In 2014, Stipe Miocic and Junior dos Santos put on one of the best fights in heavyweight history. That’s not Joe Roganesque hyperbole. The two combined to land 212 significant strikes over five rounds and pushed each other to the brink.
At UFC 211, the two will run that instant classic back with a championship belt on the line.
If that weren’t enough to lure your eyeballs to this card, dominant women’s strawweight champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk will also put her title on the line against a dangerous opponent in Jessica Andrade in the evening’s co-main event.
It’s a slate that not only features the two championship bouts, but former and future title contenders in Frankie Edgar, Demian Maia, Jorge Masvidal, Yair Rodriguez and Eddie Alvarez.
Here’s a look at the complete card, how you can catch all the action and a look at who the biggest winners on the card might be. All odds courtesy of OddsShark.
Potential Biggest Winners
Demian Maia
As the lead-in to the championship double header, Demian Maia is in a spot where there will be a lot of eyes on his matchup with Jorge Masvidal.
Maia also hasn’t fought since August 2016, so even though he’s riding a six-fight win streak with back-to-back submission wins, he isn’t on the tip everyone’s tongue in the welterweight division. Masvidal—however—is a fighter on the rise with a three-fight win streak and a TKO win over Donald Cerrone in January.
With a win on a high-profile pay-per-view card over a hot opponent, Maia’s title chances all of a sudden come alive. Of course, that first means he has to beat Masvidal, but he appears to be taking the one-fight-at-a-time approach.
“Of course I want to fight for the title first, but once we signed for the fight, I cleaned my mind,” Maia said, per Mike Bohn and John Morgan of MMAjunkie. “I said, ‘Let’s go and do what I love, which is fighting.’ I’m very blessed to do that, to do what I love and to go every day to the gym and make my living with that. That’s it.”
This is a classic grappler vs. striker matchup, so it’ll be interesting to see if and when Maia can drag the fight to the mat.
Masvidal is dangerous on the feet, but he’s been prone to takedowns before. Ross Pearson took him down twice in their fight in 2016, while Benson Henderson, Daron Cruickshank and Pat Healy have all taken him down as well.
As long as Maia can close the distance without getting tagged, he should be able to score the takedown. From there, it’s a matter of time before he sinks in a choke or maims a limb.
Yair Rodriguez
It’s no secret that the UFC wants to push featherweight Yair Rodriguez as a future star in the sport. The decision was to put Rodriguez in a headlining bout against fading legend B.J. Penn.
The allure is easy to see.
Rodriguez is an entertaining fighter with a penchant for performance bonuses. Since winning The Ultimate Fighter: Latin America in 2014, he’s either won Fight of the Night or Performance of the Night in four of five fights.
Rodriguez is also one of few Mexican fighters in the organization and part of an even smaller group that have a shot at a UFC title one day. The possibility has Rodriguez believing that he could be a bigger star in his home country than Saul “Canelo” Alvarez.
“If I become a champion, if I become the first Mexican UFC champion, I can become bigger because I will be the first one,” Rodriguez said, per Damon Martin of Fox Sports. “There are already a lot of Mexican boxers, great boxers. I’m not saying Canelo is not great. He’s great. But I think I can become bigger than that because I’ll be the first one.”
The corrosion on Edgar’s career isn’t as clear as Penn’s. The former champion lost to Jose Aldo at UFC 200 but rebounded with a decision win over Jeremy Stephens.
Still, at 35 years old with plenty of memorable fights in the book, it’s hard to tell when the other shoe will drop on his career.
Edgar is always a fighter who has gotten by with savvy and ringcraft, but speed has always come into the equation. He’s going to have a huge discrepancy in length, and Rodriguez isn’t just a good fighter, but also a good athlete.
If Rodriguez can utilize that athleticism to score a win over Edgar, it’s going to be the win that takes him from up-and-comer to bonafide contender.
Dustin Poirier
For years, Dustin Poirier has flashed the potential to contend for a UFC championship. For years, he’s come up short when he needs to show up against improved competition.
Diamond gets a chance to change that at UFC 211 when he takes on former lightweight champion Eddie Alvarez in the prelim main event.
It’s an opportunity that Poirier understands could open some doors if all goes as planned.
“I told my management, ‘The only way I’m coming back is if it’s a big fight. Otherwise, let me have some time,‘” said Poirier, per Mike Bohn and John Morgan of MMAjunkie. “But as soon as Eddie’s fight came up I said, ‘Let’s do it.’ … When a name comes up like that and you get the opportunity to fight the former champ, you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do and try to get that fight.”
Alvarez is coming off a championship fight where he lost his belt to Conor McGregor. Finding motivation after being knocked down the mountain like that isn’t the easiest thing for most fighters to do.
In addition to that, Poirier is simply one of the best strikers on the card, according to Reed Kuhn of Fightnomics:
There’s a reason this fight is serving as the lead-in to the pay-per-view portion of the evening. It’s going to set a violent example for the other fights to follow as both Alvarez and Poirier are capable of throwing down.
If Poirier wins against a former champion in a big spot, it’ll be the sign that he’s finally overcome some of his demons against quality competition.
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