Noche UFC has nine ranked fighters and no number on it
Noche UFC preview: Fiorot vs Grasso, Cortes Acosta vs Blaydes and nine ranked fighters on a Fight Night card, with odds, records and start times for September 12.
Nine of the twenty six fighters on Saturday's card in Glendale are ranked in the UFC's top fifteen. Two of them are in the women's pound for pound top ten. One bout is a straight number two against number three, another is number five against number six, and the whole thing is a Fight Night that costs nothing extra to watch.
That is Noche UFC: Silva vs Delgado, Saturday, September 12 from the Desert Diamond Arena in Glendale, Arizona. Prelims at 2:00 p.m. ET, main card at 5:00 p.m. ET, all of it on Paramount+ in the United States with no pay-per-view attached. I have watched the UFC charge sixty dollars for cards with less ranked meat on them than this one, and I want to walk through why the numbering system on the poster has stopped telling you anything about what is inside.
The nine
Here is the whole ranked contingent, from the September 8 boards:
| Fighter | Division | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| Manon Fiorot | Women's flyweight | 2 |
| Alexa Grasso | Women's flyweight | 3 |
| Waldo Cortes Acosta | Heavyweight | 5 |
| Curtis Blaydes | Heavyweight | 6 |
| Jean Silva | Featherweight | 6 |
| Brandon Moreno | Flyweight | 8 |
| David Martinez | Bantamweight | 8 |
| Tim Elliott | Flyweight | 12 |
| JJ Aldrich | Women's flyweight | 15 |
Fiorot and Grasso are also sixth and seventh in the women's pound for pound rankings. Two of the nine are on the prelims.
The eliminator nobody is calling an eliminator
Photo: Lucie Bertaud / CC BY 3.0
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Manon Fiorot (13-2) against Alexa Grasso (17-5-1) is the fight on this card that decides something. Valentina Shevchenko holds the belt, Natalia Silva sits at one, and the winner here is the next name in the queue behind her.
Fiorot won her first seven fights in the UFC before losing a five round decision to Shevchenko in May 2025, then came back last October and took out Jasmine Jasudavicius by knockout in the first round. She is 8-1 in the promotion and that Jasudavicius finish was her first inside the distance since 2021. Grasso took the title off Shevchenko by submission in March 2023, headlined the rematch against her that September, lost the belt back in the trilogy fight a year later, then dropped a decision to Natalia Silva before knocking out Maycee Barber in the first round this March.
The market has Fiorot at -246 and Grasso at +198, and it has drifted toward Fiorot since the lines opened at -225 and +180. I understand why. Fiorot lands 5.66 significant strikes a minute to Grasso's 4.11, absorbs fewer, and defends 66 percent of what comes at her against Grasso's 58. The number that decides the fight, though, is takedown defense: Fiorot stops 87 percent, Grasso 54. Grasso's best win in the sport came off a scramble, and Fiorot is the worst possible opponent for a woman whose ceiling is found on the mat.
Prediction: Fiorot by unanimous decision.
Two heavyweights going the wrong direction, fast
Waldo Cortes Acosta (17-3) and Curtis Blaydes (19-6, 1 NC) are ranked five and six, and both arrive on a loss. Cortes Acosta dropped a decision to Alexander Volkov in May after a run of three consecutive first and second round knockouts, Delija, Gaziev and Derrick Lewis in a row. Blaydes lost a unanimous decision to Josh Hokit in April, which is how Hokit ended up at number four and Blaydes at six.
Blaydes is the more accomplished fighter and has been for a decade. He is also thirty five, has been knocked out by Tom Aspinall and Sergei Pavlovich inside a round each, and the sportsbooks have him at +170 against a man who knocked out three heavyweights in six months. That is the market saying his wrestling no longer buys him the time it used to.
Prediction: Cortes Acosta by knockout, round two.
The main event is a rematch with the calendar
Jean Silva (17-3) headlined last year's Noche UFC too. He lost it, stopped in the second round by Diego Lopes in front of the same demographic the promotion built the card for. He came back in January and beat Arnold Allen over three rounds, which is the most respectable win on his sheet, and he is 5-1 in the UFC with the loss being the one that happened on this card, almost exactly a year ago.
Jose Delgado (12-2) is 5-1 himself and has quietly stopped being a prospect. Three straight first and second round finishes to open his UFC run, then decisions over Andre Fili and Austin Bashi. Nobody has finished him. The line is Silva -434, Delgado +331, and the books have not moved it much since it opened.
Prediction: Silva by knockout, round three.
The rest, briefly
Brandon Moreno is 1-3 in his last four, has lost consecutive fights to Tatsuro Taira and Lone'er Kavanagh, and is still ranked eighth at flyweight. He opens against Joseph Morales (15-2) as a pick'em, +100 against -122, which is the most alarming line on the card for a former champion. David Martinez (14-1) is a heavy favorite over Dan Ige at -370. On the prelims, Rafa Garcia against Rongzhu has moved further than any fight on the sheet, from +132 to +158 on Garcia.
Full card
Main card (5:00 p.m. ET)
- Jean Silva vs Jose Delgado, featherweight, five rounds
- Brandon Moreno vs Joseph Morales, flyweight
- Tommy McMillen vs Marwan Rahiki, featherweight
- Manon Fiorot vs Alexa Grasso, women's flyweight
- Waldo Cortes Acosta vs Curtis Blaydes, heavyweight
- David Martinez vs Dan Ige, bantamweight
Prelims (2:00 p.m. ET)
- Tim Elliott vs Édgar Cháirez, flyweight
- Ignacio Bahamondes vs Muslim Salikhov, welterweight
- Yousri Belgaroui vs Djorden Santos, middleweight
- Drakkar Klose vs Thomas Gantt, lightweight
- Rafa Garcia vs Rongzhu, lightweight
- Sean King vs Jessie Rosas, featherweight
- JJ Aldrich vs Regina Tarin, women's flyweight
Nine ranked fighters, a top three collision at women's flyweight, and a heavyweight fight between the fifth and sixth best in the division, on a card with no number on it. Make your picks at the Noche UFC pick'em, and follow the scorecards live at the event page.