Renan Barao will defend the interim bantamweight title against Michael McDonald at UFC on Fuel TV 7, and 135-pound titleholder Dominick Cruz will be highly interested in the outcome of that bout. Cruz has been out of action for more than one year …
Renan Barao will defend the interim bantamweight title against Michael McDonald at UFC on Fuel TV 7, and 135-pound titleholder Dominick Cruz will be highly interested in the outcome of that bout.
Cruz has been out of action for more than one year due to a knee injury, but there’s a good chance he will be ready soon enough to be next for the winner of this fight between Barao and McDonald.
In addition to the 135-pound championship bout, UFC on Fuel TV 7 will feature a number of intriguing matchups between up-and-coming fighters in multiple divisions.
Here is a look at each of the fights on the card and the fighters who are most likely to walk away with a win on Saturday.
UFC on Fuel 7: Barao vs. McDonald is going to be a fun card. The 12-fight card will deliver action from the first fight all the way to the main event.The main event of the evening features a spectacular bantamweight clash. UFC Interim Bantamweight Cham…
UFC on Fuel 7: Barao vs. McDonald is going to be a fun card. The 12-fight card will deliver action from the first fight all the way to the main event.
The main event of the evening features a spectacular bantamweight clash. UFC Interim Bantamweight Champion Renan Barao defends the gold against Michael McDonald. The winner will likely get to welcome champion Dominick Cruz back to the Octagon later this year.
There will be fights in seven different divisions. From flyweights to light heavyweights. Prospects and veterans alike stack this card.
This is how each fight stacks up to one another heading into Saturday’s exciting card.
Michael McDonald has earned what every UFC fighter dreams of receiving. A shot at a UFC belt. McDonald brings his three-fight winning streak into the contest against interim bantamweight champion Renan Barao. Barao defeated Urijah Faber to claim the in…
Michael McDonald has earned what every UFC fighter dreams of receiving.
A shot at a UFC belt.
McDonald brings his three-fight winning streak into the contest against interim bantamweight champion RenanBarao.
Barao defeated Urijah Faber to claim the interim belt in their bout at UFC 149.
McDonald is just 22 years old. Barao is 25, but is much more experienced. McDonald needs to be in top form if he wants to dethrone Barao and take the belt.
Here are some keys he could follow that will lead him to victory.
After a one-week break in action, the UFC returns Saturday for UFC on Fuel TV 7, which will be held at Wembley Arena in London, England.As he does in the lead-up to every event, UFC president Dana White posted one of what will likely be two video blogs…
After a one-week break in action, the UFC returns Saturday for UFC on Fuel TV 7, which will be held at Wembley Arena in London, England.
As he does in the lead-up to every event, UFC president Dana White posted one of what will likely be two video blogs. The first video blog usually documents the previous event, as it did in this case, and a second video blog posted later in the week often follows the current event’s fighters through their preparations.
In the first pre-UFC on Fuel TV 7 video blog, White provided a behind-the-scenes look at UFC 156, which was one of the most highly anticipated pay-per-view events in recent memory.
Many of the event’s competitors are shown reacting immediately after their fights in the above video.
White’s video blog also shows Chuck Liddellcageside, pulling for flyweight Ian McCall, who ended up losing to Joseph Benavidez at UFC 156. Though he won, Benavidez suffered a cut near his hairline, which was also shown in the video.
Fighters like Alistair Overeem and Rashad Evans were also shown warming up in the locker rooms, while Antonio Silva’s corner was highlighted immediately after his huge upset win against Overeem.
The video blog ended with Frankie Edgar receiving medical attention for the facial cuts he suffered during his loss to featherweight champion Jose Aldo. Edgar needed stitches on his right eyelid among other treatment.
We wouldn’t expect a FUEL card in London to be “stacked” in the traditional sense. But although this coming Saturday’s UFC on FUEL 7: Barao vs. McDonald event is low on star-power, it’s actually loaded with great matchups. Here’s why these fights are worth paying attention to…
1. The main card is a hot mess of blue-chip prospects.
Even more so than UFC on FUEL 7’s headliners, I’m excited to see the return of three guys who looked like juggernauts in their UFC debuts. First, we’ve got our old palRyan Jimmo, who entered the Octagon on a 16-fight win streak at UFC 149 and proceeded to sleep Anthony Perosh in just seven seconds, then gave fans their money’s worth by busting out a celebratory robot. Can he possibly repeat that performance this weekend against James Te-Huna?
Also in the light-heavyweight division, 12-0 Nigerian-English mauler Jimi Manuwa — who has never been to the third round in his entire career, by the way — will face Cyrille Diabaté, five months after Manuwa whipped Kyle Kingsbury to a doctor’s stoppage TKO after ten minutes of action. And finally, Icelandic grappling master Gunnar Nelson will follow up his swift choke-out of Damarques Johnson with a fight against Jorge Santiago, in a welterweight bout that will probably go very badly for Santiago.
The prelims also feature a few more guys who almost fit in the same “hot-prospect” category, including Stanislav Nedkov — who’s still technically undefeated after his loss to Thiago Silva was overturned in November — and Paul Sass, the submission wiz who took the first loss of his career against Matt Wiman in September.
2. Michael McDonald could become the youngest UFC champion ever* — and by a fairly wide margin.
We wouldn’t expect a FUEL card in London to be “stacked” in the traditional sense. But although this coming Saturday’s UFC on FUEL 7: Barao vs. McDonald event is low on star-power, it’s actually loaded with great matchups. Here’s why these fights are worth paying attention to…
1. The main card is a hot mess of blue-chip prospects.
Even more so than UFC on FUEL 7′s headliners, I’m excited to see the return of three guys who looked like juggernauts in their UFC debuts. First, we’ve got our old palRyan Jimmo, who entered the Octagon on a 16-fight win streak at UFC 149 and proceeded to sleep Anthony Perosh in just seven seconds, then gave fans their money’s worth by busting out a celebratory robot. Can he possibly repeat that performance this weekend against James Te-Huna?
Also in the light-heavyweight division, 12-0 Nigerian-English mauler Jimi Manuwa — who has never been to the third round in his entire career, by the way — will face Cyrille Diabaté, five months after Manuwa whipped Kyle Kingsbury to a doctor’s stoppage TKO after ten minutes of action. And finally, Icelandic grappling master Gunnar Nelson will follow up his swift choke-out of Damarques Johnson with a fight against Jorge Santiago, in a welterweight bout that will probably go very badly for Santiago.
The prelims also feature a few more guys who almost fit in the same “hot-prospect” category, including Stanislav Nedkov — who’s still technically undefeated after his loss to Thiago Silva was overturned in November — and Paul Sass, the submission wiz who took the first loss of his career against Matt Wiman in September.
2. Michael McDonald could become the youngest UFC champion ever* — and by a fairly wide margin.
When Jon Jones TKO’d Mauricio Rua to win the UFC light-heavyweight title at UFC 128, he was 23 years and nine months old. If Michael McDonald defeats Renan Barao for the interim bantamweight title in the UFC on FUEL 7 headliner, he’ll become a UFC champion at just 22 years and one month old. And make no mistake — “Mayday” McDonald has legitimately paid his dues for the opportunity. McDonald began competing professionally at the age of 16, and his current eight-fight win streak dates back to October 2009, when he was smashing everyone in his path as an 18-year-old in Tachi Palace Fights. Now 4-0 in the UFC and coming off first-round knockouts of Alex Soto and Miguel Torres, McDonald is a truly prodigious talent, and could give Barao the toughest test of his own phenomenal career.
3. Will Josh Grispi suffer the most dramatic career-implosion in UFC history?
Okay, this is more of a “reason to be morbidly curious” than a “reason to be completely psyched,” but it’s still worth mentioning. In 2010, Josh Grispi was one of the hottest featherweights on Earth, following an explosive 4-0 run in the WEC where he scored first-round stoppages of Mark Hominick, Micah Miller, Jens Pulver, and LC Davis. Grispi was booked to face Jose Aldo in the UFC’s first-ever featherweight title fight at UFC 125, but Aldo was forced to withdraw due to injury. Instead, Grispi faced newcomer Dustin Poirier in a non-title bout on the card, losing a unanimous decision and his title shot.
Later that year, Grispi took a rebound fight against George Roop, and wound up getting TKO’d in the third round. Finally, a bout against Brazilian journeyman Rani Yahya ended in another loss last August, this time by first-round submission. Now, “The Fluke” is facing TUF Live castmember Andy Ogle, who is officially 0-1 in the UFC. If Grispi manages to lose this one, he’ll almost certainly find himself released from the organization — the final chapter in a stunning reversal-of-fortune for his fight career.
4. Cub Swanson vs. Dustin Poirier is a great f*cking fight.
Like Cowboy vs. Pettis at UFC on FOX 6, this is the one matchup on the card that is virtually guaranteed to produce something spectacular. Swanson is on the hottest run of his career with consecutive knockouts of George Roop, Ross Pearson, and Charles Oliveira — and is usually the first guy that Greg Jackson-defenders point to as evidence that Yoda is not ruining the sport. Meanwhile, Poirier’s last four fights ended in three submission victories and an incredible Fight of Night performance against Chan Sung Jung. Swanson vs. Poirier could end in a swift and savage knockout, or it could turn out to be an unforgettable three-round war, but there’s no way it’ll be boring.
* Yes, I know Vitor Belfort was 19 years old when he won the UFC 12 tournament, so you don’t have to mention it in the comments section.
Renan Barao seemed content to wait for Dominick Cruz’s return from injury following his win over Urijah Faber in a fight for the interim bantamweight championship. However, he is now set to defend his belt against another rising bantamweight talent in …
Renan Barao seemed content to wait for Dominick Cruz’s return from injury following his win over Urijah Faber in a fight for the interim bantamweight championship. However, he is now set to defend his belt against another rising bantamweight talent in Michael McDonald.
McDonald has been out of action for more than nine months, but he’s coming off the biggest win of his career, a knockout of former WEC champion Miguel Torres. Though he doesn’t have the same resume as Barao, the 22-year-old McDonald is considered one of the brightest young fighters in the 135-pound class and was inevitably going to be competing for a title.
While Cruz will have something to say about it once he finally recovers from his knee problem, this fight between Barao and McDonald could determine the future king of the bantamweight class.
As this clash between 135-pound phenoms approaches, let’s take a look at which areas each fighter holds his most significant advantages in.
