French fan favorite Morgan Charrière returns on September 5 in the Octagon. He fights in front of his home fans during UFC Paris at the Accor Arena. His opponent is talented Brazilian Felipe Lima, who comes over from the bantamweight division to the featherweight division.
Multiple sources have confirmed the booking to Heavy.com after an initial report from MMA Gang. Neither guy is ranked in the UFC but hopes, with a win, to come closer to the top 15.
Immensely Popular In France
Morgan Charrière is a 30-year-old MMA fighter out of Poissy, France. He started his professional career in 2014 and had a very difficult start. Charrière was able to overcome the shaky beginning and went on to become one of the biggest prospects in Europe. In 2016, he won his first title, beating William Gomis via a heel hook submission to win the 100% Fight championship. After also winning the Octogone Fighting Club title the year after, Charrière signed with Cage Warriors. He lost his debut but ended the year 2019 with wins over Lewis Monarch and Dean Trueman. Because of those wins, he fought for the vacant title in 2020 against Perry Andre Goodwin. Charrière won via TKO in the third round, claiming the Cage Warriors title. In his first title defense, he suffered a narrow defeat against Jordan Vucenic. He also lost to Paul Hughes right after making a new title fight look far away.
Charrière then went on a three-fight winning streak in Cage Warriors and hoped for a new title shot at featherweight. But six weeks after his last fight for Cage Warriors, Charrière made his UFC debut in Paris against Manolo Zecchini. He made a great first impression, winning by TKO in the first round and winning the ‘Performance of the Night’ bonus. In 2024, Charrière suffered his first defeat in the UFC. In the fight of the night, he lost via split decision to Chepe Mariscal. The French fighter ended the year with a finish over Gabriel Miranda. Unfortunately for Charrière, last year wasn’t one to remember. He won against Nate Landwehr but lost fights against Nathaniel Wood and Melquizael Costa. In the fight against Costa, it was the first time he was finished in his professional career. Charrière now looks to bounce back from that loss at home against Felipe Lima.
A New Chapter In A New Weight Class
Lima started his professional MMA career in 2015. The Brazilian fighter started with a loss but went on to put together an amazing winning streak in the regional scene of Brazil. In 2018, in his seventh professional fight, he beat Eurides Bandeira to win the Amazon Talent bantamweight title. After also winning at a Mr.Cage event in 2019, he moved to train in Sweden at the Allstars Training Center. In 2021, he won another title in his second fight for the Fight Club Rush promotion; he beat Evgeny Odnorog by flying knee knockout. Lima was supposed to fight during the Road to UFC event in 2022, but his opponent Xiao Long got injured. Instead of waiting, Lima signed with Oktagon MMA to fight for the title against Jonas Mågård. Lima won the title in his debut for the promotion in 2023, defeating Mågård via unanimous decision.
The Brazilian fighter never defended the title because he signed with the UFC in 2024. Lima made his debut on short notice against Muhammad Naimov. He was behind on the scorecards but was able to find a second wind and win the fight via rear-naked choke submission early on in the third round. Lima ended 2024 with a win over Miles Johns, setting up a fight against top talent Payton Talbott in 2025. Lima, no longer underestimated by the bookmakers, went into the fight as the favorite. Unfortunately for Lima, he didn’t fight his best fight and lost to Talbott. Lima was supposed to fight late last year against Daniel Marcos but pulled out because of an injury. Now he is back and moves to the featherweight division to take on Charrière.
UFC Paris – (September 5th)
- Nora Cornolle vs. Klaudia Syguła
- Michael Page vs. Nursulton Ruziboev
- Mario Pinto vs. Ryan Spann
- Nathaniel Wood vs. Mairon Santos
- Morgan Charrière vs. Felipe Lima
- Oumar Sy vs. Modestas Bukauskas
- Losene Keita vs. Muhammad Naimov
- Kurtis Campbell vs. Trevor Peek
- Luis Felipe Dias vs. Matthieu Duclos
- Michael Aljarouj vs. Fabia Sintes
Morgan Charrière Returns in Front of Homecrowd at UFC Paris