The UFC returns to the Apex facility for Saturday’s Fight Night event and four Canadians will be looking to get their hands raised on the prelims, ahead of the main card headlined by middleweight contenders Jack Hermansson and Sean Strickland.

Marc-André Barriault, Hakeem Dawodu, Alexis Davis and Malcolm Gordon will all represent the Maple Leaf in the Octagon in Las Vegas.

Catch UFC Fight Night LIVE at 5pm et/2pm pt. on TSN5 and TSN Direct.

After a perfect 2021 that saw him earn victories over Abu Azaitar and Dalcha Lungiambula, Barriault will try to win his third fight in a row when he steps in against Chidi Njokuani.

The Gatineau, Que., native has completely turned his fortunes around in the UFC, after dropping his first three bouts in the promotion.

He credits the change to a re-dedication to fighting, which included a move from Quebec to Florida.

“It was kind of a reset you know, the last year was a game changer for me,” Barriault told TSN. “As soon as I joined the Sanford MMA team, I knew I had to make some sacrifices to be the best version of myself and that’s what I did man. I sacrificed everything, I moved down to south Florida and I just trained everyday, all day.”

Njokuani enters the fight after earning his place in the UFC with a victory over Mario Filipe de Sousa on Dana White's Contender Series. Though this is his first fight in the promotion, he has 10 more outings than the Canadian in his professional career.

“We know that Chidi is a good striker, he’s been around for a while, even if he’s making his UFC debut,” said Barriault. “The guy is a good marital artist, especially in the kickboxing and Muay Thai, so we took him very seriously.  The plan is just to be myself, make it an MMA fight.  I don’t want to be the guy to do what he wants me to do, I want to be the Power Bar. I want to be dirty, I want to be the big dog inside the cage.”

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Hakeem Dawodu will look to bounce back from a loss in his last bout as he faces Michael Trizano.

The Calgary native suffered the setback at the hands of Movsar Evloev at UFC 263, in a defeat that snapped his five-fight winning streak.

Heading into that fight, Dawodu’s camp was hampered by an ailment that interrupted his training.

“I was injured that fight, no excuses, but I was on bed rest for about two months due to the nerve injury, I had a herniated disc in my neck,” Dawodu told TSN. “I had to literally train the last four weeks to take the fight, I just wasn’t myself.  I’d love to run that back in the future and face him when I’m healthy.”

After losing his UFC debut to Danny Henry, the 30-year-old earned victories over Austin Arnett, Kyle Bochniak, Yoshinori Horie, Julio Arce and Zubaira Tukhugov to build his winning streak.  He has a 12-2-1 overall MMA record.

Trizano comes into the bout after a win over Ľudovít Klein last May. He suffered the only loss of his MMA career prior to that at the hands of Grant Dawson and has a 9-1 professional record, including a 3-1 mark in the UFC.

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Former UFC title challenger Alexis Davis returns to the Octagon as she faces Julija Stoliarenko.

Davis last saw action at UFC 263 last June, where she suffered a defeat at the hands of Pannie Kianzad.

After four fights at flyweight, the Port Colborne, Ont., native returned to bantamweight with a victory over Sabina Mazo last February.

The 37-year-old faced Ronda Rousey for the bantamweight title at UFC 175 in 2014, but was unsuccessful in her challenge.

She has a 20-11 overall MMA record.

Stoliarenko enters the fight still looking for her first victory in the UFC.  The Kaunas, Lithuania fighter is 0-2 in the promotion after losses to Yana Kunitskaya and Julia Avila.

The 28-year-old was riding a five-fight winning streak when she made her UFC debut and is 9-5-2 overall.

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Malcolm Gordon will be searching for his second win in a row as he faces Denys Bondar in the card’s opening bout.

The Calgary native defeated Francisco Figueiredo in July to snap a two-fight losing streak, his first two fights in the UFC.

The 31-year-old won four fights in a row prior to making his promotional debut in a short notice bout against Amir Albazi.

Bondar will be making his UFC debut on Saturday – he comes in on an eight-fight winning streak – but has not competed since August of 2020.