Umar Nurmagomedov and Song Yadong headline UFC Fight Night: Nurmagomedov vs. Song in Shanghai on August 29, but three other main-card bouts carry stories worth clearing your alarm clock for: a bantamweight crossroads between two hard-hitting veterans, a rematch that never got a real ending, and an undefeated prospect making his UFC debut just 18 days after his last fight. All three air on the main card, which streams on Paramount+ starting at 6:00 AM ET.

Aoriqileng vs. Kai Asakura: Two Careers at a Fork

Aoriqileng, "The Mongolian Murderer," and Kai Asakura are both trying to answer the same question from opposite directions: is their most recent result the real version of them, or the exception. Aoriqileng was stopped by Cody Haddon in May, a step back after knocking out Cody Gibson the previous October — a fighter whose UFC run has genuinely alternated between finishes and setbacks fight to fight. Asakura, a former Rizin bantamweight champion with 14 career knockouts, dropped back-to-back submission losses to Alexandre Pantoja and Tim Elliott before answering with a knockout of Cameron Smotherman this past May.

The betting market sees this one as lopsided — Asakura is a heavy favorite at -455 to Aoriqileng's +350 — largely on the strength of that finish and Asakura's superior overall knockout rate. But Aoriqileng has been durable throughout his UFC run and has never made it easy on anyone across 40 professional fights. Aoriqileng vs. Asakura is a fight where the recent trend line matters more than the record on paper — whichever man's last result was the real one is the man who keeps his career moving forward.

Alex Perez vs. Sumudaerji: Finishing What a Low Blow Interrupted

This is a rematch with a genuine grievance attached. Alex Perez and Sumudaerji fought in May 2026, and the bout was ruled a no contest after a low blow — the record books show neither man got credit for whatever was actually happening in that cage. Now they run it back in Shanghai with the outcome still unsettled.

Perez brings a decade of championship-level flyweight experience and real durability, following the no contest with a TKO of Charles Johnson at UFC 324 in January. Sumudaerji, "The Tibetan Eagle," carries one of the biggest reach advantages in the division at 72 inches for a flyweight, and 13 of his 19 career wins have come by knockout. The market favors Sumudaerji's length and power at -230 to Perez's +190, but Perez has spent a career finding ways to close distance on longer strikers and get fights to the mat. Perez vs. Sumudaerji is one of the few fights on any card where both men have unfinished business with each other specifically, not just with the division.

Bilal Hasan vs. Nilson Rojas: 18 Days From Contender Series to the UFC

Every card has at least one fighter whose story is about the calendar as much as the matchup, and this Saturday it's Bilal Hasan. The unbeaten Indonesian flyweight, nicknamed "The IndoNinja," knocked out Mridul Saikia in 45 seconds on Dana White's Contender Series on August 11 to earn his UFC contract — and now makes his promotional debut just 18 days later against fellow undefeated prospect Nilson Rojas.

Both fighters carry identical 9-0 records into the cage, but the betting market doesn't see it as a coin flip: Hasan is priced at -800 to Rojas's +550, a gap that reflects Hasan's taekwondo-based finishing instincts — seven of his nine wins are knockouts — against Rojas's slightly rawer power-punching profile out of Peru. Rojas is coming off a unanimous decision over a previously unbeaten opponent at Inka 59 in July, so he arrives with more rest and his own case for the number to be closer than it is. Hasan vs. Rojas is a genuine gamble on how much a compressed turnaround matters against a live, undefeated opponent — and it's the kind of matchup that only exists because Contender Series and UFC cards now sometimes land close enough together to make it possible.

Why these three over the top of the card

None of these three carries the ranking implications of the Nurmagomedov-Song main event or the Yan-Gomes co-main. That's exactly what makes them worth watching on their own terms. Aoriqileng-Asakura is two operators competing to prove their last result wasn't a fluke, Perez-Sumudaerji settles a fight the record books never actually recorded, and Hasan-Rojas puts two unbeaten records on the line without the luxury of a normal camp for one of them. Each is a genuinely different kind of story from the belt-chasing narrative running through the top of the card.

The takeaway

If you're only planning to catch the walkouts for Nurmagomedov and Song, you'll miss a card that has real stakes running through it well before the main event. Aoriqileng-Asakura decides which recent result was the real one, Perez-Sumudaerji finally settles a fight that got cut short, and Hasan-Rojas tests how much an 18-day turnaround costs an undefeated prospect against another one. All three sit on the full Shanghai card alongside the headliners, and each one is worth being awake for on its own.