A long rumored women’s strawweight title fight between champ Joanna Jedrzejczyk and challenger Rose Namajunas has been confirmed for UFC 217 at Madison Square Garden on November 4th. That puts the card up to three title fights, with middleweight champ Michael Bisping fighting a returning Georges St-Pierre and bantamweight champ Cody Garbrandt taking on TJ Dillashaw.
The UFC has been struggling over the past several months to put together big events with big stars like Ronda Rousey retired or off pursuing superfights like Conor McGregor. While cards have been as entertaining as ever, one of the few highlights of the year for the promotion as far as PPV sales go was UFC 211, another card featuring three title fights. So the company seems to be going back to that well in the hopes of finishing 2017 with a bang.
Jedrzejczyk has her eye on breaking Ronda Rousey’s record for most women’s title defenses (6) but will have to get past Namajunas, who is 4-1 over her last five and beat the brakes off Michelle Waterson in her last fight to earn a shot. Rose is definitely an underdog in this fight, but her scrappy nature and go for broke style almost guarantees this will be a barnburner of a fight.
💥 BOOM 💥
THREE title fights hit MSG as @JoannaMMA takes on @RoseNamajunas @TheGarden for #UFC217‼️ pic.twitter.com/6lFPqn7fxC
— UFC (@ufc) September 12, 2017
AS for Garbrandt and Dillashaw, they were former teammates at Urijah Faber’s Team Alpha Male camp until Dillashaw left with his striking coach Duane Ludwig to form a new team. Since then it’s been non-stop accusations from Faber and Garbrandt that Dillashaw is a snake, setting up a feud at the top of the 135 pound division we expect will continue regardless of who walks away with the belt in November.
And then there’s Georges St-Pierre’s long awaited return, where he’s moving up a weight class to challenge Michael Bisping for the middleweight title. St-Pierre was never a big welterweight and there was talk of him considering a move down to 155 instead of up to 185, so he’s giving up a lot of size to Bisping. Add in four years away from competing and it’s very possible that the Canadian legend may have bitten off more than he can chew.
It all makes for a very interesting UFC 217 event, a definite must see after months of cards with limited star power.
