UFC Fight Night 265 Predictions (22-11-2025)

UFC Fight Night 265 is an upcoming mixed martial arts event produced by the Ultimate Fighting Championship that will take place on November 22, 2025, at theAli Bin Hamad al-Attiyah Arena in Al Rayyan, Qatar.

This event will mark the promotion’s debut in Qatar, which will become the third country in the Middle East, after the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.

The event headliner is expected to feature a lightweight bout between Arman Tsarukyan vs. Dan Hooker, who will likely decide who is next for the line in a lightweight championship fight.

In another title elimination fight former welterweight champion Belal Muhammad will take on #6 ranked Ian Garry. Also in this article we will cover a light heavyweight fight between Volkan Oezdemir and Alonzo Menifield.

#1 ranked lightweight Arman Tsarukyan is finally back in action after being inactive for 1 year and 8 months. However, he did participate in the official grappling matches versus decorated MMA professionals.

The Armenian was very close to a title shot, but missed weight on several occasions already and with this win could potentially get a shot to fight newly crowned champion Illia Topuria.

In his last bout Arman faced former UFC champion Charles Oliveira and did manage to get a close split decision win. The Brazilian got his opponent in a few dangerous positions and caught him in a tight triangle just before the bell.

A.Tsarukyan is now 9-2 with the organisation with his only two losses coming against Islam Makhachev and Mateusz Gamrot.

His opponent Dan Hooker revived his career and now is on a 3 fights winning streak. The Hangman was a huge underdog in his last 2 bouts versus Jalin Turner and Mateusz Gamrot, but beat both by a split decision.

However, many fans and experts agreed that D.Hooker won it more convincingly. His UFC career was on a verge from 2020 to 2022, since he lost 4 fights out of 5 and many started to question whether he still belongs to this level.

Realistically, Dan Hooker do not deserve to fight #1 ranked fighter at this moment yet, but he has stepped in to fight Mateusz Gamrot on a short notice which awarded him this fight. Unsurprisingly, Arman Tsarukyan is a huge favorite to win this match up and has a lot to prove.

We should see the Armenian going for a finish and his strong grappling background and decent submission game should be a key to the victory.

Although, D.Hooker showed great takedown defense in multiple fights, he was finished 4 times in this organisation already and was unable to show any escape in his bout versus Islam Makhachev after being on the ground.

#9 ranked UFC light heavyweight Volkan Oezdemir is in for his 16th fight under this organisation. It is his first fight in 2025 and only the second time he will fight only once in a single year.

V.Oezdemir is now 3-2 in his last 5 bouts and in order to potentially get another title The event headliner is expected to feature a lightweight bout between Arman Tsarukyan and Dan Hooker.shot would need to put up a decent winning streak. ‘’No Time’’ lost his last fight against division prospect Carlos Ulber by unanimous decision.

Although 2 judges gave it 30-27 to C.Ulber, in reality, the fight was way closer. Volkan landed only 2 significant strikes less than the opponent and did it with an impressive accuracy of 52%.
After this fight C.Ulber went on to win his next 2 fights and now is ranked as #3 in the division.

Prior to this fight, Oezdemir was on an impressive 2 fights winning streak after submitting Bogdan Gushkov with a naked rare submission in the first round and later KO’ed Johny Walker only 2 minutes and 28 seconds into their fight.

Alonzo Meinfield returned to the UFC light heavyweight division rankings just recently after his latest win. His best run was from 2022 June to 2023 December which included 4 straight wins.

This earned Meinfield a top opponent which was then another rising athlete Carlos Ulber. Unfortunately, months of preparation went unnoticed, since C.Ulber caught the opponent in only 12 seconds and finished him with a flurry of punches.

This year Alonzo Meinfield kept things busy and already has two wins under his name. He started 2025 with a win over undefeated UFC newcomer Julius Walker who was signed by the organisation after 5 professional MMA bouts.

The Brazilian did well on his debut, having more control time and landing 50% of his significant strikes. However, in a close fight, eventually Alonzo Meinfield was awarded a split decision win.

He beat young UFC prospect Oumar, which was 11-0 at the time, by unanimous decision 29-28. Although in the eyes of many, the judges should’ve given it to the Frenchman.

Alonzo Meinfield is still not able to get any notable wins over fighters which are ranked way above him. His latest wins were controversial and could be called lucky, since the fight statistics favored his opponents.

He tends to start fights slowly and during his career lost in the first round only once. Although Volkan Oezdemir remains the favorite to win this one, we and top bookmakers will likely see this fight going past the first round.

After a long and hard road to the UFC welterweight title, Belal Muhammad was not able to defend it a single time and now needs to get back to the drawing board.

The former champ went on 9 fights winning streak after finally getting a title shot versus Leon ‘The Rocky’ Edwards. With pressure and superior wrestling he was able to accomplish his dream and became the champion.

Many thought his style would be unsolvable for the majority of the division, but these speculations were put down. In his first title defence Belal Muhammad fought Jack Della Maddalena. The champ was unable to keep the opponent on the ground or next to the cage and was outlanded on the feet.

One of the judges even gave 4 rounds to the Australian who eventually won the belt via unanimous decision. Last week the division saw another title chance, since Islam Makhachev beat JDM convincingly 50-45.

Ian Garry never tasted the belt, but was really close to getting a title shot back in 2024. He fought another undefeated division prospect Shavkat Rakhmonov and suffered his first MMA pro career loss by unanimous decision.

The fighters were gun shy and careful on the feet with both men landing only 79 combined significant strikes in the 5 rounds. S.Rakhmonov’s total control time of almost 12 minutes won him the fight 48-47.

Ian Garrry was able to turn the thing around in his latest bout versus Carlos Prates, who reminded last weekend once again how dangerous he is with a 1st round KO against Leon Edwards.

I.Garry perfectly controlled the range and dominated the whole fight until the last round where he made a mistake and got in a really big trouble. All this was irrelevant at the end and Ian Garry was awarded a clear decision victory winning 4 rounds out of 5.

Belal Muhammad was finished only once during his pro MMA career while Ian Garry’s only loss was by a decision. Due to the safe Ian Garry striking style and Belal Muhammad pressure wrestling it is hard to see this fight ending early and it is a high probability to see this fight going to the judges scorecards.