UFC Fight Night: Della Maddalena vs. Prates Preview: Full Fight Card Breakdown
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Jack Della Maddalena lost his welterweight title to Islam Makhachev in November. He is getting it back in front of his own people — or at least, Saturday's card against Carlos Prates is the clearest path to doing exactly that.
The card lands at RAC Arena in Perth on May 3 AEST (May 2 UTC), and it doubles as a homecoming for three fighters on the main card: Della Maddalena, Quillan Salkilld, and Steve Erceg are all Perth-based, all competing in front of the crowd that watched them come up. The stakes are different for each but the need is the same — a win.
Full Fight Card
| Fight | Weight Class | Card Section |
|---|---|---|
| Jack Della Maddalena vs. Carlos Prates | Welterweight | Main Card |
| Beneil Dariush vs. Quillan Salkilld | Lightweight | Main Card |
| Steve Erceg vs. Tim Elliott | Flyweight | Main Card |
| Shamil Gaziev vs. Brando Pericic | Heavyweight | Main Card |
| Tai Tuivasa vs. Louie Sutherland | Heavyweight | Main Card |
| Robert Bryczek vs. Cameron Rowston | Middleweight | Preliminary Card |
| Junior Tafa vs. Kevin Christian | Light Heavyweight | Preliminary Card |
| Gerald Meerschaert vs. Jacob Malkoun | Middleweight | Preliminary Card |
| Vince Morales vs. Colby Thicknesse | Bantamweight | Preliminary Card |
| Wesley Schultz vs. Brian Johnston | Middleweight | Preliminary Card |
| Themba Gorimbo vs. Jonathan Micallef | Welterweight | Preliminary Card |
| Kody Steele vs. Dom Mar Fan | Lightweight | Preliminary Card |
Main Event: Della Maddalena vs. Prates
Della Maddalena won the UFC welterweight title at UFC 315 in May 2025, beating Belal Muhammad convincingly. Six months later at UFC 322, Islam Makhachev moved up from lightweight, took the belt 50-45 on all three scorecards, and handed Della Maddalena his first UFC loss after going 8-0 in the octagon. Makhachev landed 30 significant strikes to Della Maddalena's 18 and shot four takedowns across the five rounds. The loss was comprehensive.
The framing around it has been measured — Makhachev is one of the best pound-for-pound fighters alive and has not lost in over a decade. A 10-year unbeaten run ending against a multi-divisional champion is not a career referendum. The answer now is Carlos Prates, and it needs to be good.
Prates is not a step down. He arrived on the back of two consecutive Performance of the Night bonuses: a spinning back elbow KO of Geoff Neal at UFC 319, then a straight left at 1:28 of round two that knocked out Leon Edwards at UFC 322 — the first knockout loss of Edwards' career. Prates is 6-1 in the UFC and has finished every opponent he has beaten. He told MMA Fighting he considers himself the best striker in the welterweight division and he has been making that case in the most direct way possible.
The matchup is effectively a coin flip on the books — Prates sits as a marginal favorite at around 1.87 decimal, Della Maddalena near 1.95, per BestFightOdds. Both men have early finishing ability and the winner lands in an obvious number-one contender spot while Makhachev's next defense against Ian Machado Garry plays out. Prates explicitly said he would prefer to let that fight happen first before demanding his own shot, which tells you how confident he is in his position regardless of Saturday's result.
Della Maddalena brings a 5.57-significant-strikes-per-minute output, elite cardio across five rounds, and 12 career knockouts. Prates brings switch-stance unpredictability, spinning attacks, and the kind of finishing touch that has ended multiple former champions in back-to-back fights. The core question is whether Perth's crowd pulls Della Maddalena through the early danger or whether Prates adds a third ex-champion KO to his resume on the other man's home turf.
Co-Main Event: Dariush vs. Salkilld
Quillan Salkilld is 26 years old and has been in the UFC for less than 18 months. In that time he has gone 4-0 with four finishes, including a short-notice KO of ranked veteran Nasrat Haqparast and a submission of Jamie Mullarkey at UFC 325 in January 2026. UFC.com named him 2025 UFC Newcomer of the Year. He is fighting at home, carries a three-inch reach advantage, and enters as a heavy favorite.
The framing here is almost entirely about what Dariush represents as a test. Beneil Dariush is a BJJ black belt with 23 UFC appearances and pedigree wins over Tony Ferguson, Mateusz Gamrot, and Renato Moicano. But he was knocked out in 16 seconds by Benoit Saint Denis at UFC 322, and his durability against elite competition has become a genuine question. If Dariush can take the fight to the mat and impose his grappling — his record in ground exchanges is strong — the dynamics shift. Salkilld has not faced anything close to Dariush's submission quality yet, and the ground game is the one place the script can flip on a heavily favored young prospect.
Gaziev vs. Pericic
Brando Pericic is 2-0 in the UFC with two first-round stoppages, the most recent a TKO of Louie Sutherland at UFC London in March 2026 at 1:48. That same Sutherland is on this very card meeting Tuivasa as a late replacement. City Kickboxing's heavyweight product now steps up to face Shamil Gaziev — a meaningful jump in competition.
Gaziev cuts over 40 pounds to make the UFC's heavyweight limit, per Bloody Elbow, and carries nine career knockouts. He was stopped by Waldo Cortes-Acosta in November 2025, which brought his consistency back under scrutiny after showing real promise earlier in his UFC run. Pericic enters as the favorite at roughly 1.69 decimal. A win here puts the City Kickboxing heavyweight into genuine ranked-division conversation. A loss tests whether his quick start was built against softer opposition.
Tuivasa vs. Sutherland
Tai Tuivasa has not won since February 2022. That six-fight losing streak runs through Ciryl Gane, Sergei Pavlovich, Alexander Volkov, Marcin Tybura, Jairzinho Rozenstruik, and Tallison Teixeira — all competitive opposition, none of it soft. He is 33 years old and on the main card in Perth because he is still one of the most popular Australian fighters the UFC has ever had.
His original opponent, Sean Sharaf, fractured his nose in camp and withdrew days out. Louie Sutherland flew from the UK to Perth on one week's notice — the same Sutherland stopped in the first round by Pericic at UFC London. Sutherland is 0-2 in the UFC and coming off his first career KO loss. Eight of his 10 wins are by KO, so this is not a formality. But another loss in front of his home crowd would almost certainly end Tuivasa's UFC career and both men know it.
Prelim Standouts
Gerald Meerschaert holds more submission wins in UFC middleweight history than anyone, including Anderson Silva. He is also on a four-fight losing streak and comes in as a heavy underdog against Jacob Malkoun, an Australian middleweight who has won two straight since returning from a lengthy layoff, most recently dominating Torrez Finney with striking at UFC 325. The Meerschaert submission threat never fully disappears — it arrives in any scramble, on any transition — but the trajectory is clear.
Dom Mar Fan, the Road to UFC Season 4 Lightweight Tournament champion, is riding a five-fight winning streak into his bout with Kody Steele. Mar Fan is a submission specialist; Steele is a Syndicate MMA grappler who earned a Fight of the Night bonus in his UFC debut despite the loss. Jonathan Micallef has four straight UFC wins, including a rear naked choke of Oban Elliott at UFC 325, and now faces a significant step up against Themba Gorimbo, whose wrestling and takedown accuracy have troubled opponents at this level before.