According to a coach in the know, the month-long observation of
Ramadan should not necessarily preclude a challenger from vying for
a
Ultimate Fighting Championship belt.
With the main events of the first two UFC pay-per-view offerings of
2025 already on the books—UFC 311 will feature Islam
Makhachev vs. Arman
Tsarukyan with a co-main of Merab
Dvalishvili against Umar
Nurmagomedov, while UFC 312 sees Dricus Du
Plessis defending his throne against Sean
Strickland while the co-headliner comes between Weili Zhang
and Tatiana
Suarez—speculation quickly turned to its upcoming March card.
On March 8, the UFC’s regular stomping ground of the T-Mobile Arena
will play host to UFC 313, and no marquee bouts have been announced
yet.
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Light heavyweight kingpin Alex
Pereira recently stated that he was planning to return in March
or April, and his expected opponent would be Magomed
Ankalaev. Some put the pieces together, questioning how the UFC
would deal with Ramadan—the holy month when Muslims fast from
sunrise to sunset—this year, which starts on Feb. 28 and ends on
March 29. When “Poatan” published on his social media that
Ankalaev, a Muslim, might not be his next opponent after all,
rumors swirled and ended up pointing at fellow Muslim Khamzat
Chimaev. Sherdog sought out American Top Team chief coach
Marcos da
Matta, who holds a long history of training Muslim fighters
over the last several years, for answers.
“In recent years I have trained dozens of Muslim fighters, and
because of this I have become very familiar with this issue of
Ramadan,” Da Matta established. “In fact, Muslims have to fast for
four weeks. The guy who is Orthodox doesn’t change the set date,
which this year will be between February 28 and March 29, but when
the guy is not so Orthodox he can make the dates more flexible.
I’ve seen many of my athletes do this, but there has to be a real
reason, whether it’s an illness or a professional issue. In this
case, [not following the exact days of Ramadan] is not ‘Haram’
[sin].”
The coach further explained that start and end dates could be
shifted for the right reason, but there are limits.
“The Muslim fighter who is going to fight with ‘Poatan,’ be it
Chimaev or Ankalaev on March 8, can postpone the start of the fast
by 10 days, for example, starting on the ninth and going until
April 9. I think it would be much more complicated for them to
fight at UFC 314 [expected for April 12], for example, as they
would have to fast in the middle of the camp. I would even bet that
there won’t be any Muslims on this Miami card, but on the March
card, yes.”
Da Matta made it clear he did not agree with the talk that Chimaev
should have a place in the UFC light heavyweight title picture, but
he knows that in this era of the UFC, anything could happen.”
“Obviously it’s possible [for Chimaev to fight for the 205-pound
belt],” Da Matta said. “A champion from Rizin’s top category was
brought in to fight Pantoja directly for the belt. Even though he
hasn’t had any light heavyweight fights, Chimaev is undefeated and
has nine million followers on Instagram while Ankalaev has one
million. Now if you ask me if I think it’s fair, obviously not, I
think it’s total disrespect to Ankalaev who has already beaten
everyone and shown that he deserves that title shot. But everything
is possible. Let’s see in the next few weeks.”