Oh my goodness, fight friends, it is finally here! I got hyped up for this fight when it was announced back in July, and it is coming true! UFC 183 really is going to be main evented by Anderson Silva taking on Nick Diaz, wowzers!
The fights kick off on Fight Pass at 6:30 PM ET. I know I’ve heard of some of the guys there, like Andy Enz and Ildemar Alcantara, but I do think that the featherweight clash between Diego Brandao and Jimy Hettes has serious potential for a good matchup. Hettes is very good at judo and has a crazy-high submission rate, while Brandao has a BJJ black belt and a lot of punching power.
The regular prelims will be on Fox Sports 1 starting at 8:00 PM ET. I am super pumped for the flyweight match between Ian McCall and John Lineker. Lineker has a ton of power, but he’s also prone to not making weight, which McCall could take advantage of if John has a bad weight cut. The People’s Main Event is a women’s bantamweight fight between top contenders Miesha Tate and Sara McMann. Both are wrestlers, but McMann has a silver Olympic medal that says she’s better at it than Miesha. I don’t know if the winner of this gets the next title shot, but it certainly won’t hurt either woman’s case.
The main card will be on Pay-Per-View starting at 10:00 PM ET. This part of the card is really stacked. Jordan Mein and Thiago Alves should do fun and exciting violence on each other at welterweight to kick things off, the always entertaining Joe Lauzon faces Al Iaquinta at lightweight, and the co-main event is another welterweight bout as undefeated Kelvin Gastelum takes on Tyron Woodley to see who can inch closer to a title shot.
The main event feels like something of an anomaly in the current era of the UFC in that there is no title at stake. Two men coming off of two losses in a row are fighting, but records and recent history isn’t really a factor here. Anderson “The Spider” Silva, who is at the very least in the top 3 of best mixed martial artists ever is taking on Nick Diaz, perhaps one of the biggest headcases in sports history.
This should be a fun night of combat sports, friends, let’s enjoy the hell out of it!
