Rei Tsuruya is back on a UFC card this weekend, scheduled to meet Luis Gurule at UFC Macau’s Galaxy Arena after more than a year away from the Octagon.
Tsuruya last fought at UFC 313, where he took a short-notice assignment against Joshua Van and lost his unbeaten record; Van out-struck him by a considerable margin in that bout. The 23-year-old’s return is now booked against Gurule, who stepped in on short notice after Jesus Aguilar was forced off the card with an injury and will move up to bantamweight for the matchup.
The matchup rearranges two different trajectories. Gurule, 32, earned a UFC contract in 2024 by edging Nick Piccininni on Dana White’s Contender Series, lost his debut to Ode Osbourne by strikes and dropped decisions to Jesus Aguilar and Alden Coria to start 0-3 in the promotion, then rebounded with a unanimous-decision win over Daniel Barez at UFC Vegas 117 last weekend. Tsuruya returns after winning the flyweight tournament on Season 2 of Road to UFC, claiming the Pancrase flyweight title in 2022 and opening his UFC account with a unanimous decision over Carlos Hernandez at UFC 303.
On paper the fight favors Tsuruya: the DraftKings lines list him a -325 favorite to win, with Gurule a +260 underdog; the over/under is 2.5 rounds with the over at -180. Tsuruya’s pro ledger was listed at 10-1 with eight finishes, while Gurule was 11-3 with six finishes. Physically, Tsuruya carries a four-inch reach advantage (68 inches to 64) and stands 5-foot-6 to Gurule’s 5-foot-5, factors that bookmakers appear to have weighed when setting the line and prop prices—Tsuruya is +120 to win by decision, +240 to win by KO/TKO/DQ and +165 to win by KO/TKO/DQ or submission.
Tsuruya has been preparing for the fight with small, visible changes: he cut his shoulder-length black hair shorter and bleached it blonde. "I just got tired of the long hair," he said, adding, "It’s in the way when I’m training, so I cut it short." He framed the comeback in familiar terms, noting the short-notice nature of his UFC 313 assignment and the growth since: "Obviously, I didn’t know much about Joshua Van back then with the short-notice fight, but things have changed," and, "I feel like I don’t want to be left (behind) — I want to catch up with all those top-flight contenders. There are a lot of new guys coming in too, so I want to get on that ride. A lot of ranking changes every week as well. I hope I can be one of those rankers and contenders." He also downplayed weight concerns: "Weight-wise, there is nothing to worry about — I can focus more on the fight."
Context matters here: Tsuruya’s absence of more than a year removes the steady measure of live fights from his ledger, while Gurule arrives with back-to-back activity—his Contender Series win in 2024 and a fight last weekend at UFC Vegas 117—before jumping up in weight on short notice. That mismatch in activity, coupled with Gurule’s willingness to move up a division, is the central friction of the bout.
There are practical stakes for both fighters. A win for Tsuruya would erase some of the momentum Van built in 313 and reinsert the former Pancrase champion into the conversation at the lighter weights; a win for Gurule would validate a late-career rise and prove that recent activity can overcome a physical reach disadvantage and underdog billing. The UFC Macau card itself lists 13 scheduled fights, and the Tsuruya–Gurule pairing gives the card a compact, consequential slot: a return test for a young prospect versus a veteran taking a calculated gamble.
The most consequential unanswered question heading into Galaxy Arena is straightforward: will Tsuruya’s layoff have dulled the skills that made him a heavy favorite, or will Gurule’s short-notice move up and recent win supply the momentum to upset the projection? Saturday’s result will settle that—and decide which of these two trajectories keeps moving forward.
