UFC Fight Night 122: Bharat Khandare to debut in Michael Bisping vs Kelvin Gastelum headliner

After the successful UFC debut of Indian-origin Arjan Singh Bhullar, it is again time to root for an Indian in the world’s largest Mixed Martial Arts promotion, Ultimate Fighting championship, in Bharat ‘Daring’ Khandare. While, Bhullar, of Indian descent, fights out of Richmond, British Columbia, Canada, Khandare is through and through Indian, the first to sign with the UFC, fighting out of Mumbai, Maharashtra.
In Fight Night Shanghai, be held on November 25, 2017 at Mercedes Benz Arena in Shanghai, China, Khandare will go against Song Yadong of China in preliminary card featherweight bout.
Though, Khandare is bantamweight, he will fight one weight class higher owing to a change in opponent. Khandare was to fight Liu Pingyuan. However, Khandare is unfazed with the change. “It’s in a weight class above, so I’m fighting in featherweight. However, it’s a big opportunity for me. So, I am going to be taking it, irrespective,” said a confident Khandare ahead of his debut.
Khandare, who boasts of a 5-2 win-loss record, is coming of a loss while Yadong has had two straight victories heading in to his 13th professional bout. The Bhagur-born has only fought once in the last two years and admits, he night have a bit of a ring rust, but that will not hamper his performance.
“There will be a little bit of cage rust, but I will overcome it,” said Khandare. “The opponent change didn’t make too much of a difference to me, because I’m completely ready for this fight. And as I said earlier, this opportunity is not meant for all, and since I have it with me, I’ll just make the most out of it,” he added.
Headlining bout of the event is of course Middleweight bout between Michael Bisping, who lost to former two-time UFC Welterweight Champion Georges St-Pierre in UFC 217 ranked nine middleweight fighter Kelvin Gastelum.
The main card will also see two Welterweight bouts in Li Jingliang vs Zak Ottow and Muslim Salikhov vs. Alex Garcia alongside a featherweight bout between Wang Guan and Alex Caceres.
UFC Fight Night 122:
Preliminary Card
- Yadong Song (9-3, 2NC) vs. Bharat “Daring” Kandare (5-2)
- Gina “Danger” Mazany (4-1) vs. Yanan Wu (9-1)
- Chase “The Vanilla Gorilla” Sherman (11-3) vs. Shamil “Abrek” Abdurakhimov (17-4)
- Zabit Magomedsharipov (12-1) vs. Sheymon Moraes (9-1)
- Wuliji Buren (10-4) vs. Rolando “Dy Incredible” DY (8-6-1, 1 NC)
- Kenan Song (11-3) vs. Bobby “Nashty” Nash (8-3)
- Kailin Curran (4-5) vs. Xiaonan Yan (7-1, 1 NC)
- Cyril “Silverback” Asker (8-3) vs. Yaozong Hu (3-0)
Main Card
- Middleweight - Michael Bisping vs. Kelvin Gastelum
- Welterweight - Li Jingliang vs. Zak Ottow
- Featherweight - Wang Guan vs. Alex Caceres
- Welterweight - Muslim Salikhov vs. Alex Garcia