MMA Calendar | March 2023

The MMA Calendar for March brings some of the biggest fights of the year with plenty of promotions doing huge things.

It’s an especially busy month for the UK fans with a selection of the bigger promotions putting on events. As always, the dates shown are reflective of what day it will be in the location of the event. For example, if a US event says it takes place on Saturday night, it will be the early hours of Sunday morning for UK fans.

We would be doing you a disservice if we didn’t mention ONE Championship’s Friday Fights series from the Lumpinee Stadium. Every Friday, these events have produced some incredible fights and highlights, dishing up some MMA fights scattered in and around the Muay Thai main course. If you’re in the UK, they go down at midday on YouTube.

Friday, March 3rd:

PFL Challenger Series – Week 6

The featherweights kick off March with some prospects taking centre stage in the PFL Challenger Series. The main event spotlight between Brahyan Zurcher and David Evans is a very close fight on paper but our one to watch is Ireland’s Nathan Kelly. The SBG fighter put on the best performance of his career last year in the PFL, taking out Ben Ellis in Cardiff. 

Cage Warriors 149: San Diego

CW gets underway with another trip to the US with their expanding stateside roster. MMA veteran Wilson Reis is back in action as is all-action Damon Wilson, two staples of the Cage Warriors roster at this point. As always, it’s live on Fight Pass so makes for some easy Friday night viewing or something worth checking back on the day after.

Saturday, March 4th:

Oktagon 40

Oktagon’s Tipsport: Gamechanger tournament gets started on Saturday with an absolutely huge event for the promotion. With one million euros on the line for whoever emerges victorious, the round of 16 kicks off the tournament with an entire card made up of the welterweight match-ups. This card is sure to produce some highlights that get you excited for the latter parts of the series.

UFC 285

UFC 285 is one of the unmissable events of 2023 for any MMA fan thanks to the return of Jon Jones. With his heavyweight debut finally upon us, the vacant heavyweight world title fight between ‘Bones’ and Ciryl Gane is sure to be one of the most talked about fights of the year. The rest of the card is stacked with great fights also. Valentina Shevchenko looks to defend her flyweight title against Alexa Grasso in the co-main. Everyone will be waiting for a statement from Shavkat Rakhmonov, Bo Nickal and Ian Garry. Mateusz Gamrot versus Jalin Turner is one hell of a match up and Cody Garbrandt is always great value for money. 

The second weekend in March boasts a whole load of MMA action that kicks off on Thursday March 9th with Ares FC 13. With the likes of the PFL, LFA and LFL all hosting events, we’ve chosen to focus on the two largest promotions for this particular week.

Friday, March 10th: 

Bellator 292

Bellator’s $1 million lightweight World Grand Prix kicks off with the champion Usman Nurmagomedov in action against MMA vet Benson Henderson. Another quarter final goes down in the co-main between Tofiq Musayev and Alexander Shabliy. Michael ‘Venom’ Page is also back in action on this card, taking on No.5 ranked Goiti Yamauchi.

Saturday. March 11th:

UFC Fight Night: Yan vs. Dvalishvili

With the potential of also featuring the Spann vs Krylov postponed fight, this fight night has got some interesting match-ups but best of it all, it’s out of the apex. Petr Yan vs Merab Dvalishvili is such a great bantamweight match-up with huge stakes for the division. The co-main event features a battle of Alexander’s between Volkov and Romanov, another fight with potential big changes for the heavyweight division. Said Nurmagomedov will be one to watch for sure and Davey Grant is sure to bring the action in his match-up with Raphael Assunção.

Wednesday, March 15th:

Invicta FC 52

Invicta is always worth your time but this event deserves a special spotlight due to the main event spotlight. The strawweight world championship is on the line as champion Valesca Machado faces Danni McCormack. McCormack has an absolutely incredible story of telling coach John Kavanagh that she would be a champion whilst at Conor McGregor’s UFC 189 afterparty. With three consecutive wins in the promotion, dethroning Machado will be no easy task but you shou;d expect to hear about this fight regardless of the outcome.

Friday, March 17th:

Cage Warriors 150

The yellow gloves will be thrown once again in the big smoke with Cage Warriors 150 from London. Former world champion Jordan Vucenic is back in action in the main event but that’s just the tip of the iceberg. There’s fantastic match-ups all over this card but there’s three that jump right off the page. Justin Burlinson has been absolute dynamite in CW and we expect his fight with Jamie Richardson to be another belter. Morgan Charriere is back in action against James Hendin and you can never look past a Harry Hardwick fight. 

KSW 80

VMTV’s European promotion of the year award winner for 2022 is back with an interim title fight coming at you from Lubin, Poland. Robert Ruchała will face Germany’s Lom-Ali Eskijew for the interim featherweight belt in the main event and for UK fans, Tom Breese’s third outing in the promotion is sure to gather some interest. 

Saturday, March 18th 

UFC 286

The biggest event in the MMA calendar for the entire year from a UK fans perspective goes down in London on the 18th with Leon Edwards defending his world championship against Kamaru Usman. Whilst it might not be the stadium show fans hoped for, there’s still plenty to get excited for here. The co-main event between Rafael Fiziev and Justin Gaethje is one of the best match-ups of the year so far. UK favourites Jack Shore, Mo Mokaev and Jai Herbert are all in action alongside fighters like Marvin Vettori and Gunnar Nelson who are also in some good match-ups. There’s three UFC debuts for Sam Patterson, Chris Duncan and Christian Leroy Duncan that we have been waiting a long time to see. Fingers crossed Lerone Murphy also gets to stay on the card after his fight with Nathaniel Wood fell off.

Friday, March 24th

Cage Warriors 151

The unplugged format has produced some great events for Cage Warriors in the past so they’re always worth keeping an eye on. The star of the show here is the vacant middleweight world championship contest between Mick Stanton and Will Currie (who many fans will know as a great prospect and even better shouter). CW staples Matt Bonner and Steve Aimable are also back in action live from the BT Sports Studio.

ONE Fight Night 8

ONE Championship’s big event of the month may only have a few match-ups announced at the time of writing this article but there’s some incredible action on this card. The main event features the heavyweight unification between Arjan Bhullar and Anatoly Malykhin AT LAST. Flyweight kickboxing world champion Superlek will be trying to defend his title and stop Rodtang Jitmuangnon from becoming a two-sport champion. Atomweight Muay Thai champion Allycia Rodrigues will face the interim champ Janet Todd in their long-anticipated match-up and Itsuki Hirata vs Seo Ham Hee is a fantastic match-up with huge stakes for the atomweight division. 

Saturday, March 25th

UFC Fight Night: Vera vs Sandhagen

After being postponed from February, this phenomenal bantamweight main event goes down in March in front of a crowd in San Antonio, Texas. Vera vs Sandhagen has serious fight of the year potential and there’s some other good match-ups here. Holly Holm returns to face Yana Kunitskaya, Alex Caceres versus Nate Landwehr is sure to be a banger and Alex Perez versus Manel Kape at flyweight is a phenomenal flyweight contest.

PFL Europe 1 – Newcastle

The PFL’s first event in their European series goes down in Newcastle on March 25th. To the surprise of nobody, the stars of the show here are the two undefeated fighters in the main and co-main event, Simeon Powell and Dakota Ditcheva who have had a huge impact since signing with the PFL. Highly-touted UK prospect Lewis McGrillen is also making his PFL debut earlier on in the night as is one of the key ones to watch on the night. 

Friday, March 31st

Bellator 293

Bellator comes to California with a heavyweight main event between Marcelo Golm and Daniel James. The co-main event features Northern Ireland’s Leah McCourt taking on veteran Cat Zingano. Several undefeated prospects also feature on this card and whilst it may not be the most star-studded event in the promotion’s history, they’ve been on a strong run in 2023 that closes out March and carries on throughout April.