Welcome, fight fans, to the weekend, a perfect time for fighting. UFC’s unrelenting juggernaut of events every week rolls on, but there’s a small speed bump as Bellator is here, too. Let’s take a look at who’s fighting and how we can watch it.
FRIDAY
Bellator is back, and while the prelims aren’t the most star-studded affair, especially with the unfortunate injury to take Kevin “Baby Slice” Ferguson Jr. off the card, there’s still Lyoto Machida’s brother, Chinzo. The bouts kick off at 8 p.m. ET, streaming on both Bellator and Spike TV’s websites. The main card begins at 10 p.m. ET on Spike TV, and it begins with a pair of featherweight bouts. Another second-generation fighter, AJ McKee takes on Cody Walker, while Bubba Jenkins rematches Georgi Karakhanyan. The top two bouts are both in the lightweight division. Saad Awad takes on Derek Anderson, while former UFC champ Benson “Smooth” Henderson faces former featherweight Bellator champion Patricio “Pitbull” Freire, with a title shot on the line.
SATURDAY
UFC’s steamroller crushes Vancouver with a fun card on Saturday night. The prelims start at 4:30 p.m. ET on Fight Pass, but honestly, there’s not a sleeper awesome fight on these early prelims. No offense to Chad Laprise and Thibault Gouti, I just don’t see the winner cracking the top 15 of the lightweight division.
The regular prelims will be on Fox, starting at 6 p.m. ET. Sadly, the bouts here aren’t much better than the first set of prelims. There’s potential for fun, but nothing that will really effect the title scene. The final preliminary bout is a middleweight clash between Kevin Casey and Sam Alvey, which could be fun.
The main card begins at 8 p.m. ET on Fox, beginning with a lightweight clash between Jim Miller and Joe Lauzon. That could be a fight of the year contender! Next is a strawweight bout with Bec Rawlings welcoming Paige VanZant back to the Octagon.
The co-main event is a featherweight fight with Charles Oliveira taking on former lightweight champ Anthony Pettis, who’s making his 145-pound debut. The main event is a welterweight bout between Demian Maia, who’s on a five-fight win streak, and former interim champ, Carlos Condit. The winner of this bout could get a title shot, depending on how the Tyron Woodley and Stephen Thompson quagmire shakes out.
