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Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) will be heading back to New Mexico for the first time in five years, as the promotion is set to stage UFC Fight Night 168 inside Santa Ana Star Center in Rio Rancho on Feb. 15, 2020.

And the promotion seems to already have a main event locked down.

According to ESPN’s Brett Okamato, Corey Anderson will meet Jan Blachowicz in a pivotal Light Heavyweight showdown which could provide the next title challenger in the 205 pounds weight class. After Dominick Reyes, of course.

Corey was lobbying for his first-ever shot at UFC gold after knocking out Johnny Walker at UFC 244 (see it), but the promotion ultimately opted to give the fight to Reyes, as he will face Jon Jones in the main event of UFC 247 on Feb. 8, 2020 in Houston, Texas.

Anderson was adamant he had no interest in facing fellow 205-pound smashing machine, Anthony Smith, so it seems UFC matchmakers heard his pleas and gave him a Polish bomber to prepare for, instead.

Blachowicz, meanwhile, is coming off a split-decision victory over Ronaldo Souza at UFC Fight Night 164 a few weeks ago (recap), giving him his second straight win after previously knocking out Luke Rockhold at UFC 239.

Jan was ever-so close to a shot at the division strap before he ran into Thiago Santos, who broke his four fight win streak via knockout. Now, he will look to finally punch his ticket to the big dance if he can hand Corey his first loss in over two years.

Predictions?

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Another clash between über tough Raquel Pennington and former bantamweight queen Holly Holm is on tap for January.

UFC 246 continues to add talent to the card, with a rematch between former bantamweight champion Holly Holm (12-5) and hard-nosed recent title contender Raquel Pennington (10-7). News of the bout was first broken by MMA Junkie.

Their first encounter came in February of 2015, at UFC 184, and resulted in a split decision win for Holm. While not the most thrilling affair, the first fight was a very tough and closely contested bout between the two fighters.

The rematch booking doesn’t come as the biggest surprise. It was previously scheduled for this past October, but was scrapped when Holm suffered a hamstring injury. ‘The Preacher’s Daughter’ has struggled to find consistency since losing her belt to Miesha Tate in 2016. A win over Bethe Correia snapped a three fight losing streak, but was followed by losses to Cris Cyborg and Amanda Nunes—with a win over Megan Anderson sandwiched in-between.

Pennington made a surprising run to title contention in 2016, with wins over Bethe Correia, Elizabeth Phillips, and Miesha Tate. She lost her chance at the belt, via 5th round TKO to champion Amanda Nunes, and followed that up with a loss to current title contender Germaine de Randamie. Currently she’s coming off a split decision win over Irene Aldana, from UFC on ESPN: Dos Anjos vs. Edwards, back in July.

At the moment, Holm is sitting comfortably at #3 in the UFC women’s bantamweight rankings, with Pennington at #6. It’s not unreasonable that a win here for either fighter could lead the victor into a #1 contender’s match.

With the addition of this fight at 135 lbs, the UFC 246 fight card now looks something like this—with no strictly defined bout order yet:

Conor McGregor vs. Donald Cerrone
Anthony Pettis vs. Carlos Diego Ferreira
Holly Holm vs Raquel Pennington
Maycee Barber vs. Roxanne Modafferi
Drew Dober vs. Nasrat Haqparast
Chas Skelly vs. Grant Dawson
Tim Elliott vs. Askar Askarov
Andre Fili vs. Sodiq Yusuff
Oleksiy Oliynyk vs. Maurice Greene

UFC 246 takes place January 18th at the T-Mobile arena in Las Vegas, NV. Stay tuned to Bloody Elbow for more fight announcements and updates as fight night approaches.

https://www.instagram.com/henry_cejudo

Despite losing his title to Conor McGregor back in late 2015, many mixed martial arts (MMA) fighters, like current Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) 145-pound champion Max Holloway, still consider Jose Aldo to be the “King” of the featherweight division.

Which by default would make him the promotion’s king of Rio.

But now that “Junior” has made the drop down to 135 pounds, where he’ll battle former World Series of Fighting (WSOF) bantamweight champion Marlon Moraes at UFC 245, it may be time to surrender that designation to reigning division titleholder, Henry Cejudo.

That’s according to the latest “Triple C” post on Instagram.

Cejudo also holds gold at 125 pounds and is expected to make his return against Joseph Benavidez in early 2020. If not, he’ll be forced to surrender the flyweight strap and focus on his bantamweight belt, where Aldo could be waiting, depending on how well he does against “Magic” later this month in “Sin City.”

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Dustin Poirier jokes that he should have brought a gun to UFC 242.

Dustin Poirier was thoroughly dominated by Khabib Nurmagomedov at UFC 242, losing via third-round submission in one of the most lopsided defeats of the Louisianan’s career.

Poirier was devastated by the loss, hinting at the UFC 242 post-fight press conference that he may hang up the gloves and retire.

Three months on, though, and Poirier seems to be taking the loss in his stride.

When asked what, if anything, he would have done differently against Khabib, the former UFC interim lightweight champ joked that he should have brought a gun to the fight.

Poirier was also asked about the upcoming lightweight title bout between Nurmagomedov and Tony Ferguson at UFC 249, and the American Top Team (ATT) product believes Khabib will dispose of ‘El Cucuy’ without too much effort.

Despite Ferguson’s unorthodox style and dangerous submission game, Poirier doesn’t believe The Ultimate Fighter 13 winner poses any real threat to Nurmagomedov on the ground.

Poirier, who is currently recovering from surgery, is expected to return to the Octagon next April.

UFC 249, which is expected to feature Khabib vs. Ferguson as the main event, is scheduled to take place next year, April 18 at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.