Sorry, Philly.
Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) returns to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, next weekend for UFC 330, which goes down Sat., Aug. 15, 2026, inside Xfinity Mobile Arena.
And on paper, the top of the card is pretty strong (the rest … not so much).
Advertisement
Welterweight champion and pound-for-pound king Islam Makhachev defends his 170-pound title for the first time against Ireland’s Ian Machado Garry in the main event, while Mackenzie Dern defends her title for the first time against Gillian Robertson in the co-main event.
Two title fights.
Not bad; however, there is something very noticeable missing from the card: Philadelphia fighters.
As of now, the only fighter from Philadelphia scheduled to compete at UFC 330 is Jeremiah Wells, which is cool for him. But what about his three teammates, including two ranked top contenders in their respective divisions: Welterweight Sean Brady and Middleweight Joe Pyfer?
Advertisement
UFC originally booked Pyfer for the card against Caio Borralho, but Borralho ultimately withdrew because of an injury, taking Pyfer off the lineup.
As for Brady, he was never offered a single opponent.
“After I fought Buckley, obviously we all have bumps and bruises, and for the most part I was pretty good, but I never got offered anything,” Brady told Home of Fight. “If you look at the division, I’m No. 5, me and [Gabriel] Bonfim are right next to each other — so I know there were some talks about me and him potentially fighting at some point. And he had just fought Belal, so it would have been shorter notice for him on the Philly card.”
But nothing ever came together.
Advertisement
“So, I guess there were no real good options, and they didn’t offer me anything,” Brady continued. “I know a lot of the fans are disappointed — and I get messages all the time asking me if I’m going to be on the Philly card, and at this point, they aren’t adding any fighters to it.”
“We got Jeremiah on it, but that’s it,” Brady added. “It’s cool that you get two title fights, but the rest of the card is underwhelming. It’s just unfortunate that they didn’t have any local people on the card.”
Brady sort of saw this coming after dominating Joaquin Buckley at UFC 328. After that win, Brady made it clear that while he really wanted to fight in his hometown, he was not going to accept just anyone.
The 33-year-old had already fought down in the rankings twice in a row, so he wanted someone ranked above him next. Unfortunately, with the Welterweight division moving the way it has, there apparently was not a fight that made sense for UFC 330.
Advertisement
So, instead of fighting in the Octagon in Philadelphia, Brady will compete one week later in freestyle wrestling, taking on wrestling icon Jordan Burroughs at RAF 12.
Brady still hopes to fight in UFC one more time before the end of the year, preferably on the East Coast or inside the Apex — just not New York.
To checkout UFC’s upcoming schedule of events click here.
