April brings another stacked month of events with several top promotions putting on some of their biggest events of the year, not to mention the PFL’s 2023 season taking place throughout the month. Strap yourself in, there’s a lot to get into. 

Saturday, April 1st 

PFL 1: Regular Season 2023

The PFL kicks off on the first day of the month with a big night of sport and entertainment in general with Anthony Joshua in action and Wrestlemania all set for Saturday 1st. The light heavyweights and lightweights are up first in the season’s opening as the UK’s own Brendan Loughnane looks to continue the form that saw him win the bracket last year in the main event. He faces Marlon Moraes as last year’s light heavyweight winner Rob Wilkinson takes on one of the promotion’s big new signings, former UFC title challenger Thiago Santos. 

Ireland’s Will Fleury is up against Poland’s Krzysztof Jotko but the other two big featherweight contests are worth your time alone. 2021’s tournament winner the undefeated Movlid Khaybulaev is back after a year off, facing Japan’s Ryoji Kudo who was a dark horse last year. Also, 2022 finalist Bubba Jenkings faces fellow American Chris Wade after both men were defeated by Loughnane as he took home the one million dollars. 

Friday, April 7th

PFL 2: Regular Season 2023

The second instalment of PFL’s 2023 season features the big hitters with the heavyweights and women’s featherweights. In the main event, Larissa Pacheco returns to the PFL after shocking the world last year by defeating Kayla Harrison. She faces former Bellator champion Julia Budd. Whilst last year’s heavyweight winner Ante Delija is out with an injury, the other finalist Matheus Scheffel will be in action, as will new signing Yorgan De Castro. Brazil’s Renan Ferreira who enters the cage at a staggering 6’8” is always worth tuning in for also.

Saturday, April 8th

UFC 287

The big event of the month for the MMA leader sees the Octagon return to Miami with a very strong card. In the main event, it’s another highly-anticipated rematch as Israel Adesanya looks to reclaim the middleweight title and get revenge on Alex Pereira at long last. The stakes simply don’t get any bigger than this match-up, reverting back to the question, does Pereira just have Izzy’s number? The co-main event features the king of Miami Jorge Masvidal returning to the cage to face Gilbert Burns in a big fight for the welterweight division.

Adrian Yanez versus Rob Font is exactly why the bantamweight division is so great right now, Kevin Holland versus Ponzinibbio is sure to be a banger and Raul Rosas Jnr is looking for his second win under the UFC banner. As far as fun fighters go, Chris Curtis and Joe Pyfer are two solid picks.

Friday, April 14th

PFL 3: 2023 Regular Season 

Up third, the lightweights and welterweights take the centre stage on April 14th with some big match-ups. Last year’s lightweight winner Olivier Aubin-Mercier will face the division’s hottest signing Shane Burgos in a fantastic match-up. The card also features the likes of Sadibou Sy, Scotland’s Stevie Ray, the returning Clay Collard and a match-up between welterweight finalist Dilano Taylor and undefeated Russian Magomed Umalatov. 

LFA 156

We will always give a shout to LFA in the MMA Calendar. Their events are easy to watch via UFC Fight Pass and they have a fantastic track record for producing talent that goes on to bigger and better things. This particular instalment features a welterweight main event between Jalin Fuller (7-2) and Trey Waters (6-1) plus the highly anticipated LFA debut of undefeated wrestling specialist Richie Lewis who has been spending time out in Las Vegas training alongside Conor McGrgeor and John Kavanagh.

Saturday, April 15th 

Cage Warriors 152

A big night for UK MMA kicks off in Manchester with Cage Warriors 152. As expected with the card’s location, the promotion’s top talent from the north of the UK are all in action. Next Gen MMA is sure to have a big footprint on this show with the likes of Luke Riley, Nathan Fletcher and Adam Cullen all set to compete. In the main event, George Hardwick looks to defend his lightweight title for the second time when he faces KSW vet Yann Liasse in a fantastic match-up between two of Europe’s top competitors. 

Oktagon 41

Oktagon is another promotion we always give a shine to here because their events are always so entertaining. Live from the Czech Republic, expect a huge show, headlined by the bantamweight title fight unification. As a bonus, if you’ve already signed up to DAZN for the PFL or Matchroom Boxing, you can get it on there.

UFC Fight Night: Holloway vs Allen

Live from Kansas City, the UK could gain another title challenger as Arnold Allen takes on former featherweight champ Max Holloway in a must-watch contest. For a fight night card, there are some big match-ups on here. Billy Quarantillo vs Edson Barboza is a guaranteed banger of a fight, Pedro Munhoz vs Chris Gutierrez is a stellar bantamweight match-up and Brandon Royval vs Matheus Nicolau is a huge fight for the flyweight division.

Friday, April 21st 

Bellator 294

Bellator have got a double-bill of events for this particular weekend and whilst Friday is by far the weaker of the two cards, there’s still some action worth tuning in for. In the main event Liz Carmouche looks to defend her flyweight title against DeAnna Bennett, Danny Sabatello is sure to generate some headlines on his return and Ireland’s Karl Moore will face Alex Polizzi earlier in the night.

ONE Fight Night 9

If ONE Championship’s track record at the iconic Lumpinee Stadium continues then this will be a night to remember. So far this year, each and every event the promotion has put on inside the legendary martial arts venue has produced classic fights and finishes. For their big event of the month, ONE Championship presents ONE Fight Night 9, available via YouTube for UK fans and Prime Video for the US. The main event should produce an absolute war between the bantamweight Muay Thai king Nong-O Hama and the former flyweight champ Jonathan ‘The General’ Haggerty. 

Saturday, April 22nd

UFC Fight Night: Pavlovich vs Blaydes

Another strong fight night card from the UFC arrives on April 22nd, even if it is from the Apex. Curtis Blaydes vs Sergei Pavlovich will likely give us a new heavyweight number one contender, Song Yadong vs Ricky Simon is a really fun featherweight match-up and we are always going to take notice when Bobby Green fights (he faces Jared Gordon on this occasion). Mohammed Usman vs Junior Tafa is an intriguing heavyweight contest also.

Bellator 295

Bellator’s second event in their double header is one of the promotion’s strongest cards in some time. Raufeon Stots versus Patchy Mix is a fantastic final match-up for their bantamweight tournament that really feels like the best outcome. Live from Hawaii, Ilima-Lei Macfarlane is sure to get a great response on her return. Ray Borg vs Kyoji Horiguchi is a very good flyweight match-up, Aaron Pico is back, as is Mads Burnell. As things stand at the time of writing this calendar, this Bellator card is shaping up to be one of their best matched cards in quite a while.

Saturday, April 29th

Cage Warriors 153

Cage Warriors returns to Dublin at the end of the month with a stacked card full of talent from the Emerald Isles. The top three fights in particular are absolute CW classics in the making. Ryan Shelley vs Tobias Harila should be a war, Oban Elliott vs James Sheehan is a huge fight for the division and the main event is one of CW’s best. After shocking the world by winning the interim title by knockout out Matt Figlak, UK MMA legend Jimmy Wallhead will look to keep the Rocky story going when he faces Ireland’s own Rhys McKee who put on the fight of the year last time out. 

Oktagon 42

Live from Bratislava, Oktagon 42 is shaping up to be a big event for the promotion. In the main event, undefeated Losene Keita (10-0) faces Mate Sanikidze (9-2) for the featherweight title. Whilst it’s very unfortunate that the grudge match between Vlasto Čepo and Matěj Peňáz is off the card, it’s still a strong one. Next Gen’s Shem Rock will also debut on the card, one to watch for sure. 

UFC Fight Night: Tsarukyan vs Moicano

Saturday 29th is one of the fight night events with the least big names on it. Whilst the main event is sure to be an entertaining fight, it’s a 5-rounder for the hardcore fans. A lot of this card is made up of unknown quantities in the UFC or fighters that we haven’t seen much of. The one thing to always keep in mind with cards like this, is sometimes they can turn out to be the most exciting events where a bunch of competitors announce themselves in huge ways.

That’s all for April but the first weekend of May is a huge one with Cage Warriors touching down in Rome, ONE Championship arriving in the US and Henry Cejudo returning at UFC 288.