Upcoming marquee preliminary card matchups on UFC Fight Pass include Bethe Correia vs. Raquel Pennington and Aljamain Sterling vs. Bryan Caraway.
The UFC’s fight card structures for 2016 have changed quite significantly, as there’s been an emphasis on higher profile bouts being placed on the rebranded Fight Pass streaming service. UFC 195 started things off with Dustin Poirier’s win over Joseph Duffy, and last month’s UFC 196 featured Diego Sanchez‘s decision victory over Jim Miller. The sole Fight Pass-only event was headlined by Michael Bisping and Anderson Silva in London. This shift in philosophy is the vision of Eric Winter, UFC senior VP and general manager of Fight Pass.
Over the next two months, a pair of fights involving at least one top-10 ranked fighter will be placed on the Fight Pass portion of UFC events. On April 16th, UFC on FOX 19’s top Fight Pass prelim will pit former women’s bantamweight title challenger Bethe Correia against Raquel Pennington, while top 10 bantamweights Aljamain Sterling and Bryan Caraway will meet in the Fight Pass headliner on May 29th at UFC Fight Night: Almeida vs. Garbrandt.
This will be a Fight Pass debut for Correia, who is coming off a 1st round KO loss to Ronda Rousey at UFC 190. Likewise for Pennington, all of her previous UFC bouts were on a main card or the FS1 prelims. At UFC 184, she rose to co-headlining status and suffered a split decision loss to Holly Holm.
Sterling, who recently re-upped with the UFC in free agency, still has yet to appear on a main card. The 26-year-old was on the prelims of a Fight Pass-exclusive show in his last fight, which ended in a 2nd round submission win over Johnny Eduardo. Meanwhile, Caraway heads to Fight Pass for the first time, having last been on the FOX prelims against Eddie Wineland, and a main card co-headliner vs. Raphael Assuncao. For the rest of today, Fight Pass is offering free (no sign-in required) viewing of the 4 wins by Sterling, as well as the 5 for Caraway.
Also set for Fight Pass this month:
UFC Zagreb (April 10th) – Lucas Martins vs. Rob Whiteford
UFC 197 (April 23rd) – Cody East vs. Walt Harris
Some fans have voiced their displeasure over the decision to once again put Sterling on Fight Pass, and Winter has responded to those concerns on Twitter.
@UzmakiBlk @FunkMaster_UFC @arielhelwani Both Aljamain and Bryan will/can carry cards on their own. It’s an honor to have them Main Event FP
— Eric Winter (@elwinter) April 5, 2016
@claydavis83 @EliasTheodorou @FunkMaster_UFC @BryanCaraway FP’s role is to brand-build all UFC athletes top to bottom – including AS and BC
— Eric Winter (@elwinter) April 5, 2016
@etpeterson @arielhelwani @FunkMaster_UFC @BryanCaraway It is our responsibility as marketers to build brands (of 135ers, too) in diff ways
— Eric Winter (@elwinter) April 5, 2016
@Carlos_Junior44 @FunkMaster_UFC It’s an honor to have this fight “Main Event” the @UFCFightPass Early Prelims & it’ll be promoted heavily
— Eric Winter (@elwinter) April 5, 2016
Whether or not you agree with the new bout order model, it looks like “UFC Fight Pass prelim main events” are here to stay.