The top eight fights are all between very highly ranked fighters and its not that people care about or respect the UFC rankings but it indicates a lot has been achieved by those fighters over the past couple years. Really glad Gillespie has a big fight after grinding in MMA for six years undefeated. Glad the 21 year old killer Shahbazyan is getting a fight with a tough vet too. The other big fights are self explanatory.
Jorge Masvidal vs. Nate Diaz
Kelvin Gastelum vs. Darren Till
Corey Anderson vs. Johnny Walker
Vicente Luque vs. Stephen Thompson
Blagoy Ivanov vs. Derrick Lewis
Gregor Gillespie vs. Kevin Lee
Katlyn Chookagian vs. Jennifer Maia
Krzysztof Jotko vs. Edmen Shahbazyan
Andrei Arlovski vs. Jair Rozenstruik
Julio Arce vs. Hakeem Dawodu
Lyman Good vs. Chance Rencountre
Makwan Amirkhani vs. Shane Burgos</p>
I'm not gonna pretend to care about the Chookagian fight but there are a bunch of great fights on this card getting overshadowed by the Masvidal vs Diaz main event. The Gastelum, Walker, Thompson, Lewis, and Gillespie fights could all headline Fight Nights. As for Shahbazyan... how many 21 year olds do you know that are already 3-0 in the UFC? Dawodu has also been climbing the ranks and can be pretty damn exciting, 10-1-1 in the UFC/WSOF.
I think it looks like a very good card, especially for the 2019 version of the ufc. Most cards now have 1-2 good fights and some cards have 0. This one has 5-7 depending on what you classify as good.Â
While neither man has looked like the next Aldo, Amirikhani (3-1 in UFC) is coming off a huge sub win over Fishgold while Burgos (5-1 in UFC) is coming off a win over Cub Swanson.
This is a bigger fight for the division than it seems at a glance.
Former Bellator champ Lyman Good (20-5) was never finished in his entire career until he ran into Maia in his last fight. Has a couple KO wins in the UFC and is fighting on this card as well.
Its also pretty much guaranteed that the Chookagian vs Maia winner will be getting the next title shot vs the best P4P fighter in all of WMMA, Shevchenko.
As good as 244 is... look how weak 243 is, these two fights are on the PPV! That main event, the venue and the Australian support will make it one of the most attended UFC's in MMA history but what a dogshit PPV.