It's an exciting weekend for UFC coming up as they always tend to do around this time of year the UFC had lined up a pretty nice card. UFC 226 will be taking place this weekend in the early hours of Sunday morning at 3am, with the prelim card starting at 1am. The event is headlined with 2 champions colliding as Daniel Cormier makes a return to heavyweight in a bid to become the 2nd ever fight to hold belts in multiple weight classes at the same time when he takes on champion Stipe Miocic.
It's a mouth watering prospect but the card has taken a rather huge blow after the co-main event has had to be cancelled. Featherweight champion Max Holloway was in line to defend his title against undefeated Brian Ortega but has had to withdraw after health concerns in the lead up to the fight. Despite that the fight card is still pretty well stacked and should have some real interesting fights.
As well as 226 there is also the TUF finale the night before. That event will see the finalists competing for a UFC contract and will be headlined by what should be a pretty interesting fight with Brad Tavares taking on Israel Adesanya. The rest of the card is not great but as an appetizer it's not too bad and should be enough to get the juices flowing ahead of the main course the following night.
As I am short on time I and have not yet got around to seeing the latest episode of TUF yet I am going to skip over doing a preview for the finale but I will be watching it and if there are any note worthy incidents I will be sure to write about them afterwards.
UFC MAIN EVENT
HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE FIGHT
Stipe Miocic Vs Daniel Cormier
We don't often get treated to super fights in this sport but this fight definitely deserves that title. It is a clash between two champions and two fighters many could consider as a top pound for pound fighter depending on their personal preferences and requirements for such thing.
Daniel Cormier has really only got one Jon Jones shaped blemish on his otherwise excellent fighting record. In the cage he has fought and lost twice to Jones, however the 2nd was scrubbed and declared a no contest after Jones failed a drugs test after the fight and there are some who question whether Jones was not using drugs the whole time and question the validity of the 1st fight too.
Cormier is coming off a victory over Volken Oezdemir at UFC 220 and is officially on a 5 fight win streak since the Jones loss in 2015. His record is 20-1 with the 1 no contest and he has 9 knockouts, 4 submissions and 7 decision victories. His only loss is via decision. It is worth noting while he is the light heavyweight champion and moving up for this title fight he has previously fought at heavyweight before and at this weight he is 13-0. Some notable names he has defeated at heavyweight include Roy Nelson, Frank Mir, Bigfoot Silva and Josh Barnett.
Stipe Miocic also last fought at UFC 220 where he dominated Francis Ngannou for 5 rounds and defended his title for a 3rd consecutive time making him the most successful heavyweight champ in the companies history. His record is 18-2 and he has 14 knockout victories, no submissions and 4 decisions. His 2 losses have came once via decision and once via knockout. His last defeat came against Junior Dos Santos in 2014 and since then he went on a run of 5 consecutive knockout wins, including a 1st round one over Dos Santos.
There is no doubt in my mind Cormier is one of the greatest fighters and he has impressive wrestling credentials which dwarf his rival but I cannot see him being able to overcome the physical disadvantages he will be facing against Miocic. Stipe doesn't have anywhere near the wrestling qualifications as Cormier who has won medals at various championships and fought in the Olympics. But Miocic's wrestling is still extremely good and it's hard to see Cormier having too much success in getting him down let alone keeping him there.
Cormier is used to coming into fights as the smaller guy with shorter reach but for almost all of those times he had some other advantage in his favour. For this one I think the deck is firmly stacked against him. When he hasn't wrestled his opponents down DC has walked down his opponents, taking a few hits to get inside and strike. But Stipe has a brilliant jab and great boxing technique, any plan that involves taking a few shots from him seems destined to fail.
Prediction - Miocic to win - Decision
Francis Ngannou Vs Derrick Lewis
This has the makings to be a really exciting fight, both guys hit real hard and have plenty of finishes between them. They also share the same weakness when it comes to cardio and if neither lands the killer blow to render the other unconscious within the first round then it could quickly turn into a rather sloppy and boring affair.
Ngannou comes into this on the back of a loss at the hands of champion Stipe Miocic. He went into the fight with a lot of hype and was declared as holding the world record for most powerful punch. But even that wasn't enough to put Stipe away and by the 5 minute mark he was completely gassed. He never fully recovered and spent much of the fight being manhandled by the superior MMA fighter.
Before that loss he was tearing up the division, he had 10 straight wins, all finishes, 7 via knockout. His overall record is 11-2 with 7 knockouts, 4 submissions and the only fights he has ever been to a decision were the 2 defeats.
Lewis has a record 19-5 with 17 wins via knockout and 1 submission and decision victory. He has lost via decision 2 times and has been knocked out 3 times but never submitted. We last saw him when he knocked out Marcin Tybura in February putting him back onto winning ways after suffering a knockout loss against Mark Hunt.
I fancy Francis to land the killer shot in this one in what I am hoping to be a brilliant first round, against Stipe he showed a lot of inexperience on the ground with commentators noting that he was not doing even basic things that he should have been doing in that situation. While Lewis is not exactly a great wrestler he has often times found himself on top of his opponents so that may be a worry but I really see this being played out almost exclusively on the feet.
Prediction - Ngannou Win - Knockout - R1
Rest Of The Card
Paul Felder Vs Mike Parry - Felder to win - Decision
Michael Chiesa Vs Anthony Pettis - Pettis to win - Submission
Gokhan Saki Vs Khalil Rountree - Saki to win - Knockout
At the time of writing there is not too much detail coming out about what happened with Max other than he was showing symptoms of a concussion during some media interviews and was taken to hospital. Hopefully it is nothing too serious or career threatening and we get to see him defend his belt someday.