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Aspinall Setback, Chimaev's Wrestling Beef, and Our UFC Value Pick

Tom Aspinall's comeback stalls again, Chimaev and Burns run it back on the wrestling mat, we're hearing there might be a change to the UFC 332 headliner, and Salahdine Parnasse makes a loud UFC debut in Paris.

Aspinall Setback, Chimaev's Wrestling Beef, and Our UFC Value Pick

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There's a lot to sort through today, from a frustrating medical setback for the heavyweight champ to a fresh grappling grudge match and a big swing in the UFC 332 lineup. Let's get into it.

Aspinall's Comeback Hits Another Snag

Tom Aspinall's path back to the Octagon just got longer after an eye injury threw up a fresh medical roadblock. Promoter Eddie Hearn addressed the situation directly, saying, "The only thing that we have to look at is when Tom Aspinall will be ready to return." That framing matters because it shifts the conversation away from a firm date and back to Aspinall's health. Until there's clearer medical news, any talk of opponents or timelines is premature.

Chimaev And Burns Run It Back, No Gloves This Time

Khamzat Chimaev and Gilbert Burns are getting a rematch, but this one skips the cage entirely. The two are set to meet on the wrestling mat at Real American Freestyle, turning their old UFC rivalry into a straight grappling contest. It's a fun wrinkle for fans who remember their Octagon clash, and it gives Chimaev a chance to settle a different kind of score with Burns outside his day job. Expect plenty of chatter about who actually has the wrestling edge once this one gets closer.

UFC 332 Loses Its Headliner

Valentina Shevchenko is out of UFC 332 with an injury, and the promotion is reportedly scrambling to find a new main event. Word is, the reported replacement could hand Shevchenko a shot at avenging an old kickboxing loss.

Parnasse Gets His Perfect Debut Test

Salahdine Parnasse finally landed in the UFC, headlining against Dan Hooker in Paris after cleaning out two divisions in KSW and chasing a third title there. Parnasse himself called Hooker the ideal opponent for his first walk to the Octagon, believing the stylistic matchup sets up perfectly for him to make a statement. Betting on a debuting fighter to talk that confidently and back it up is always a gamble, but Parnasse's resume against elite competition overseas makes him worth watching closely as a value play for anyone tracking UFC Paris.

What's Next On The Calendar

The first fight for UFC 334 at Madison Square Garden has been revealed, giving fans an early look at how that marquee New York card is shaping up. Meanwhile, AKA head coach Javier Mendez dropped a hint about when welterweight champion Islam Makhachev could return after his unanimous decision win over Ian Machado Garry at UFC 330, which reportedly stretched his winning streak to seventeen in a row. Both threads are worth following as the promotion builds out its next few months of major cards.

From the community

Over on r/MMA, fans are talking about this: Eddie Hearn reveals Tom Aspinall still needs some "additional testing" before making his return.

Sources

Every source behind today's roundup (14)

We summarize the day's news in our own words. Full credit to the outlets below for the original reporting, click through to read their work:

Open Scoring MMA is a daily AI-produced MMA and UFC news podcast. Listen to today's episode, read the full Feed, or get every episode by email.

Episode transcript

Read the full episode transcript

Welcome to Open Scoring MMA. This is episode 77 for September 3rd, 2026, your daily look at what's happening now and next across the world of MMA and UFC. DUKE: Big one right out of the gate, Tom Aspinall's return just hit a wall. Eddie Hearn confirmed the eye injury is still the holdup on getting him back in the octagon.
NORA: And Hearn's quote was pretty blunt about it. He said, quote, the only thing that we have to look at is when Tom Aspinall will be ready to return, end quote.
DUKE: That's not exactly a timeline.
NORA: No timeline at all. And that matters because the heavyweight division is basically frozen without him.
DUKE: You can't book anybody else at the top until we know if he's fighting this year or not.
NORA: Right, and the Reddit crowd's already all over this one too. The community's reacting to the word that Aspinall reportedly still needs, quote, additional testing, end quote, before he's cleared.
DUKE: Which tells you this isn't just a paperwork delay.
NORA: It's a real eye injury and they're being careful with it. Good. That's a guy's vision we're talking about, not just a main event slot.
DUKE: Fair. Let's move to more injury news, because Valentina Shevchenko is out of UFC 332.
NORA: She's hurt, out of the card.
DUKE: For now though, the flyweight picture just got shuffled hard with her out.
NORA: It did, and whoever wins that new main event suddenly has a claim to the next crack at the belt.
DUKE: Speaking of contenders waiting on the champ, Javier Mendez dropped a hint on when Islam Makhachev might be back.
NORA: Mendez, his head coach at AKA, hinted at a return window for the welterweight champ. Makhachev's coming off that win over Ian Machado Garry at UFC 330, and we're hearing that was his seventeenth straight win.
DUKE: Seventeen in a row, that's absurd.
NORA: It is, and the fact his own coach is already talking timeline tells you camp's gearing back up.
DUKE: Good, because that division's been sitting on its hands waiting for him.
NORA: Exactly.
DUKE: Alright, let's get into the beefs, because Sean Sharaf's got a real gripe with the UFC.
NORA: He's calling out the promotion for what he sees as selective promotion, specifically pointing at how hard they're pushing Gable Steveson.
DUKE: That's a legit question a lot of fighters ask quietly, Sharaf's just saying it out loud.
NORA: And it lands harder because Steveson's still building his MMA resume while other guys with longer track records feel overlooked.
DUKE: Now here's one that's gonna get people talking, Khamzat Chimaev and Gilbert Burns are running it back.
NORA: Not in the cage though. This is on the wrestling mat, at Real American Freestyle.
DUKE: Chimaev wrestling Burns outside the octagon, that's wild.
NORA: It is, but it makes sense given both guys' wrestling pedigree, and it keeps that rivalry alive without either of them risking a fight camp for it.
DUKE: Smart way to settle a score without burning a UFC date.
NORA: Right, and it's genuinely good publicity for the freestyle promotion too.
DUKE: Now Justin Gaethje's stirring things up. He's naming Conor McGregor as a guy he'd want next.
NORA: He dismissed rematches with both Max Holloway and Charles Oliveira first, then landed on McGregor as the name he actually wants.
DUKE: That's a money fight if it ever gets made, but McGregor's whole return situation is still up in the air.
NORA: It is, and Gaethje's a live dog in that fight given how violent his style is against anybody with rust.
DUKE: Let's swing over to boxing for a second, because Eddie Hearn's drawing a line on the Fury versus Joshua talks.
NORA: He's standing firm, and he specifically drew a line involving Dana White's role in those negotiations.
DUKE: Dana's fingerprints are everywhere in combat sports lately.
NORA: They are, but Hearn made clear there's a boundary on how far that influence goes in this particular deal.
DUKE: Now to some roster moves. UFC's first fight for the Madison Square Garden card, UFC 334, just got revealed.
NORA: That annual New York show is starting to take shape, and MSG cards always carry extra juice given the history of that building.
DUKE: Every year that card ends up stacked by the time it's actually announced in full.
NORA: We'll keep tracking who else lands on it as more bouts get confirmed.
DUKE: Here's a fun one, Alex Pereira's sister might be getting her own shot.
NORA: Aline Pereira is reportedly set for a Contender Series fight against a former One champion.
DUKE: The Pereira name carrying weight beyond just Alex now.
NORA: If she wins that fight, she's straight into the UFC roster, and that's a real pipeline the promotion loves using.
DUKE: Dana White's also talking dream destinations. He called Hawaii the dream spot for a UFC show.
NORA: Which is wild when you think about it, because BJ Penn and Max Holloway are two of the biggest stars in company history and both are from Hawaii.
DUKE: And the UFC's literally never held a show there.
NORA: Never. So if White's serious about it, that's overdue in a big way.
DUKE: Alright, let's talk about what's actually happening right now, UFC Paris. Dan Hooker versus Salahdine Parnasse headlines that card on September the fifth.
NORA: Parnasse is making his UFC debut after cleaning out two divisions in KSW, and he's calling this a, quote, perfect fight for that debut.
DUKE: Bold thing to say about your first octagon walk against a veteran like Hooker.
NORA: It is, but Hooker's exactly the kind of durable, dangerous name that tells you fast whether a prospect belongs at this level.
DUKE: That whole card's really a showcase for the French talent pipeline the UFC's been building over there.
DUKE: Let's zoom out to the wider schedule, because there's a run of cards coming right behind Paris.
NORA: Dana White's Contender Series, season ten, week five, lands September the eighth.
DUKE: Contender Series is always the appetizer before the real UFC contracts start flying.
NORA: Then September the twelfth brings Noche UFC, Silva versus Delgado.
DUKE: Moreno on a Noche card feels right, that whole event's built around Mexican and Mexican American talent.
NORA: It is, and Jean Silva's been must-watch every time he steps in there.
DUKE: And then the big one, UFC 331 on September the nineteenth. Alexandre Pantoja runs it back with Joshua Van.
NORA: Huge stakes buried in a co-main slot.
DUKE: One more after that, September the twenty sixth, Raoni Barcelos versus Raul Rosas Jr headlines.
NORA: Rosas Jr's still one of the most-watched young names on the roster, every fight of his gets eyeballs.
DUKE: Deserved eyeballs too, he keeps delivering finishes.
NORA: Alright, let's get to the pick. Give me the fight.
DUKE: Nathaniel Wood, at about seventy nine percent.
NORA: Seventy nine, that's strong.
DUKE: The betting line's only pricing him around seventy two percent, so we're well above the market on this one.
NORA: That's a real gap. Talk me through why.
DUKE: Wood's been climbing the competition ladder the whole way. Andrusca's recent form is a lot murkier at this level.
NORA: Okay, and stylistically?
DUKE: Wood's well rounded, strong hands, strong grappling, and he's already handled a bunch of different styles. Andrusca hasn't been tested against that kind of variety yet.
NORA: What about finishing ability?
DUKE: Wood's got a high finish rate, especially by submission. Andrusca's durability against a finisher like that is genuinely unknown.
NORA: So this is basically a value pick for us.
DUKE: It's exactly that. We like Nathaniel Wood more than the line does, and that gap is what makes it worth talking about.
NORA: I trust it. Wood's just been building steadily and nobody's really talking about him.
DUKE: Which is usually when these value plays hit.
NORA: Alright, quick one before we wrap, because I gotta ask you about this Contender Series thing. Are you even watching these prelim level cards closely anymore?
DUKE: I watch every single one. That's literally the pipeline for half our future main card fighters.
NORA: I get that, but come on, week five of a season, most fans have tuned out by now.
DUKE: That's exactly the problem though. These are the fighters who will be headlining cards in a year or two, and nobody remembers watching them live.
NORA: Fine, fine, you've got a point.
DUKE: I usually do.
NORA: Don't push it.
DUKE: Our model's not exactly bragging rights material either, so let's not get too cocky over here.
NORA: True, we're sitting fifty nine and eighteen on the season, that hit rate's decent but the market's actually edging us out slightly.
DUKE: It is, market hit rate's a touch higher than ours right now. But our value picks are twelve and one, and that's the number I actually care about.
NORA: Twelve and one on value plays is nothing to sneeze at.
DUKE: It's not, that's where we're actually finding an edge over the books.
NORA: Alright, that's it for today. Big thanks for hanging with us through all of that.
DUKE: We'll be back tomorrow with more on Aspinall, more on that Paris card, and everything in between.

Before you go, two quick things. Check out our free Fight Tracker at tracker dot open scoring m m a dot com, with every upcoming UFC and PFL card, live odds, and where to watch, all in one place. And follow us on YouTube, just search Open Scoring MMA, for breaking news alerts, fight breakdowns, and videos you won't get here on the feed. That's it for today's Open Scoring MMA. Keep your hands up, and we'll see you next time.