The UFC heads to Denver for a fun, well-matched card on Fox this Saturday.
In the main event, decorated kickboxer Valentina Shevchenko takes on rising The Ultimate Fighter winner Julianna Pena. With the bantamweight division up in the air following Amanda Nunes‘ 48-second destruction of Ronda Rousey and new blood desperately needed, the winner of this fight will almost certainly get a shot at the belt, lending the bout real stakes to go along with its intriguing stylistic possibilities.
The co-main event should produce fireworks. Action fighter extraordinaire Donald Cerrone is back in action just seven weeks after his last fight, drawing Jorge Masvidal in a fantastic matchup of veteran strikers.
Potential rising stars feature in the main card’s first two bouts. Francis Ngannou faces longtime veteran Andrei Arlovski in the young fighter’s first brush with real competition, while in the opener, Jason Knight meets Alex Caceres in another action fight.
The preliminary card has a nice selection of action fights. The highlight is the serious bantamweight scrap between Aljamain Sterling and Raphael Assuncao, as both contenders badly need a win to remain in the discussion at the top of the division. The Fox Sports 1 headliner pits the veteran Nate Marquardt against Sam Alvey in a fun fight.
That’s about it in terms of name value, but the remaining fights are well matched and generally worth the viewer’s time. Keep a particular eye on the flyweight bout featuring The Ultimate Fighter alumni Eric Shelton and Alexandre Pantoja.
Let’s take a look at each individual matchup.