Possibly in an effort to break the spirits of anyone foolish enough to cover this sport for a living, the UFC has decided to follow up last weekend’s historical UFC 205 event with not one, but *two* Fight Night cards this Saturday: Fight Night 99 in Belfast, Ireland and Fight Night 100 in Sao Paulo, Brazil. That’s right, it’s a doubleheader of destruction! A twofold of testosterone! A binary beat-I’m already exhausted.
The UFC’s booking of back-to-back cards leaves fight fans with a lot of options in terms of where to tune in and when, which can create a bit of a dilemma for those of us who prefer not to spend an entire Saturday switching between Fox Sports 1 and UFC Fight Pass to catch mostly inconsequential fights between largely unknown competitors. Lucky for you, we’re here to offer a definitive guide of which fights to catch this weekend and where. YOU’RE WELCOME.
1. Gegard Mousasi vs. Uriah Hall II — Fight Night 99, Fox Sports 1
The rate at which Gegard Mousasi has undergone almost a complete character transformation is enough to make your head spin. This was a guy who for the first 13 years of his career was known as an emotionless, silent assassin (all those “calendar of emotions” jokes about Gunnar Nelson are basically just second generation Mousasi jokes), then apparently went to Glenn Beck’s rebranding guy last month and emerged as the kind of sh*t-talking heel that this sport all but caters to. It’s been nothing short of beautiful.
So far on Mousasi’s verbal hit list has been middleweight champion Michael Bisping, who the Dutchman claimed he would “jab his face all night, easy” in the lead-up to his UFC 204 bout with Vitor Belfort, Nick Diaz, Conor “Ginger-headed f*ck” McGregor, an army of trolls who dared challenge him during a Facebook Live Q&A, and Uriah Hall, who scored a massive upset over Mousasi last year via an absolutely insane spinning back kick KO.
Having won three straight fights since then, Mousasi has been very vocal about his loss to Hall being a fluke, so when Fight Night Belfast’s main event fell apart due to a Gunnar Nelson injury, the UFC smartly decided to book a rematch between the two to settle the score. This fight has everything — trash-talk, spinning sh*t, a possible redemption arc — and is the closest thing to “must-see” television that you are going to find this weekend.
2. Thomas Almeida vs. Alberto Moreno — Fight Night 100, UFC Fight Pass
Thomas Almeida is VIOLENCE. The Brazilian prodigy had arguably the best 2015 of any fighter in the UFC, scoring back-to-back-to-back KO wins over Yves Jabouin, Brad Pickett, and Anthony Birchak and picking up “Performance of the Night” bonuses for each…um…performance to boot. While his meteoric rise suffered a temporary setback against fellow prospect Cody Garbrandt in his last trip to the octagon, you can almost guarantee that any Almeida fight will end in spectacular fashion. And by “spectacular”, I of course mean “face-crushing.”
Matched up against the undefeated Alberto Moreno, it will be interesting to see how Almeida bounces back from the first loss of his professional career (and a KO loss, no less). Will he crack under the pressure? Or will he rise like the mighty Phoenix from his own ashes? In either case, it’s definitely more intriguing than seeing Ryan Bader and Lil Nog fight again.
3. Artem Lobov vs. Teruto Ishihara, Fight Night 99, UFC Fight Pass
If you think I’m including this fight because Artem Lobov happens to be one of the main training partners of Conor McGregor, then think again. I mean, sure, I love to see Artem keep it nice and flowy in the octagon as much as the next guy — what with his adorable little T-rex arms and the murderball punches attached at the ends of them — but I’m far more interested to see what Teruto “I love you my bitches” Ishihara is capable of against some moderately legitimate competition.
For starters, Ishihara is one of the few Asian fighters to find even a modicum of success in the UFC dating back to ever. Secondly, he possess the kind of turn-your-lights-out power in his hands that isn’t exactly common once you start venturing below the welterweight division. And perhaps most importantly, he’s got the kind of give-no-fucks charisma that isn’t exactly common in *any* weight class. Seriously, dude just threatened to “cut Lobov’s throat with his katana” while hitting on a reporter in the same breath…how can you not love this guy?
4. Magnus Cedenblad vs. Jack Marshman — Fight Night 99, Fight Pass
When looking over both the Fight Night 99 and Fight Night 100 cards, it’s hard not to be struck by the abject lack of anything even resembling stakes. Ryan Bader vs. Antonio Rogerio Nogueira (not to keep harping on it) may somehow turn out to be the barnburner that their first meeting most certainly wasn’t, but it won’t do much for either man besides prolong their UFC career another fight — which it looks like won’t even be the case for Bader.
So when you throw stakes out the door, all you have left to look for are consistently exciting fighters. Enter Magnus Cedenblad, a Swedish middleweight who aside from having one of the greatest names in all of martial arts, has put together a nice little 4-1 record in the octagon over the past 4 years. With a near-even ratio of knockouts to submissions, Cedenblad is the type of fighter that you can always expect to put on a show, and against the debuting Marshman — a former paratrooper and one of the first Welsh fighters to ever compete in the UFC — you can probably expect this one to end inside the distance.
5. Claudia Gadelha vs. Cortney Casey — Fight Night 100, Fox Sports 1
Who doesn’t love a good old fashioned squash match? The fact is, Claudia Gadelha has looked pretty damn impressive in the octagon when she’s facing anyone named Joanna Jedrzejczyk, and is currently a 4-to-1 favorite to lay the boots on the the tough-but-outclassed Cortney Casey tomorrow night. On the other hand, there is a noticeable downward trend among fighters coming off their second title loss, which could set up an upset for the ages. With Casey fresh off a surprising submission win over Randa Markos in August, this fight has a real “anything could happen” feel to it.
Other fights worth your consideration: Kyoji Horiguchi vs. Ali Bagautinov (Fight Night 99), Sérgio Moraes vs. Zak Ottow (Fight Night 100), Thales Leites vs. Krzysztof Jotko (Fight Night 100)
