UFC 315: Muhammad vs. Della Maddalena Date, Main & Preliminary Card

On Saturday, May 10, the UFC will return to the Canadian city of Montréal to stage another major event. That event will be UFC 315, which marks the delayed return to the octagon of welterweight champion Belal Muhammad and seemingly eternal women’s flyweight champion Valentina Shevchenko.

Also of interest for what will be the UFC’s eighth rumble at Centre Bell since April 2015, when UFC 186 went to Québec, is the cohort of Canadian fighters on the bill. Aiemann Zahabi, Jasmine Jasudavicius, Mike Malott, Marc-Andre Barriault, and Brad Katona will all feature on the card.

It’s set to be another huge and momentous occasion for the premier mixed martial arts promotion, so here’s a look at the headliners, the main card, and the preliminary card for UFC 315.

UFC 315: Two Title Fights Headline

Belal Muhammad is on a ten-fight winning streak in the UFC, with the small blip back at UFC Fight Night 187 on March 13, 2021, in the no-contest against Leon Edwards. In his last outing, the Palestinian grappler ousted Edwards on July 27 at UFC 304 to secure the welterweight title.

His planned first defense at UFC 310 on December 7 was canceled several weeks prior due to a bone infection in his foot. That bout was to be against Shavkat Rakhmonov. Now, he’ll face fourth-ranked Jack Della Maddalena, of Australia. Now 17-2-0, he’s won eight fights within the first round and 12 by knockout. In a recent interview, Muhammad said, “I’m going to outbox Jack,” and that he’s “not going to shoot one takedown.”

Muhammad is a fine striker. He works his jab particularly well around finding takedown opportunities, and currently carries a 44 percent striking accuracy, with 86 percent of his 1,241 landed strikes thrown while standing. Even with this kind of change in tactics, Muhammad remains the favorite, as of March 17, in the UFC betting lines.

Muhammad’s at -225 to win the bout at the time of writing. Della Maddalena is clearly the underdog at +175 because, even if the champion opens by going strike-for-strike with the challenger, should it not work well, he can fall back on his excellent ground game. For the other defending champion, it’s actually the challenger who’s favored.

Valentina Shevchenko most recently completed her trilogy with Alexa Grasso – who also features on the UFC 315 card – turning the initial loss into a draw into a victory to finish it 1-1-1. Now the champion again, “Bullet” is the mild underdog at -105 to beat the No. 2-ranked Manon Fiorot, who’s at -120 to snag the crown.

Now 37-years-old and 24-4 across her professional MMA career, Shevchenko is already eyeing up a blockbuster, history-making rumble with Zhang Weili next. She’s accepted the call-out from the strawweight champion. However, Fiorot is rather potent, hitting some 4.48 significant strikes per minute and happy to target all parts of her opponent.

UFC 315 Main and Preliminary Card

With Muhammad vs. Della Maddalena co-headlining with Shevchenko vs. Fiorot, here’s how the rest of the UFC 315 Main Card looks before the May 10 event in Montréal:

• Alexa Grasso (16-4-1) vs. Natália Silva (18-5-1) – Flyweight
• Gilbert Burns (22-8-0) vs. Michael Morales (17-0-0) – Welterweight
• José Aldo (32-9-0) vs. Aiemann Zahabi (12-2-0) – Bantamweight

Hailing from Ecuador, a lot of eyes will be on Michael Morales in his bout with Gilbert Burns. Still only 25-years-old, Morales is 17-0, with the last five of those coming on UFC cards. Before that, continuing his return from a fairly successful stint in boxing, José Aldo looks to bounce back from his split-decision loss on October 5, 2024. As mentioned, Grasso recently lost the trilogy to Shevchenko, so will look to get back on track against No. 5-ranked Natalia Silva.

This is what the preliminary card currently looks like for UFC 315, with there being four Canadians hoping to dazzle their home fans at Centre Bell:

• Brad Katona (14-0-0) vs. Bekzat Almakhan (11-2-0) – Bantamweight
• Marc-André Barriault (16-9-0) vs. Bruno Silva (23-12-0) – Middleweight
• Mike Malott (11-2-1) vs. Charles Radtke (10-4-0) – Welterweight
• Jéssica Andrade (26-13-0) vs. Jasmine Jasudavicius (13-3-0) – Flyweight
• Navajo Stirling (6-0-0) vs. Ivan Erslan (14-4-0) – Light Heavyweight
• Modestas Bukauskas (17-6-0) vs. Ion Cutelaba (19-10-1) – Light Heavyweight

It’s a stacked card worthy of being among the UFC’s vaunted numbered events. Not only do the battles on the main and preliminary cards look set to be significant in their weight divisions, but the top billings should be close fights.