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Shanghai Weigh-In Chaos, Usman Fires On Pimblett, Vieira Booked

Shanghai's fight week hit scale trouble with three fighters missing weight, Usman Nurmagomedov talked trash on his way toward a possible UFC run, and Rodolfo Vieira locked in his next octagon test.

Shanghai Weigh-In Chaos, Usman Fires On Pimblett, Vieira Booked

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This is an Open Scoring MMA News Alert.

Fight week in China got messy before the cage door even closed, a red-hot free agent spent his morning ripping into a division he might soon join, and the matchmakers kept grinding elsewhere. Here's what's actually moving today.

Shanghai Scale Sends Three Fighters Home Overweight

The UFC Shanghai weigh-ins ran into trouble, with three fighters missing weight and both sides of one scheduled matchup coming in heavy. The good news for fans is that the headliner survived intact, with Umar Nurmagomedov and Song Yadong both making weight for their five round bantamweight main event. Fighters faced off for the final time on Thursday, with word that the card is reportedly set for August twenty-nine.

Usman Nurmagomedov Talks Trash On His Way To The UFC

PFL lightweight champion Usman Nurmagomedov spent this week ripping into the UFC's one hundred fifty-five pound division while talk of his own move to the promotion keeps heating up. He argued the current crop of lightweights isn't as strong as advertised, pointing out that Paddy Pimblett lost to Justin Gaethje, and he took aim at Ilia Topuria and Arman Tsarukyan too. It's the kind of confidence you'd expect from a champion angling for a big entrance, and it will only get louder if that move actually happens.

Vieira Gets His Redemption Fight

Rodolfo Vieira has a new opponent locked in for his return, with the Brazilian grappler reportedly set to face Robert Bryczek at UFC Vegas one hundred twenty-one. Vieira is chasing a bounce back performance, and Bryczek gives him a clear test to build momentum against.

Perry Fight Week Gets Weird

Things got chaotic around Mike Perry's boxing card after Dillon Danis pulled out of his scheduled matchup with Perry on August twenty-seven. The drama spilled into the press conference for Patrick Clark Jr's boxing debut, where a former WWE star was removed from the room, only to come back and crash the stage anyway. It's the kind of pre-fight circus that's become standard around Perry's combat sports ventures.

Quick Hits From Boxing And ONE

Ariel Helwani called out the setup around Moses Itauma's build toward his vacant IBF title shot against Filip Hrgovic, saying boxing's PPV wall is making the rising heavyweight harder for fans to actually watch. Meanwhile Dmitrii Kovtun replaced Elbrus Osmanov against Denis Souza Jr. in a bantamweight kickboxing match at ONE Fight Night 46 due to Osmanov suffering a cut above his eye in training. Denis Souza Jr. won the fight by unanimous decision.

Sources

Every source behind today's roundup (14)

We summarize the day's news in our own words. Full credit to the outlets below for the original reporting, click through to read their work:

Open Scoring MMA is a daily AI-produced MMA and UFC news podcast. Listen to today's episode, read the full Feed, or get every episode by email.

Episode transcript

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Welcome to Open Scoring MMA. This is episode 71 for August 28th, 2026, your daily look at what's happening now and next across the world of MMA and UFC. DUKE: Nora, the UFC's back in China this weekend and the story out of Shanghai this morning isn't the fight card, it's the scale.
NORA: Three fighters missed weight at those morning weigh-ins.
DUKE: Three. And get this, both sides of one scheduled matchup came in over. That never happens.
NORA: It really doesn't. Usually you get one guy have a bad camp, not an entire pairing blow it simultaneously.
DUKE: The good news for everybody buying this card, the headliner is fine. Umar Nurmagomedov and Song Yadong both made weight, so that bantamweight main event is a go for Saturday in Shanghai.
NORA: The card is shaping up, and we're hearing about some exciting matchups.
DUKE: That's a real one.
NORA: For Yan specifically, this is about staying relevant in a division that's getting crowded fast behind the champion.
DUKE: Right, she can't afford a bad night in front of a home country crowd like this.
NORA: No she can't. Not with the strawweight picture as fluid as it is right now.
DUKE: Let's move to fighter status.
NORA: Rodolfo Vieira is reportedly fighting Robert Bryczek at UFC Vegas 121 on September 26th.
DUKE: The Black Belt Hunter looking for redemption there, that nickname says everything about how he wants to fight.
NORA: It's a grappling heavy stylistic clash on paper, Vieira's jiu jitsu pedigree is about as good as it gets in this sport, so the question is always the same with him: can he keep the fight where he wants it against a live body.
DUKE: And that's the whole story of his UFC run so far, when he controls the terms he looks unbeatable, when he doesn't, it gets messy.
NORA: Bryczek's task is simple then, keep him honest and make him work in open space.
DUKE: Alright, from booking news to a guy who never stops talking. Usman Nurmagomedov is not being quiet about a potential UFC move.
NORA: The PFL lightweight champion took shots at basically the whole UFC one hundred and fifty five pound division.
DUKE: And Nora, you know I gotta give this one its own moment because Paddy Pimblett got dragged into it directly.
NORA: He did.
DUKE: That's cold. But look, that's Usman's whole pitch right now, he's trying to make the case the UFC lightweights aren't as scary as everybody thinks before he actually gets in there with any of them.
NORA: He named more than just Paddy too, Ilia Topuria and Arman Tsarukyan both got mentioned in the same breath.
DUKE: Which tells you this isn't a one off shot, this is a guy building a full argument for why his move, whenever it happens, should come with a title shot attached.
NORA: An undefeated champion from a rival promotion talking down the best guys in the deepest division in the sport, that's a strategy as old as the sport itself, and it usually works to get eyeballs.
DUKE: The Baddy's gonna have plenty to say back to that whenever he sees it, and honestly I can't wait for that reply.
NORA: Same, and Paddy doesn't usually let stuff like that sit quiet for long.
DUKE: Speaking of things sitting quiet, they very much did not at Mike Perry's press conference.
NORA: Complete chaos. This is ahead of what was reported as Patrick Clark Junior's boxing debut, and remember Dillon Danis had pulled out of his fight with Perry on the 27th.
DUKE: Right, so Danis is out of the actual fight, but that didn't stop him from showing up anyway.
NORA: He got kicked out of the presser, and then a former WWE star came back out and crashed the stage on top of it.
DUKE: A former WWE guy involved in a combat sports circus, shocking absolutely nobody.
NORA: Genuinely, none of this moves anyone's ranking, it's pure sideshow, but it tells you the temperature around that Perry card is way past just the boxing.
DUKE: Let's talk about a fight that's actually a massive deal but nobody outside hardcore boxing fans can see it. Ariel Helwani's got a real problem with this one.
NORA: He's calling the pay per view wall around Moses Itauma versus Filip Hrgovic, quote, actually criminal, end quote.
DUKE: Itauma is the most exciting heavyweight prospect on the planet right now, and word is this could be a vacant IBF title shot we're talking about.
NORA: Helwani's argument is boxing's own business model is burying its next big star before casual fans even get the chance to discover him.
DUKE: And that's a real tension in combat sports generally, MMA's got its own version of this fight with pay per view access.
NORA: It does, though the UFC at least keeps its biggest stars on cards people can actually find without three different subscriptions.
DUKE: Alright, over to ONE Championship for a second.
NORA: Elbrus Osmanov versus Denis Souza Junior, that bantamweight kickboxing match, has been rebooked for ONE Fight Night 48.
DUKE: October 2nd, at Lumpinee Stadium in Bangkok, which is about as iconic a venue as this sport has.
NORA: These two clearly have unfinished business, and getting it rebooked at Lumpinee specifically is a nice touch for a striking scrap like this.
DUKE: Now Nora, before we get to the main event pick, I want to talk about our own scoreboard for a second, because it hasn't been pretty.
NORA: You want to talk about the model's record. Fine.
DUKE: Forty four and thirteen. That's a seventy seven point two percent hit rate.
NORA: Which sounds great until you tell them the market's hitting eighty percent over the same stretch.
DUKE: So we're not actually beating the house.
NORA: We are not beating the market right now, no. That's just the truth of it.
DUKE: Where the model does earn its money is the value picks, seven and one.
NORA: That's the number I actually care about, because that's where we're finding spots the line is wrong, not just agreeing with Vegas.
DUKE: And on our personal picks, I'm one and one, you're oh and one.
NORA: Don't remind me.
DUKE: I'm just saying, the eye test's up on the model this month.
NORA: For now. Ask me again in two weeks.
DUKE: Fair enough, let's see if this Shanghai main event turns your luck around. Talk me into Umar Nurmagomedov over Song Yadong.
NORA: Our system's got Nurmagomedov at right around eighty one percent.
DUKE: And the betting line?
NORA: Song's a plus three fifty underdog, Nurmagomedov's minus four fifty, which works out to the market having him around seventy nine percent.
DUKE: So we're actually a little higher than Vegas on this one.
NORA: We are, and that's not nothing given how tight bantamweight odds usually get.
DUKE: What's driving it, style, form, both?
NORA: Both. Style favors Nurmagomedov, and his current form favors him too, that's a clean stack of reasons pointing the same direction.
DUKE: See, this is the kind of pick where I don't even need convincing, Umar's wrestling pedigree and that surname alone make him a nightmare matchup stylistically.
NORA: Right, and Song's got the flash and the counter striking, but if this fight touches the mat for any stretch of time it tilts hard.
DUKE: So we're comfortable here.
NORA: Strong confidence on this one, yeah. We like Umar Nurmagomedov.
DUKE: Alright, let's look ahead because the schedule does not slow down. Contender Series is back September 1st.
NORA: We're hearing about some potential matchups for the Contender Series on September first. Nothing official yet, but word is those are the fights to watch. Classic contract on the line stuff.
DUKE: Then September 5th we get a UFC Fight Night.
NORA: We'll wait and see on the full card, but that's a big one.
DUKE: Contender Series runs again September 8th too.
NORA: We'll keep an eye out for the official announcements.
DUKE: And the big one on the horizon after that is Noche UFC, September 12th, Jean Silva against Jose Miguel Delgado.
NORA: Reportedly, that's the main event. Moreno on a card like Noche is always a big deal, that promotion means a lot to him specifically given his background.
DUKE: Busy stretch coming, September's absolutely loaded.
NORA: It really is, barely time to catch a breath between cards.
DUKE: That's all we've got for you today, folks.
NORA: Get some rest, Shanghai's coming fast.
DUKE: We'll see you right back here tomorrow.
Before you go, two quick things. Check out our free Fight Tracker at tracker dot open scoring m m a dot com, with every upcoming UFC and PFL card, live odds, and where to watch, all in one place. And follow us on YouTube, just search Open Scoring MMA, for breaking news alerts, fight breakdowns, and videos you won't get here on the feed. That's it for today's Open Scoring MMA. Keep your hands up, and we'll see you next time.