Road to UFC Season 5 semifinals card held in Shanghai, China

Road to UFC Season 5 held its semifinal card on August 28 at the Oriental Sports Center in Shanghai, China, with 16 Asia-Pacific prospects involved across four tournament divisions. The athletes had progressed from the opening round in May, with places in the finals and a potential UFC roster position at stake.

The tournament bouts covered featherweight, bantamweight, women’s strawweight and flyweight. George Mangos faced Ahejiang Ailinuer and Dagiisuren Chagnaadorj met Song Young-jae in the featherweight bracket. Kasib Murdoch fought Rabindra Dhant, while Ryo Tajima took on Chungreng Koren in the bantamweight contests.

The women’s strawweight semifinal pairings were Meng Bo against Machi Fukuda and Park Bo-hyun against Farida Abdueva. Takaya Suzuki and Joseph Larcinese contested the flyweight semifinal. These bouts formed the tournament section of the Shanghai programme.

The headline fight was outside the tournament. Maheshate Hayisaer faced Darrius Flowers in a lightweight bout, with both men arriving after victories in their previous fights. Maheshate won the 2021 edition of Dana White’s Contender Series and had recorded a 2-4 UFC run, including a victory over Steve Garcia, before returning to regional competition.

Flowers had most recently defeated Lando Vannata. The co-main event was also a non-tournament contest, with Yilizhati Maimaitijiang meeting Tre’ston Vines at middleweight.

Meng brought significant experience to the women’s strawweight bracket, having competed more than 30 times professionally. She also had a notable early-career victory over Weili Zhang, who later became a UFC strawweight champion. The Shanghai semifinal card therefore combined the tournament’s four divisions with two additional fights featuring established names from the regional and UFC circuits.