There isn’t a UFC event tonight, Friday 21 August, but there isn’t much of a wait either. The Octagon returns on Saturday night with UFC Sacramento, where Anthony Hernandez faces Gregory Rodrigues in a middleweight main event at Golden 1 Center.
For UK viewers, the timing is actually fairly manageable at first. The prelims begin at 10pm BST on Saturday, before the main card starts at 1am BST on Sunday 23 August. TNT Sports will carry the event in the UK, with streaming available through HBO Max.
This page is designed to answer the question that changes every weekend: is UFC on tonight, what time does it start and where can you watch it in the UK? We’ll keep the schedule refreshed as new cards arrive.
For previews and features between events, head to the BetVictor UFC and MMA news section. The latest markets for upcoming cards can also be found through our UFC betting odds.
Last updated: 21 August 2026.
Is UFC on Tonight?
No. There is no UFC event on Friday 21 August 2026.
The next card is UFC Fight Night: Hernandez vs Rodrigues on Saturday 22 August in Sacramento, California. British viewers can start watching the prelims from 10pm on Saturday, while the main card runs into the early hours of Sunday morning.
So if you’re searching for UFC tonight in the UK on Friday, you can probably get some sleep. Saturday is the one to plan around.
The event marks the UFC’s first trip back to Sacramento in more than seven years.
UFC This Weekend: Hernandez vs Rodrigues
Anthony Hernandez and Gregory Rodrigues meet over five rounds at middleweight in Saturday’s headline fight.
It’s an interesting bit of matchmaking. Hernandez has built his reputation around exhausting pressure, wrestling and a pace that makes opponents work almost constantly. Rodrigues brings a rather different threat. The Brazilian has serious power on the feet and arrives with the sort of finishing ability that can change a fight quickly.
The venue adds something too. Hernandez is a Northern California fighter, so this is about as close to a genuine home UFC main event as he is likely to get. Rodrigues, meanwhile, comes into his second UFC headliner with an opportunity to force his way further into the middleweight picture. UFC’s current event listing has the pair among the division’s ranked contenders.
Hernandez vs Rodrigues UK Time
For viewers in Britain, the important details are straightforward.
UK date: Saturday 22 August into Sunday 23 August
Prelims: 10pm BST
Main card: 1am BST on Sunday
Main event: Later in the main card, with no fixed UK ring-walk time confirmed
Venue: Golden 1 Center, Sacramento, California
UK TV: TNT Sports
UK streaming: HBO Max with TNT Sports
The UFC lists the prelims for 5pm ET and the main card for 8pm ET in Sacramento’s broadcast schedule, which gives us those 10pm and 1am UK start times.
UFC Sacramento Fight Card
There are plenty of familiar names underneath the main event, particularly in the heavier divisions.
The current UFC card is:
- Anthony Hernandez vs Gregory Rodrigues – Middleweight main event
- Serghei Spivac vs Vitor Petrino – Heavyweight
- Reinier de Ridder vs Roman Dolidze – Light heavyweight
- MarQuel Mederos vs Mason Jones – Lightweight
- Carli Judice vs Jeisla Chaves – Women’s flyweight
- Kennedy Nzechukwu vs Shamil Gaziev – Heavyweight
- Wes Schultz vs Jackson McVey – Middleweight
- Chris Padilla vs Nasrat Haqparast – Lightweight
- Gauge Young vs Stan Dorsainvil – Lightweight
- Jamall Emmers vs Lerryan Douglas – Featherweight
- Shanelle Dyer vs Elise Reed – Women’s strawweight
- Marcio Barbosa vs Ryan Kuse – Featherweight
- Terrance Chatman vs Anthony Wint – Heavyweight
British fans have a name to look out for before the main card too. London’s Shanelle Dyer faces Elise Reed as she makes her first UFC appearance in the United States.
As ever with MMA, late withdrawals and replacement opponents can change a card quickly, so the UFC’s event page remains the final word on fight-night running order. The list above matches the promotion’s current Sacramento card.
How to Watch UFC Tonight in the UK
TNT Sports remains the home of UFC in Britain.
Saturday’s Sacramento Fight Night is included in TNT Sports’ confirmed UFC schedule, so this isn’t one of the numbered events that requires a separate TNT Sports Box Office purchase.
Streaming has changed slightly in 2026. HBO Max replaced discovery+ as the streaming home of TNT Sports in the UK in March, meaning subscribers with the appropriate TNT Sports access can watch live UFC through the HBO Max app.
If the various subscriptions and Box Office rules get confusing, our full guide on how to watch UFC in the UK explains TNT Sports, HBO Max and UFC Fight Pass in more detail.
What Time Does UFC Start Tonight?
With American UFC cards, there are usually three times people mean when they ask when the fights start.
The prelims are where the earlier bouts take place. For Sacramento, they begin at 10pm BST on Saturday.
The main card follows at 1am BST on Sunday.
Then there is the main event itself.
That time is much harder to pin down. MMA cards don’t run like trains. A series of first-round finishes can pull the headline fight forward, while several three-round decisions can push it considerably later.
For that reason, this page will use confirmed prelim and main-card start times rather than pretending a main-event walkout is fixed when the UFC hasn’t published one.
If you’re new to the sport and aren’t sure why the headliner is five rounds while most of the undercard is three, our UFC rules guide breaks down rounds, scoring, stoppages and the main ways a UFC fight can end.
UFC Next Week: Nurmagomedov vs Song
The schedule gets much friendlier for British fans one week later.
UFC Shanghai takes place on Saturday 29 August, with Umar Nurmagomedov facing Song Yadong in a significant bantamweight main event at the Oriental Sports Center.
This one is being staged in Chinese prime time. The UFC has the prelims beginning at 3pm local time and the main card at 6pm local, which converts to approximately 8am and 11am BST in Britain. No 3am alarm required.
Yan Xiaonan faces Denise Gomes in the co-main event, while Kai Asakura and Alex Perez are among the other recognisable names currently listed on the card.
The fight also matters towards the top of one of the UFC’s most competitive divisions. Our regularly updated UFC rankings page tracks where Nurmagomedov, Song and the rest of the leading contenders sit as results change.
More Upcoming UFC Events
Sacramento and Shanghai are only the start of a busy run.
UFC Paris follows on 5 September, before Noche UFC takes place in Glendale, Arizona on 12 September. The Noche card has already undergone a major late change, with Jose Delgado stepping in to face Jean Silva after Yair Rodriguez withdrew from the planned main event.
Then comes UFC 331 in Los Angeles on 19 September, currently scheduled around Joshua Van vs Alexandre Pantoja 2.
That sequence is exactly why a rolling UFC tonight page is useful. One Saturday can mean an afternoon card in Asia; the next can require staying awake until sunrise for an American main event.
UFC Tonight Odds
UFC markets normally grow as fight night approaches.
The basic fight-winner market simply asks which fighter will win. From there, markets can include method of victory, total rounds, whether a fight goes the distance and specific round betting. What is available depends on the bout and how close the event is.
That distinction matters with a card like Sacramento because the styles vary so much. A heavyweight bout can present a very different set of questions from a three-round lightweight fight, while the five-round main event gives Hernandez and Rodrigues considerably longer to find a finish.
Rather than publishing prices here that can change throughout fight week, the latest available markets are kept on BetVictor’s UFC betting page.
Your UFC Schedule for This Weekend
There’s no UFC card on Friday night this week.
Saturday is different.
The Sacramento prelims begin at 10pm BST, the main card starts at 1am on Sunday, and Hernandez vs Rodrigues closes the show later in the night. TNT Sports has the UK broadcast, while HBO Max provides the streaming route for subscribers with TNT Sports access.
A week later, the schedule flips completely. UFC Shanghai brings Nurmagomedov vs Song to UK screens during Saturday morning and lunchtime rather than the middle of the night.
That’s the point of this page.
The answer to “is UFC on tonight?” changes nearly every week. The URL shouldn’t.
We’ll keep updating the card above with confirmed dates, UK start times, TV information and major fight changes throughout 2026.
For more previews, rankings and MMA features, keep checking the BetVictor UFC/MMA hub.
