UFC Vegas 104 preview: Rookie report

You only get one Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) debut!

UFC is returning to its Apex facility this weekend (Sat., March 15, 2025) for UFC Vegas 104. In the main event, Marvin Vettori and Roman Dolidze will face off in a rematch no one asked for, but nonetheless (check out the entire card here).

Five fighters are making their Octagon debuts this weekend, so let’s meet them …

Diyar Nurgozhay

Weight Class: Light Heavyweight

Age: 27

Record: 10-0

Diyar Nurgozhay earned his UFC contract on season eight of Contender Series when he slept Bartosz Szewczyk in the second round.

The Kazakhstan-born fighter is an exciting prospect for the Light Heavyweight division because he is a finisher—other than two decisions that he won in Eagle FC, seven of his eight finishes were all in the first round, with a couple of them being under a minute.

For being such a quick finisher, Nurgozhay can be overly patient at times, which has worked out thus far. He is a better striker than a grappler but is very competent.

He faces Brendson Ribeiro, who has also become patient after getting slept in his UFC debut. So this fight could be strange for a few minutes, but there is no doubt Nurgozhay will explode at some point, and so will what he does.

Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC

Kevin Vallejos

Weight Class: Featherweight

Age: 23

Record: 14-1

Over the first months of this year, I’ve highlighted the best prospects to come off season eight of Contender Series, such as Jacobe Smith and Austin Bashi (even though he lost). Well, Kevin Vallejos is among the best.

His only loss is against current top Brazilian UFC prospect Jean Silva, in season seven of Contender Series. For what it’s worth, Vallejos is still the only fighter that Silva has not finished.

“El Chino” got a second shot at a UFC contract on Contender Series last year and cashed out big by demolishing Cam Teague in the first round.

Vallejos is an excellent boxer with very good power. He uses bodywork to his advantage to eventually zap his opponents, as evidenced by his 10 knockout wins.

The Argentinian’s grappling is fine, and he can handle himself if he gets in trouble – even though he doesn’t use it a whole lot.

The 23-year-old faces UFC veteran SeungWoo Choi this weekend, and the Korean’s experience makes it a good test for his UFC debut.

The matchup is absolute fireworks on paper and should result in Fight of the Night or a Performance of the Night.

Photo by Mike Roach/Zuffa LLC

Su Young You

Weight Class: Bantamweight

Age: 29

Record: 14-3

This is another instance where Su Young You technically fought on a UFC card already (UFC Macau), but it was the Road To UFC finals. You defeated Baergeng Jieleyisi via a unanimous decision to nab a contract.

You is a one-dimensional grappler and, honestly, not that interesting to watch. However, that might change at UFC Vegas 104 because his opponent, A.J. Cunningham, who is moving down to Bantamweight, is allergic to boring fights.

I’m not really sure how much success You will have in the UFC because he’s been unimpressive and unproven thus far, but we shall see.

Photo by Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC

Josias Musasa

Weight Class: Bantamweight

Age: 26

Record: 8-0

Josias Musasa earned his UFC contract on season eight of Contender Series by defeating Otari Tanzilovi via split decision, which snapped Musasa’s eight-fight finish streak.

While Musasa’s win wasn’t overly impressive, it did allow the African fighter to show all aspects of his game and prove that he can go 15 minutes.

On the regional scene, he was purely a knockout artist, and that is what UFC hopes he brings into the stacked Bantamweight division.

His matchup on Saturday is fascinating because it’s a striker vs. grappler. He faces Carlos Vera, a Ryan Hall protege, and you can definitely tell he trains under Hall.

Will Musasa get back to knocking his opponents out? Well, Vera has never been stopped by strikes, so we shall see.

Ultimately, the biggest question everyone will have answered is how good Musasa’s grappling is.

Yuneisy Duben

Weight Class: Flyweight

Age: 28

Record: 6-0

Yuneisy Duben went viral last year when she shocked the MMA world by brutally knocking out Shannon Clark, in which she was a +450 betting underdog on season eight of Contender Series (watch highlights)

I’ll make this pretty quick. No one knows how good or bad Duben is. Prior to her appearance on Contender Series, all of her opponents had no fights, and she had fought once within the previous five years.

There is no doubt that she has knockout power, but everything else is up in the air.

She faces Carli Judice, who is 0-2 in the UFC, has five professional fights, and is currently a +380 underdog.

MMAmania.com will deliver LIVE round-by-round, blow-by-blow coverage of the entire UFC Vegas 104 fight card RIGHT HERE, starting with the ESPN+ preliminary card bouts at 4 p.m. ET, followed by the remaining main card balance on ESPN+ at 7 p.m. ET.

To check out the latest and greatest UFC Vegas 104 news and notes be sure to hit up our comprehensive event archive here. For the updated and finalized “Vettori vs. Dolidze 2” fight card and ESPN+ lineup click here.