Two fighters walk into UFC Fight Night: Nurmagomedov vs. Song in Shanghai on August 29 with identical 9-0 records, the main eventer is riding a two-fight win streak built entirely off the back of his only career loss, and four other fighters on the card are trying to answer a defeat they suffered in their own UFC debut. None of that shows up on the poster, but it changes how several of these fights are worth watching.

Two unbeaten records in the same cage

Bilal Hasan and Nilson Rojas both carry 9-0 records into their UFC debuts, a genuine rarity — most cards are lucky to have one fighter with a perfect record, let alone two facing each other directly. Hasan has finished seven of his nine wins by knockout, and Rojas has stopped seven of his own nine as well, so this isn't two cautious unbeaten records built on decisions. Whoever wins keeps their 0 in the loss column and starts their UFC career unbeaten; whoever loses does it on the biggest stage of their career so far, in the toughest possible way to lose a first zero.

Nurmagomedov's streak is really a recovery

Umar Nurmagomedov's only professional loss is a decision to Merab Dvalishvili, and everything since has been about answering it. He's won his last two fights — a decision over Mario Bautista and a decision over Deiveson Figueiredo — pushing his record to 20-1. Song Yadong's recent form is less linear: he beat Henry Cejudo, lost a decision to Sean O'Malley, then answered that loss by finishing Figueiredo with a guillotine choke this past May, the same opponent Nurmagomedov beat by decision four months earlier. Song enters on a one-fight win streak; Nurmagomedov's is two fights deep and has yet to be tested against opposition ranked above the man he lost to.

Four fighters looking to answer a debut loss

An unusual number of names on this card are still dealing with the same problem: they lost their first fight in the UFC and are now looking for the response. Aoriqileng was stopped by Cody Haddon in his most recent outing, part of a career that has alternated between finishes and setbacks across 40 professional fights, and now faces knockout artist Kai Asakura. Levi Rodrigues Jr. dropped his UFC debut by TKO to Felipe Franco in July and returns on short notice against fellow finisher Ce Liu. Xiong Jingnan, a former ONE Championship strawweight world champion who defended that title seven times, dropped a lopsided decision to Angela Hill in her own UFC debut and now gets a second Octagon appearance against Julia Polastri. And Ding Meng lost his UFC debut by split decision to Jose Souza in May, despite 28 of his 35 career wins coming by knockout or TKO — one of the heaviest power numbers on the entire card.

None of these four is walking into a must-win in any formal sense, but a promotional debut that goes 0-2 is a much harder story to tell than 1-1, and all four know it.

The quieter win streaks worth knowing

A few fighters are riding momentum that hasn't gotten much attention next to the headliners. Denise Gomes carries a four-fight win streak into the co-main event against Yan Xiaonan, built on stoppages of Elise Reed and decisions over veterans including Karolina Kowalkiewicz. Lawrence Lui has won five straight since his lone professional loss, a run that includes seven takedowns in his Road to UFC tournament final, and now makes his official UFC debut. Cameron Nelson brings his own five-fight win streak from the Canadian regional scene into his UFC debut against veteran striker Ding Meng, the finishing touch on it a title-winning TKO in June. And Sean Woodson, a step below the streaks above, is trying to answer the opposite kind of number: a stoppage loss to Dan Ige that snapped a four-fight win streak of his own, now on the line again against Jack Jenkins.

Yan Xiaonan's return from a loss, not a streak

It's worth being precise here, because it's easy to overstate: Yan Xiaonan's most recent result was a decision loss to Virna Jandiroba, but the fight before that was a win over Tabatha Ricci, so she isn't riding a losing streak into Saturday so much as returning from a single loss after a 16-month layoff — her longest gap between fights in her UFC career. That's a different kind of question than a fighter trying to snap a run of defeats, and it's part of what makes her fight with the streaking Gomes a genuine crossroads for both records.

Why this matters beyond the scorecards

A record tells you the outcome of every fight a person has had; a streak tells you what direction they're currently moving in, which is often the more useful piece of information heading into a new one. Hasan and Rojas have never had to answer the question of what happens when the plan doesn't work at the UFC level. Nurmagomedov has already answered it once and is two fights into proving it was the exception. Aoriqileng, Rodrigues, Xiong, and Ding are all mid-answer, with Saturday as the next data point either way.

The takeaway

Watch for whether Hasan or Rojas keeps the unbeaten record intact, whether Nurmagomedov's recovery run reaches three straight against a live puncher in Song, and whether any of Aoriqileng, Rodrigues, Xiong, or Ding can turn a UFC-debut loss into a bounce-back rather than the start of a pattern. The final scores only say who won in Shanghai — the streaks say what each result actually costs or earns. The full card, including start times and every fight, is on the UFC Fight Night: Nurmagomedov vs. Song card page.