Saturday night plays host to the biggest event of the year, as Jose Aldo and Conor McGregor finally meet in the main event at UFC 194.
This has been a long time coming. McGregor rushed out of the cage to confront Aldo in the crowd after he beat Dennis Siver in Boston last January, and the two men needled each other constantly over the course of a worldwide media tour in March to hype their scheduled July meeting at UFC 189.
Everything fell apart three weeks before the bout when Aldo suffered a broken rib during a sparring session. Despite pressure from Dana White to stay in the fight, the longtime featherweight champion pulled out, which prompted the UFC to create an interim title and bring in Chad Mendes on short notice to fill in for the main event.
McGregor passed that test with flying colors, and with Aldo’s rib healed, the two men will finally meet in the biggest featherweight title fight in MMA history. If McGregor wins, he will be the face of the entire sport, while Aldo can join the pantheon of Brazilian sporting greats by stifling the Irishman’s considerable trash talk. Superstardom has always eluded Aldo, and a win here would give him the fame he so richly deserves.
The rest of the card is stacked with outstanding fights. In the co-main event, Luke Rockhold will challenge middleweight champion Chris Weidman in what might be the best fight ever at 185 pounds. Both are in their athletic primes and still improving, and they have seemingly been on a collision course for years as the best young middleweights in the game.
Olympic wrestling meets world-class Brazilian jiu-jitsu in the bout between Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza and Yoel Romero, which will likely determine the next challenger for the middleweight crown. This is the third time matchmaker Joe Silva has attempted to put this fight together, and with good reason: It should be a barnburner.
Jiu-jitsu aces Demian Maia and Gunnar Nelson will collide in an excellent welterweight bout, while the main card opens with a high-energy striking matchup between rising Hawaiian Max Holloway and hard-punching veteran Jeremy Stephens.
Even the preliminary card is outstanding. Urijah Faber takes on Frankie Saenz in the Fox Sports 1 main event, while touted welterweight up-and-comers Warlley Alves and Colby Covington meet in a wild matchup. The rest of the event is studded with action fights and elite prospects such as Kevin Lee and Magomed Mustafaev.
It’s impossible to overstate how good this card is. There may never be another pay-per-view more worthy of the viewer’s time and money in terms of both the action on offer and the deeper meaning of the fights.
Let’s take a look at each individual matchup.