. Talbott called O'Malley out after beating Deiveson Figueiredo at UFC 332.
Khamzat Chimaev offered Sean Strickland $1 million to fight him, in a social media post on Monday: "Send me location and let's fight, don't care outside inside the cage." Strickland, the middleweight champion, had not responded in either report. MMA Fighting and Bloody Elbow carried it. Bloody Elbow added that Chimaev is due to face Colby Covington on the RAF Abu Dhabi card on Nov. 14.
UFC.com's fight-by-fight preview of Saturday's card calls the main event a pairing of top-10 middleweights: Brendan Allen, on a three-fight winning streak after beating Edmen Shahbazyan, against Christian Leroy Duncan, who has won five in a row, including decisions over Roman Dolidze and Jared Cannonier.
Garry's claim that "UFC sent the date" for a Morales fight rests on his own post. A search of the sources above found no UFC statement and no second source for a date. Morales's January opponent has not been named in anything we found.
Rankings, UFC.com standard table (the Meta table is not used): the live page now lists Natalia Silva as women's flyweight champion; Wang Cong is still No. 8 there. Source: UFC.com rankings page, fetched Oct. 6.
Prices, Oct. 10 main card, decimal with American in brackets, from BestFightOdds. Opening is the first sportsbook price our archive holds (Oct. 2, 15:53 UTC, FanDuel for every bout); current is the best sportsbook price in the 01:53 UTC Oct. 6 snapshot, with the book named. Prices only, not betting advice.
For FightIQ's read on each fight, see the UFC Fight Night Allen vs. Duncan card page.
Still current, announced earlier in the week: UFC 333 is Oct. 24 in Abu Dhabi with Petr Yan defending against Merab Dvalishvili (MMA Fighting, Oct. 5). UFC 335 is Dec. 12 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, with Charles Oliveira defending the BMF title against Diego Lopes and Alex Pereira facing Sergei Pavlovich (UFC.com, Oct. 3-4).
Next card: UFC Fight Night: Allen vs. Duncan, Meta APEX, Las Vegas. Prelims 10 p.m. UK Saturday, Oct. 10 on UFC Fight Pass; main card 1 a.m. UK Sunday, Oct. 11 on TNT Sports. Main event: Brendan Allen vs. Christian Leroy Duncan, middleweight. Co-main event: Jai Herbert vs. Matheus Camilo, lightweight.
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