UAE Warriors return with another three-header. The weekend will be finalized with two title rematches at UAE Warriors 40: Arabia 10. Ali Alqaisi will defend the featherweight title against Ahmed Faress. In a welterweight title fight, Badreddine Diani will take on Abdullah Bousheri. The event will be preceded by UAE Warriors 38: Africa 5 on March 17th and UAE Warriors 39 on march 18th.
UAE Warriors featherweight title fight
‘The Royal Fighter’ and Faress have met before at UAE Warriors 29. This was Alqaisi’s first featherweight title defense. The bout went the full distance and the reigning champion was awarded the victory by the judges. This was the final win of his four-fight winning streak. At UAE Warriors 30 he fought Jesse Arnett. Unfortunately for the Jordan fighter, the fight was called off due to an accidental cut. However, he was able to reclaim the championship gold by submitting the Canadian back in September of 2022. Alqaisi now sports a 13 – 6 MMA record.
On the other hand, the mentioned loss was one of four consecutive defeats suffered by Faress. This losing streak was put to rest when he submitted Cedric Doyle. The Egyptian fighters have a 17 – 7 record stacked in ONE Championship, and Brave CF amongst other promotions.
Welterweight title match
This also will be a rematch as Diani was awarded a win over Bousheri by a split decision two years ago on March 27 of 2022. It also was a welterweight title fight. Now the time has come for a long-awaited rematch. Since their first meeting, the Moroccan fighter went 1 – 1. His MMA record is 5 wins and two losses.
The Kuwait representative is a more experienced fighter with a 9 – 3 MMA record. He has won three out of the last six fights. After his loss to Diani, he took on Yassin Najid in March of 2022. However, their bout was declared a no-contest after an illegal up-kick. Since then he bounced back by submitting John Adajar. This allowed him to make his way back into the welterweight title picture.