The UFC heads to Cleveland for the first time on Saturday, September 10 with a fine offering on pay-per-view.
In the main event, heavyweight champion and Cleveland native Stipe Miocic makes the first defense of the belt he won from Fabricio Werdum in May in front of the hometown crowd against challenger Alistair Overeem.
Overeem has followed a long and winding road to get back to the top after being pulled from a scheduled title shot in 2012 due to a failed drug test. The Dutchman has won four in a row, including knockout wins over Junior Dos Santos and Andrei Arlovski.
The rest of the card is teeming with interesting matchups. In the co-main event, Werdum takes on Travis Browne for a second time in a rematch of their 2014 fight that saw Werdum beat up Browne for five rounds on Fox. Urijah Faber attempts to hold onto his slot among the bantamweight elite against Jimmie Rivera, while a strawweight action fight between Joanne Calderwood and Jessica Andrade opens the card.
Last but not least, CM Punk makes his highly anticipated UFC debut against Mickey Gall in a fight that should draw more eyeballs to the event.
The preliminary card isn’t as appealing as it was before Mairbek Taisumov and Damir Hadzovic were pulled with visa issues, but there are still a number of action bouts. Ray Borg and Ian McCall open the Fox Sports 1 card with an outstanding flyweight matchup, while Jessica Eye and Bethe Correia headline that portion of the event in a bantamweight fight that promises action.
Let’s take a look at each individual fight.