UFC on Fox 13 features three heavyweight fights and a top-15 lightweight tilt as well on the main card.
No. 2-ranked heavyweight contender Junior dos Santos goes up against No. 4-ranked Stipe Miocic in the main event, and No. 3-ranked lightweight conte…
UFC on Fox 13 features three heavyweight fights and a top-15 lightweight tilt as well on the main card.
No. 2-ranked heavyweight contender Junior dos Santos goes up against No. 4-ranked StipeMiocic in the main event, and No. 3-ranked lightweight contender Rafael dos Anjos battles No. 14-ranked Nate Diaz in the co-main event.
Before any fights happen the fighters must first make weight on Friday afternoon.
Bleacher Report will have complete coverage of the weigh-in proceedings at 5 p.m. ET. Stick around for all the happenings from Phoenix.
The Ultimate Fighter 20 came to a close Wednesday night with the final two bouts. The semifinals saw former Invicta FC strawweight champion Carla Esparza and No. 7 seed Rose Namajunas advance to the finals.
The matchup takes place Friday night, and the…
The Ultimate Fighter 20 came to a close Wednesday night with the final two bouts. The semifinals saw former Invicta FC strawweight champion Carla Esparza and No. 7 seed Rose Namajunas advance to the finals.
The matchup takes place Friday night, and the winner walks away as the inaugural UFC strawweight champion.
Esparza entered as the No. 1 seed. She was favored to make it to the finals with her wrestling.
Namajunas was not as favored. She came into the show with a 2-1 record. The 22-year-old has a high ceiling in the sport, and she showed why with three consecutive finishes on the show.
The former champion opened as a slight favorite, but money quickly came in on Namajunas to push her as the favorite in the fight. Is she? That’s what we will take a larger look into in this breakdown.
Let’s break down the first-ever UFC strawweight title fight.
2014 did not see a lot of title changes in the UFC. The 12 pounds of gold will have only been wrapped around five new waists by the end of the year.
Johny Hendricks won the vacant welterweight belt at the beginning of the year, but Robbie Lawler took t…
2014 did not see a lot of title changes in the UFC. The 12 pounds of gold will have only been wrapped around five new waists by the end of the year.
Johny Hendricks won the vacant welterweight belt at the beginning of the year, but Robbie Lawler took the belt away from him at the beginning of December. T.J. Dillashaw upset RenanBarao to claim the bantamweight belt, and Fabricio Werdum took home the interim heavyweight belt at UFC 180. This Friday, a belt will be awarded on the inaugural women’s strawweight champion.
Will 2015 see the belt exchange hands more often?
Champions typically defend their titles two or three times per year. That will put the total for title defenses between 20-30 for the upcoming year. The challengers will have to step their game up because the current slate of champions are some of the best in UFC history.
Let’s have a look at the current champions, their potential opponents and who will end up holding gold when 2015 comes to an end.
The Ultimate Fighter season 20 is coming to a close this week when the finale hits Fox Sports 1.
The main event will see the crowning of a champion. The inaugural strawweight championship bout will be between the winners of semi-final matchups Carla Es…
The Ultimate Fighter season 20 is coming to a close this week when the finale hits Fox Sports 1.
The main event will see the crowning of a champion. The inaugural strawweight championship bout will be between the winners of semi-final matchups Carla Esparza vs. Jessica Penne and Rose Namajunas vs. Randa Markos.
There will be plenty of other fights taking place on Friday. The complete card will not be official until following the final taped episode of the show on Wednesday evening. The UFC has already announced nine bouts including six women’s strawweight fights with other cast members from the show.
There are plenty of reasons to watch this event on Friday, and here are four of the best reasons to tune in when the UFC gets its first-ever 115-pound champion.
Winding Down 2014
MMA fans the last events of 2014 are coming up fast. The UFC is only offering three more events in this calendar year, and two of them happen this weekend.
Your chances to catch high-level fights are winding down.
2015 will be another jam packed year. It gets underway with an impressive slate of fights including Jon Jones vs. Daniel Cormier just after the new year. But 2014, well, you aren’t going to see anymore title fights after Friday.
The year is closing out with some quality fights and you should post up at your TV to take them in.
Strawweight’s Progression
The 115-pound division has long been the deepest division in women’s MMA. Some of the top athletes were put on the show to compete for the title, but there were also many fighters who needed time to develop.
On Friday we will get to see how far they have come along.
Angela Hill came in as a fairly one-dimensional fighter. Will she have seen a big jump by training with Gilbert Melendez and his team for the duration of the show? Tecia Torres entered as one of the favorites to win the entire show, but she is still very young in her career. What leaps did she make? Rose Namajunas is in that same category, but she may be vying for a title on Friday.
The Ultimate Fighter is a pressure cooker and fighters often exit the show with a big increase in talent. It will be exciting to see how much better the entire cast has become since the show stopped filming. The already deep division will continue to get better thanks in large part to the show.
Stylistically Pleasing Matchmaking
Credit goes to Joe Silva and Sean Shelby for making this a fun fight card.
It lacks a top-to-bottom depth of important fights, but it isn’t a pay-per-view telecast. It’s a TUF finale. It shouldn’t have all important fights throughout the card. The two matchmakers have come forward with a fun slate of fights.
Jeremy Stephens vs. Charles Oliveira, K.J. Noons vs. Daron Cruickshank, Joanne Calderwood vs. Seohee Ham are all great matchups. Tack on the potential fight between semi-finalist losers and the title fight and we have five good, competitive matchups to watch on Friday. That’s more than enough reason to catch the show.
The Strawweight Championship
Clearly the biggest reason to watch is the title fight.
This is the final title tilt of 2014, and is historic in crowning the first UFC champion ever at this weight. Whomever steps in the cage for the title bout will deliver a quality matchup.
Many of these smaller shows have been criticized in the past for lacking a top tier fight, but that won’t be the case on Friday. You will get to see 12 pounds of gold up for grabs in the main event. It is the most obvious reason to watch the event.
The Ultimate Fighter 20 finale is going to be a good show. The talent and matchmaking for the event almost guarantees a pleasing night of fights, and you should take it all in on Friday evening.
The Ultimate Fighter’s 20th season is nearing its end, and the finale will see the crowning of the champion in a brand-new division.
The latest season of the show featured 16 strawweights who will fill out the newly minted division, and the two finalis…
The Ultimate Fighter‘s 20th season is nearing its end, and the finale will see the crowning of the champion in a brand-new division.
The latest season of the show featured 16 strawweights who will fill out the newly minted division, and the two finalists will fight to become the inaugural champion in the main event Friday. The remaining fighters are Carla Esparza, Jessica Penne, Rose Namajunas and Randa Markos.
The UFC released six strawweight fights last week with fighters from the show. The majority of those fights are lopsided. The UFC gave the highly touted fighters easier matchups. It will be interesting to see everyone’s progression since the ending of the show, but these are not necessarily a group of fights that excite on a competitive basis.
That title fight will be the focus, but there are several other fights on the card that are worth being excited about.
Here is a look at the four other bouts you should be interested in for the Friday UFC card.
The Possible Ultimate Fighter Runner-Up Bout
Unlike the other strawweight bouts announced containing TUF contestants, the possible matchup of semifinalist losers will be a high-level bout no matter who is involved.
I say possibly because the UFC has not released if this is the case or if the losers have signed bout agreements against other debuting strawweights to round out the card. However, there is precedence for the UFC pitting the semifinal losers against each other.
We also don’t know if one of the semifinalists came out of the show with an injury.
We will find out the plan for the losers after The Ultimate Fighter on Wednesday when the UFC releases the full slate for the finale. If this matchup is on the docket, you can get excited for a very good fight.
The co-main event of the show is a Top 15 matchup in the featherweight division.
No. 10-ranked contender Jeremy Stephens and No. 13-ranked Charles Oliveira compete against one another in an interesting clash of styles.
Stephens is a power striker with quality wrestling, and Oliveira is a fantastic submission specialist. It is not only the stylistic matchup that makes this fight exciting but also that both men almost always come to deliver exciting fights.
They don’t rest, and they don’t back down. This will be a fun appetizer for the main event.
K.J. Noons vs. Daron Cruickshank
You want an early Fight of the Night candidate? This is the one.
Stephens vs. Oliveira is the classic striker vs. grappler matchup, but Noons vs. Cruickshank is a striker vs. striker battle that will deliver.
Cruickshank is flashy. He comes with attacks from odd angles thanks to his karate background, but he blends it in well with his overall MMA game that has developed since his time on Season 15 of TUF. Noons is primarily a boxer, but one of the more technically proficient in the game.
If this fight fails to deliver, it will be shocking.
Joanne Calderwood vs. SeoHee Ham
The TUF 20 vs. TUF 20 bouts are not great, but the one bout featuring a TUF 20 cast member who faces debuting competition is top notch.
SeoHee Ham is the No. 2-ranked atomweight in the world, but she moves up to take on Joanne Calderwood. The Scottish striker entered TUF as one of the top five strawweights. Both women are good strikers who will dart out to the center of the cage and start exchanging.
This isn’t the best matchup for Ham to walk out a winner, but you cannot count her out. Regardless, it is going to be a fight that delivers action. That is a reason to be excited as a fan. Calderwood vs. Ham could end up as one of the best fights on the card.
These are the types of bouts we wanted out of the division.
The announcement of this fight helped make the finale show more than just a card with a title fight on it. It added needed depth to the event. Friday night will be a good night of fighting, and this fight is one big reason why. The American audience will get a good sense at how good women’s MMA can be.
Junior Dos Santos and Stipe Miocic will finally step inside the cage to battle one another this weekend at UFC on Fox 13.
No. 2-ranked heavyweight contender Dos Santos has been out of action since failing to capture the title in his trilogy fight again…
Junior Dos Santos and StipeMiocic will finally step inside the cage to battle one another this weekend at UFC on Fox 13.
No. 2-ranked heavyweight contender Dos Santos has been out of action since failing to capture the title in his trilogy fight against Cain Velasquez in October 2013. He has since joined the Nova Uniao fight team. Dos Santos will try to pick up his first win since May 2013.
Miocic, ranked No. 4 in the division, was scheduled to take on Dos Santos at The Ultimate Fighter: Brazil3 finale. An injury forced Dos Santos off the card, and Miocic squared off against Fabio Maldonado. Miocic destroyed the light heavyweight in just 35 seconds.
The heavyweight division will need a new contender for either Velasquez or Fabricio Werdum in 2015, and this fight could produce the next contender.
The main event for UFC on Fox 13 will have major ramifications in the heavyweight division. The bout will almost assuredly be exciting with their respective styles. Let’s break down the heavyweight tilt that will headline this Saturday.
The Ultimate Fighter season 20 is coming to a close this week when the finale hits Fox Sports 1.