UFC Vegas 124 is built around a hastily rebuilt heavyweight main event and a strawweight co-main with title implications, but three fights lower on the card carry stakes just as real: a perfect 11-0 prospect taking his biggest step up, a fighter trying to end a three-year layoff, and a featherweight knockout streak running into a fighter still chasing his first UFC win. None of these bouts need the headliner's drama to be worth building your Saturday around.
Ko vs. Turman: a fighter in form against a fighter fighting time itself
Seok Hyeon Ko is a 33-year-old South Korean welterweight and a combat sambo world champion — the first Korean fighter to win gold at the FIAS World Championships — who opened his UFC career with two decision wins before dropping a razor-thin decision to Jean-Paul Lebosnoyani this past July for his first Octagon loss. He's 13-3 overall and still building momentum off two wins out of three.
Wellington Turman is the opposite story. The Brazilian jiu-jitsu specialist, 18-8, hasn't fought since December 2023 — a scheduled return against Islam Dulatov fell through — and he's dropped three straight before that layoff even started. He's also moving down from middleweight to welterweight for this one, adding a weight cut to the list of question marks around how he looks after nearly three years away.
That combination — a fighter with real recent form against one who hasn't competed in almost three years and is cutting weight on top of it — makes this a legitimate crossroads fight for both men, not just a style clash. The full fight page breaks down how Ko's sambo-based grappling actually matches up against Turman's eight career submission wins.
Delano vs. Magomedov: an undefeated finisher's first real test
Murtazali Magomedov is 11-0, and every single one of those wins has ended in a finish — five knockouts, six submissions, including a first-round twister submission in his UFC debut that earned a Performance of the Night bonus. The Kyrgyzstani featherweight, a former Octagon League champion who earned his contract through Contender Series Season 9, has yet to see what happens when a fight doesn't end early.
José Mauro Delano is built to find out. The 29-year-old Brazilian, 17-3, wins mostly by decision and submission rather than knockout, and brings a Shooto Brasil featherweight title and an LFA title run into just his second UFC appearance after a unanimous decision over Robert Ruchała in his debut. He's the most experienced, grind-it-out opponent Magomedov has faced yet.
A perfect finishing record is an impressive number, but it's also an untested one — nobody has taken Magomedov past the first exchanges, let alone into deep water. Delano's whole game is built around getting exactly there. The fight page has the full stylistic breakdown of what happens if Magomedov's finishing instincts get slowed down for the first time.
Nakamura vs. Schmid: a knockout streak meets a fighter who needs a win
Keiichiro Nakamura arrives as the Road to UFC Season 4 featherweight tournament champion and the promotion's only active Japanese featherweight, with seven of his eight career wins by knockout or TKO since a submission loss in his pro debut. He most recently stopped Sebastian Szalay in the third round at UFC 325 this past January to earn his contract.
Ollie Schmid, a 25-year-old City Kickboxing product from New Zealand, is still looking for his first win inside the Octagon after dropping his debut to Marwan Rahiki by first-round TKO this past May. Three of his four career wins have come by knockout, so his power is real even against a hot streak — he's simply never gotten to show it on the winning side of a UFC result yet.
This is the kind of fight that rarely gets attention outside the people who watch every prelim, but it's a clean matchup of styles with something on the line for both men: Nakamura defending a finishing streak against a UFC roster that hasn't given him a signature win yet, and Schmid trying to turn real knockout power into his first Octagon result before a second straight loss starts to define his run. The fight page covers the full stylistic matchup.
Why these three, and not just the top of the card
The main event and co-main get the marketing because title and ranking stakes are easy to explain in a headline. But a card is thirteen fights deep, and the prelims are where unbeaten records get their first real test, layoffs get answered, and winless UFC runs either turn a corner or don't. All three of these bouts answer a question that's been building for months, not just a new matchup announced last week.
The takeaway
If Saturday only has time for a handful of fights, Ko vs. Turman, Delano vs. Magomedov, and Nakamura vs. Schmid each settle something real — recent form against rust, a perfect record against its toughest test yet, and a knockout streak against a fighter who needs this one badly. The complete UFC Vegas 124 lineup has every other bout on the card, including the rebuilt heavyweight main event and the strawweight co-main carrying its own title-shot weight.