Bring them out. Like the old, Gordian-knotted strings of lights that just spent a year in the company of some lovely oiled rags. Bring out the old Christmastime cliches.
Because we’re about to unwrap a big present from the UFC this weekend. You better …
Bring them out. Like the old, Gordian-knotted strings of lights that just spent a year in the company of some lovely oiled rags. Bring out the old Christmastime cliches.
Because we’re about to unwrap a big present from the UFC this weekend. You better check your list twice, because there are a lot of items on the MMA fan’s list this weekend. You just better hope you were nice and not naughty. A lot of chestnuts roasting on an open fire this Friday and Saturday.
I think I’ll stop there. You get the idea. Hardcore fight fans have a lot of stuff going on this weekend. On Friday, you have UFC Fight Night 102, going down from the capital city of the Empire State, Albany, New York.
Then, on Saturday, UFC 206 comes to town, meaning Toronto, Ontario, Canada. This pay-per-view card was weakened when Daniel Cormier fell injured and pulled out of his fight with Anthony “Rumble” Johnson. But Max Holloway and Anthony Pettis, fighting for that much-discussed interim featherweight belt, are still very much worth watching, as are several other main-card competitions.
Let us now get into the spirit. Let us make our list and check it twice. Oh, I already used that one? Sorry, not my problem. What is my problem is bringing you these main-card picks for both cards, courtesy of Nathan McCarter, Steven Rondina, Craig Amos and myself, Scott Harris. Let’s get it on.
Max Holloway and Anthony Pettis will headline Saturday’s UFC 206, battling it out for the interim featherweight title and a likely shot at Jose Aldo, the current champion following Conor McGregor’s move up to lightweight.
The fighters have taken differ…
Max Holloway and Anthony Pettis will headline Saturday’s UFC 206, battling it out for the interim featherweight title and a likely shot at Jose Aldo, the current champion following ConorMcGregor‘s move up to lightweight.
The fighters have taken different roads to Saturday’s fight: Pettis made his featherweight debut in August, while Holloway has steadily rebuilt his standing in the division following back-to-back losses to Dennis Bermudez and McGregor in 2013.
Here’s a look at some of the career statistics and top highlights for both fighters heading into Saturday’s bout.
Max Holloway
Holloway enters his first title bout on the back of an impressive nine-fight win streak, taking his last two victories by decision. Overall, the 25-year-old sports a 16-3 record, with six wins coming by knockout and two by submission.
At 5’11”, Holloway moves in and out of his punches and makes full use of his reach. He has a healthy work rate in the stand-up game and lands shots at a fair clip without taking much damage.
His unanimous-decision win over Ricardo Lamas in June was a prime example:
Holloway hasn’t dropped a fight since his decision loss against McGregor in 2013—Notorious’ only featherweight fight in the UFC that went the distance. Even though McGregor dominated the fight, fans came away impressed with Holloway, who showed an iron chin that belied his relative lack of experience.
McGregor has gone on to win titles in multiple divisions while forcing the featherweights to wait, and Holloway had to regain his stature and work his way back to the top.
Unlike many of his fellow featherweights, Holloway doesn’t blame McGregor for the way he has handled the division, per Dave Doyle of Yahoo Sports:
Everybody hates on this guy. For what? If you had this opportunity, you know damn straight that you’d take it. If I had the opportunity, yes, it’s history. I want to break history. ConorMcGregor set this bar and I’m trying to break it. If you’re not trying to break it, then why are you in the game?
It takes a special human being to do that. Conor’s special, you can’t hate on the guy. If everyone could do it, then everyone would be doing it. It took him, you don’t understand, you have to find your niche. I’m finding mine. I’m me.
But with the featherweight division now wide-open, Holloway has picked a good time to peak. His December 2015 win over Jeremy Stephens was impressive, even if his opponent had lost two of his last three, but his performance against Lamas solidified Holloway’s status as a contender.
Lamas fought Aldo for the belt as late as 2014―he’s no slouch.
Anthony Pettis
Pettis is a former titleholder, winning the lightweight strap in 2013 before losing it to Rafael dos Anjos almost two years later. Three straight losses in the lightweight division saw the 29-year-old drop to featherweight, where he needed just one win to book his date with Holloway.
Showtime is mostly known for his incredible striking ability, but he has won more fights via submission (nine) than knockout (seven).
Per Severe MMA’s Sean Sheehan, he’s been making full use of his ground game of late:
Overall, Pettis is 19-5 as a professional fighter, with only two of those losses coming before 2015. Years ago, Pettis was a dominant force in the UFC, a creative mastermind who could fashion openings seemingly out of nowhere.
His February 2012 win over Joe Lauzon was one of the highlights of his career, as he made quick work of his opponent with one of the best head kicks fans will ever see:
He followed that up with another great win over Donald Cerrone and then beat Benson Henderson for the title in August 2013. Pettis had one successful defense against Gilbert Melendez before dropping the belt to Dos Anjos. Eddie Alvarez and EdsonBarboza also defeated him in back-to-back fights this year, exposing a weakness against takedowns.
Fortunately for Pettis, Holloway isn’t known for his ground game, and the former lightweight champion will have a three-inch edge in reach. His main task will be keeping up with Holloway’s impressive attacking output―over the course of five rounds, Holloway could land a multitude of shots if his conditioning is on point.
Showtime did not look great in his win over Charles Oliveira in August, and with Holloway winning his last nine, Pettis will have to be at his best Saturday. He has more experience on the big stage, however, even if only the interim title is on the line.
Max Holloway has long been a prized prospect in the UFC, and the No. 2 featherweight contender can finally realize his dream of becoming a champion when he battles former lightweight champ Anthony Pettis for the interim 145-pound title at UFC 206 this …
Max Holloway has long been a prized prospect in the UFC, and the No. 2 featherweight contender can finally realize his dream of becoming a champion when he battles former lightweight champ Anthony Pettis for the interim 145-pound title at UFC 206 this Saturday in Toronto.
The 25-year-old Holloway has won his last nine fights, and he is a -200 betting favorite (wager $200 to win $100) to win the belt at sportsbooks monitored by OddsShark, while Pettis (19-5) is listed as a +175 underdog (bet $100 to win $175).
The featherweight title was vacated by ConorMcGregor due to his inactivity within the division and lack of interest in fighting any of the top contenders. That includes the young Hawaiian Holloway, who sits right behind only No. 1 contender Frankie Edgar and undisputed champ Jose Aldo in the official UFC rankings.
The winner between Holloway and Pettis will face Aldo to unify the titles sometime in 2017. Holloway’s last loss came versus McGregor via unanimous decision back in 2013. That was just the brash Irishman’s second appearance in the UFC while Holloway was only 21 years old.
Pettis was the reigning lightweight champ at that time as well before defending the title once and suffering three consecutive losses to prompt his drop to 145. The 29-year-old Milwaukee native submitted Charles Oliveira by guillotine choke in the third round of his featherweight debut at UFC on Fox 21 on August 27, snapping his three-bout skid and proving he was a force to be reckoned with in the division moving forward.
In the co-main event, a pair of welterweights will duke it out in an effort to climb up the rankings. Donald Cerrone (31-7, 1 no contest) is another former lightweight contender who switched divisions, only he moved up from 155 to 170 after losing his title shot to former champ Rafael Dos Anjos at UFC on Fox 17 last December.
Cerrone is 3-0 as a welterweight with three Performance of the Night bonuses to his name, which is one of the main reasons he is a big -280 favorite against the slumping Matt Brown (20-15).
A former top welterweight contender after winning seven in a row between 2012 and 2014, Brown has lost four of five to drop out of the Top 10. He is a +220 underdog and will be looking to push the pace in what could be a good bet for Fight of the Night.
The UFC will be back in pay-per-view action with UFC 206 on Saturday. The event will take place in Toronto with a featherweight match between Max Holloway and Anthony Pettis as the headline bout.
The Pettis vs. Holloway fight has replaced the original …
The UFC will be back in pay-per-view action with UFC 206 on Saturday. The event will take place in Toronto with a featherweight match between Max Holloway and Anthony Pettis as the headline bout.
The Pettis vs. Holloway fight has replaced the original headlining bout between Daniel Cormier and Anthony Johnson.
Pettis and Holloway will be battling for the interim featherweight title, and four other exciting matches are scheduled for the undercard.
With official weigh-ins scheduled for 4 p.m. ET on Friday, now is the perfect time to examine the upcoming event, along with some of the top storylines heading into the weekend.
Pettis and Holloway will be battling for the interim featherweight title because the UFC decided to strip the belt from former titleholder and MMA personality extraordinaire Conor McGregor.
While the UFC announced McGregor relinquished the belt, the former champion has denied doing so.
“They’re trying to strip me. Well, I ain’t stripped. I still got that belt,” McGregor said, per Damon Martin of Fox Sports. “That belt’s sitting in my home right now. I’m still the two-weight world champion. Someone’s got to come take that off me. I see articles. I see stuff online, but I don’t see the belt not in my presence.”
Coral Barry of Metroreported the UFC decided to take the belt because McGregor had informed the company he intends to take an extended break from action. Per Barry, McGregor isn’t planning on returning until November 2017.
The UFC has had champions out of action for long periods of time, but with McGregor holding two belts, it does make some sense to put one of the titles back into play.
Of course, the move also creates an interesting situation.
Does the Interim Belt Even Mean Anything?
To some, the UFC made the Holloway vs. Pettis fight for the interim title for only one reason: to add a belt to UFC 206’s main event. Upon stripping McGregor of the belt, the company also made former titleholder Jose Aldo the undisputed champion.
Ben Fowlkes of MMAjunkie summed up the ensuing situation:
So, just to sum up: You have one former champ who never lost the title (McGregor), one current champ whose belt went from interim to genuine while he sat on his couch (Aldo), one deserving contender who’s won nine in a row yet still can’t get a crack at the real belt (Holloway), and another who’s won exactly one fight as a featherweight, yet still has the same chance to grab a new hunk of leather and metal with one successful night’s work (Pettis).
The basic point is that fans who respect McGregor are likely to still consider him the real champion. Those who don’t may or may not consider Aldo a worthy champion, but the company does.
Few fans, however, are likely to consider the fight between Holloway and Pettis a legitimate title bout. This doesn’t mean the main event isn’t going to be a tremendous fight—it should be—but putting an interim belt on the line doesn’t add to the card’s luster.
Will Georges St-Pierre Ever Return to the UFC?
One of the most interesting storylines of late involves a match that won’t be a part of UFC 206. If legendary fighter Georges St-Pierre is to be believed, however, there’s a chance it could have been.
According to Bleacher Report guest columnist Brian D’Souza, St-Pierre was interested in returning at UFC 206 to take on middleweight champion Michael Bisping.
“I was aiming for [UFC 206] in Toronto,” St-Pierre told D’Souza in November. “We had talks about fighting Michael Bisping. I even met [UFC President] Dana White personally. They made an offer, we made a counteroffer, but we didn’t hear any response from them.”
Returning for UFC 206 would have made sense for the Canada native, and it would have brought a ton of attention to the event. St-Pierre is arguably one of the top MMA fighters in recent history, and his return would have made the card a must-watch.
Instead, the UFC decided to fabricate a belt to put on the line.
At 35 years old, the clock is ticking for St-Pierre to return in peak condition. As much as fans would love to see the fabled fighter back in action, they don’t want to see an over-the-hill St-Pierre coming back just to cash in on another payday.
The UFC returns to Toronto with a fun lineup Saturday, December 10, with its UFC 206 pay-per-view card. Nobody will call this slate “stacked” in the sense that UFC 205 or UFC 200 were, but almost every fight should bring the entertainment, from th…
The UFC returns to Toronto with a fun lineup Saturday, December 10, with its UFC 206 pay-per-view card. Nobody will call this slate “stacked” in the sense that UFC 205 or UFC 200 were, but almost every fight should bring the entertainment, from the headliners down to the opening bout on Fight Pass.
In the main event, Max Holloway and Anthony Pettis will fight for the interim featherweight title following Conor McGregor’s “relinquishing” of the belt and Jose Aldo’s promotion from interim to full champion. This is a silly device to add a few thousand buys to a card that needed a main event after Daniel Cormier pulled out of his rematch with Anthony Johnson, but if it leads to Aldo’s fighting Pettis or Holloway, that’s a fine outcome.
The co-main event features a dream matchup of action fighters as Donald Cerrone takes on Matt Brown at welterweight. For Cerrone, a win would put him in the conversation at the top of his new division.
Big-time featherweight prospect Doo Ho Choi gets a huge increase in competition as he faces longtime contender Cub Swanson in what promises to be at the least an entertaining fight and at best a slugfest of epic proportions. Middleweight contender Tim Kennedy returns after a two-year layoff to take on Kelvin Gastelum, who moves up from 170 pounds after yet another botched weight cut at UFC 205.
Even the preliminary card features fun matchups. The Fox Sports 1 main event pits light heavyweight prospects Misha Cirkunov and Nikita Krylov against each other in an outstanding meeting of rising 205-pounders, while the Fight Pass headliner features hot commodity LandoVannata in a crackling scrap with John Makdessi.
Max Holloway and Anthony Pettis are set to square off for the interim featherweight title this Saturday at UFC 206. The matchup was slated as the show’s main event after an injury forced Daniel Cormier to withdraw from his 205-pound title match with An…
Max Holloway and Anthony Pettis are set to square off for the interim featherweight title this Saturday at UFC 206. The matchup was slated as the show’s main event after an injury forced Daniel Cormier to withdraw from his 205-pound title match with Anthony Johnson.
The featherweights, fighting for the right to reign in absentee kingpin Conor McGregor’s division, arrive at the bout having taken divergent paths. Pettis just recently joined the division, winning in his debut after being chased from the lightweight class after three straight losses. Holloway, meanwhile, is looking to extend his current win streak to 10.
Presumably, the winner of the contest will earn a date with Jose Aldo, who was awarded the featherweight title in McGregor’s absence. Will it be Holloway or Pettis that earns that opportunity to fight in that unification bout?
In advance of the UFC 206 main event, Bleacher Report breaks down the matchup, examining where each fighter holds an edge, and which one is likely to emerge the challenger to take on Aldo.
Max Holloway and Anthony