Even sans Jon Jones, UFC’s desire to pump out loaded cards saves Saturday’s UFC 187 and makes it a can’t-miss affair.
There’s a lot of bad blood between Chris Weidman and Vitor Belfort after lengthy delays. The former wants to prove he’s a deserving champion, and the latter wants to prove age doesn’t matter.
Even the preliminaries offer a little bit of something for everyone, although the event’s headlining act shoulders most of the responsibility.
There, Anthony Johnson against Daniel Cormier is as 50-50 as it gets in a bout capable of ascending only one man’s career.
Here’s the info to know.
UFC 187 Fight Card
Breaking Down Johnson vs. Cormier
As they say, this is for all the marbles.
With Jones out of the picture thanks to a legal situation, the light heavyweight division is wide open.
Interestingly enough, Cormier just took a loss at the hands of Jones via unanimous decision in January, but now finds himself right back in a position to sit in the division’s top spot.
As David Kano points out, though, the underdog with a second chance isn’t the crowd favorite by any means:
Anthony Johnson, on the other hand, is another name capable of rising to the top with Jones on the sidelines.
He’s emerged as one of the promotion’s deadliest strikers, riding a three-fight streak topped off by January’s Round 1 technical knockout of Alexander Gustafsson.
It’s no secret Johnson will come out swinging early and often, but don’t expect it to come in a reckless manner. As he told UFC.com’s Michael Martinez, he understands how dangerous an opponent on a second chance such as Cormier can be:
I’m going to have to push myself a lot harder. He’s going to come and bring it. This is his second opportunity. He missed out on it once and he knows that he’s blessed and fortunate to have a second opportunity after the situation that occurred with Jon Jones.
He’s hungry, man. But the thing is, I’m hungry too, and that’s going to make for a great fight.
There’s an epic, desperation slugfest in the making here.
Johnson receives all the credit as a big hitter, but keep in mind Cormier is much of the same. Over at UFC.com, Johnson averages 3.3 significant strikes landed per minute. Cormier averages 3.78. Johnson lands 45.5 percent of them. Cormier, 48 percent.
After a strong performance against Jones, look for Cormier to outlast Johnson with a higher connection rate.
Prediction: Cormier via split decision.
Breaking Down Weidman vs. Belfort
Folks know the deal with Weidman and Belfort.
Belfort features a massive chip on his shoulder at 38 years of age after a suspension that helped to push this fight back by about a year.
So too does Weidman, though, as he looks to convince the globe he’s a deserving champion. So it goes for a guy who managed two victories against Anderson Silva before a dominant performance against Lyoto Machida.
Want bad blood? This fight has plenty, as Weidman takes exception to circumstances surrounding Belfort. ESPN offers a glimpse:
This one classifies as a war of contrasting styles, even if it has been quite a while since Belfort’s entered the Octagon. He’s a dangerous striker who ran through Michael Bisping, Luke Rockhold and Dan Henderson before the aforementioned issues.
It contrasts well with the well-known technical dominance of Weidman, who at UFC.com averages 3.69 takedowns and defends 100 percent of them, whereas Belfort only defends 51 percent of the attempts thrown his way.
There’s the divide in what should be an epic matchup—barring a stunning knockout by Belfort early, Weidman touts the strengths in the right areas to end the fight on the mat.
Prediction: Weidman via submission.
Stats and information via UFC.com unless otherwise specified.
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