UFC 304 LIVE: Leon Edwards and Tom Aspinall fight updates and results tonight

Right then, UFC 304 is under way! We start with a women’s bantamweight fight, between Ireland’s Shauna Bannon and Romania’s Alice Ardelean.

In other news, UFC president Dana White announced a cluster of fights for September’s pay-per-view event last night.

On Saturday 14 September, the UFC will host an event at the Sphere in Las Vegas for the first time, as UFC 306 plays out on Mexican Independence weekend.

Here are the fights announced so far:

Sean O’Malley (C) vs Merab Dvalishvili (men’s bantamweight title)

Alexa Grasso (C) vs Valentina Shevchenko 3 (women’s flyweight title)

Brian Ortega vs Diego Lopes (featherweight)

Raul Rosas Jr vs Aoriqileng (bantamweight)

Irene Aldana vs Norma Dumont (women’s bantamweight)

Manuel Torres vs Ignacio Bahamondes (lightweight)

Edgar Chairez vs Kevin Borjas (flyweight)

Ronaldo Rodriguez vs Ode’ Osbourne (flyweight)

Yazmin Jauregui vs Ketlen Souza (women’s strawweight)

Wigan’s Aspinall tipped the scales at 251lb, after Blaydes weighed in at 256lb for their co-main event.

It is not necessarily surprising that Aspinall will be the lighter of the pair tonight; the Briton is known for his unusual speed at heavyweight, and he weighed the same when he first fought Blaydes, who was 260lb for their first fight.

Also at Friday’s weigh-in, Leon Edwards successfully weighed in at 170lb, as the first fighter on the scales, before opponent Belal Muhammad came in at 169lb.

Elsewhere at the UFC 304 weigh-ins, every fighter made weight except Jake Hadley. The Briton came in one pound overweight, at 137lb, for his bantamweight clash with Caolan Loughran.

Hadley, who is stepping in on short notice to face the Irishman, has been fined 20 per cent of his purse.

That same day, the UFC posted the latest episode of its usual pre-fight docu-series, Embedded, on YouTube. The episode ended with Edwards entering an elevator and engaging in a tense staredown with his Palestinian-American opponent.

“Remember The Name!” Edwards said, referencing Muhammad’s nickname. “Come on, boys. Slide in, boys,” he added, seemingly speaking to members of his own team.

Here’s what happened next, and what each fighter had to say about it:

So, catharsis for both Britons – the second and third from their nation to hold titles in UFC history – right? Almost. But not yet.

For Tom Aspinall, it was in the knee: the sharp, sudden cruelty of ligaments tearing. For Leon Edwards, it was under the eyelid – but not his own: instead it was under Belal Muhammad’s, as Edwards’s outstretched finger snuck between the banks of flesh and jabbed at the eyeball.

For Aspinall, it meant a TKO loss to Curtis Blaydes in London. It was an injury that took just 15 seconds to sustain, but which would keep him out of the cage for a year. A whole different sort of caged for the Wigan heavyweight. For Edwards, it meant a No Contest against Muhammad. It was an indiscretion that would cost the Jamaican-born Birmingham fighter a win, and a shot at the welterweight title. Like Aspinall, it would also cost him the best part of a year of his career.

Leon Edwards (C) vs Belal Muhammad 2 (welterweight title)

Tom Aspinall (C) vs Curtis Blaydes 2 (interim heavyweight title)

Bobby King Green vs Paddy Pimblett (lightweight)

Muhammad Mokaev vs Manel Kape (flyweight)

Arnold Allen vs Giga Chikadze (featherweight)

Nathaniel Wood vs Daniel Pineda (featherweight)

Molly McCann vs Bruna Brasil (women’s strawweight)

Caolan Loughran vs Jake Hadley (bantamweight)

Mick Parkin vs Lukasz Brzeski (heavyweight)

Oban Elliott vs Preston Parsons (welterweight)

Christian Leroy Duncan vs Gregory Rodrigues (middleweight)

Sam Patterson vs Kiefer Crosbie (welterweight)

Shauna Bannon vs Alice Ardelean (women’s bantamweight)

Modestas Bukauskas vs Marcin Prachnio (light-heavyweight)

The card will air live on TNT Sports in the UK, with the broadcaster’s app and website also streaming the fights. Discovery+ will also air the action in the UK. In the US, ESPN+ will stream the event live on pay-per-view, as will the UFC’s Fight Pass.

If you’re travelling abroad and want to watch the event, you might need a VPN to unblock your streaming app. Our VPN round-up is here to help and includes deals on VPNs in the market. Viewers using a VPN need to make sure that they comply with any local regulations where they are and also with the terms of their service provider.

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UFC 304 is scheduled to take place at the Co-op Live arena in Manchester, UK, tonight.

The early prelims are due to begin at 11.15pm BST (3.15pm PT / 5.15pm CT / 6.15pm ET), with the regular prelims following at 1am BST on Sunday (5pm PT / 7pm CT / 8pm ET on Saturday). The main card is then set to start at 3am BST on Sunday (7pm PT / 9pm CT / 10pm ET on Saturday).