Filed under: News, UFC
(This story was originally published on Nov. 18.)
If you’re a UFC fan who doesn’t miss an event, you’ll have your work cut out for you today when the promotion pulls the rare double booking, presenting both UFC Fight Night 99 and UFC Fight Night 100 on the same day.
Things kick off from SSE Arena in Belfast, North Ireland, at 12:30 p.m. ET (9:15 a.m. PT) with a 13-fight card streaming on UFC Fight Pass. The second event, with 12 fights, takes place at Ibirapuera Gymnasium in Sao Paulo beginning at 6 p.m. ET with early prelims on UFC Fight Pass before moving to FS1 for the rest of the event.
The main events on both of these cards are rematches. At UFC Fight Night 99, Gegard Mousasi looks to erase the memory of the only knockout loss of his 48-fight career when he meets Uriah Hall for a second time. UFC Fight Night 100 is headlined by a bout between Ryan Bader and Antonio Rogerio Nogueira, a rematch of a 2010 contest that Bader won.
With so many fights packed into one day, there’s a little something for everyone on these back-to-back fight cards. But if you still need convincing why you should spend your day with the UFC, here are 10 reasons to watch UFC Fight Night 99 and UFC Fight Night 100.
1. So, was it a fluke?
Mousasi has one loss in his last six fights, and it came to Hall in September 2015.
Mousasi (40-6-2 MMA, 7-3 UFC) controlled most of the first round of that fight, but early in Round 2, Hall (12-7 MMA, 5-5 UFC) put together one of the most devastating striking displays of the year. He landed a spinning back kick, a flying knee and punches on the ground for the TKO victory.
After a TKO win over Vitor Belfort at UFC 204, Mousasi, currently ranked No, 7 in the USA TODAY Sports/MMAjunkie MMA middleweight rankings, addressed the loss.
“Uriah Hall was a fluke,” Mousasi said of the loss. “Anyone who knows anything about this sport knows it was a fluke. I hope to get that rematch one day. I’m top five.”
He gets the chance to right that perceived wrong in UFC Fight Night 99’s main event.
Hall, ranked No. 15, hasn’t won since his victory over Mousasi and has lost his last two fights.
2. Unexpected rematch 6 years in making
Nogueira hasn’t fought twice in the same year since 2011. At UFC Fight Night 100, the 40-year-old light heavyweight makes his second appearance of 2016 when he faces Bader.
In his last outing, Nogueira, an honorable mention in the rankings, stopped Patrick Cummins via first-round TKO.
Like Nogueira (22-7 MMA, 5-4 UFC), Bader (21-5 MMA, 14-5 UFC), ranked No. 5, is coming off a knockout win after stopping Ilir Latifi in September.
Nogueira staved off retirement talk with his win over Cummins, but if he falls to Bader, expect that talk to heat up again.
As for Bader, a win here won’t improve his standing in the division, but a loss will definitely see him tumble in the rankings.
3. Looking to stop bleeding
Ross Pearson makes his fifth octagon appearance of 2016 when he co-headlines UFC Fight Night 99. Pearson is 1-3 in those fights and is on the first two-fight losing streak of his career. Pearson’s (19-12 MMA, 11-9 UFC) opponent, Stevie Ray (19-6 MMA, 3-1 UFC), also enters this fight coming off a loss, the first of his UFC career.
Ray lost some momentum with that defeat to grappling-based Alan Patrick, but he shouldn’t have to worry too much about his ground game with Pearson. This should prove to be a fun striking battle between two fighters eager to get back in the win column.
4. Promise of improvement
Thomas Almeida
At UFC Fight Night 88, Thomas Almeida tasted defeat for the first time when Cody Garbrandt knocked him out.
At UFC Fight Night 99, we’ll see how Almeida (20-1 MMA, 4-1 UFC), the No. 15-ranked bantamweight, deals with adversity when he faces unbeaten Albert Morales (6-0-1 MMA, 0-0-1).
After the loss, Almeida said it stuck with him and forced him to change some things in training, and he promised that fans would see improvements in this, his next fight.
Morales, like Almeida, is an aggressive striker. His UFC debut, a majority draw with Alejandro Perez, came on short notice in September.
5. Former champ debuts
Timothy Johnson and Alexader Volkov
The UFC adds another younger-than-30 heavyweight to its roster at UFC Fight Night 99 as former Bellator heavyweight champ Alexander Volkov (26-6 MMA, 0-0 UFC) makes his promotional debut against Timothy Johnson (10-2 MMA, 2-1 UFC).
Volkov lost the Bellator crown in his first defense after suffering a TKO loss to Vitaly Minakov in November 2013. He fought five more times for Bellator after that defeat and lost to Tony Johnson and Cheick Kongo in his final two fights with the promotion.
Volkov won and defended the M-1 Challenge heavyweight title in his two fights before signing with the UFC. He won both by stoppage.
Johnson enters the fight coming off a decision win over Marcin Tybura, who also held the M-1 Challenge heavyweight crown.
6. Free extra motivation
Either UFC President Dana White forgot that Claudia Gadelha was booked to face Cortney Casey at UFC Fight Night 100, or he totally overlooked Casey (6-3 MMA, 2-2 UFC) as a threat to Gadelha (13-2 MMA, 2-2 UFC).
“I think we do Claudia Gadelha and Karolina (Kowalkiewicz) and see what happens,” White said this past weekend after Kowalkiewicz lost to strawweight champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk at UFC 205.
And with that comment, White gave the unranked Casey bulletin board material heading into her fight against No. 2-ranked Gadelha.
Casey is a huge underdog to Gadelha, but she does have some momentum after finishing her last two opponents via first-round submission. As for Gadelha, her last fight was a decision loss to Jedrzejczyk in a July title fight.
7. He’s got big, big, big plans
Teruto Ishihara is back, and it’s no secret that he wants to extend his stoppage streak to three in pursuit of the “big stage, big audience and big crowd,” and of course, the ladies.
Ishihara’s aggressive striking style and his – well, let’s call it charisma – have made him a popular fighter in the featherweight division.
For Ishihara’s (9-2-2 MMA, 2-0-1 UFC) star to continue rising, he’ll have to get past Conor McGregor’s training partner Artem Lobov (12-12-1 MMA, 1-2 UFC) in Belfast.
Based on the fact that neither of these men has completed a takedown in UFC competition, this one should be contested mostly on the feet.
8. Your test, sir
Krzysztof Jotko scored a huge knockout win in his last outing after stopping Tamdan McCrory in 59 seconds at UFC Fight Night 89. Jotko’s reward for that victory is a fight in Brazil against Thales Leites, who is coming off a submission win over Chris Camozzi.
By matching Jotko (18-1 MMA, 5-1 UFC) against Leites (26-6 MMA, 11-4 UFC), the No. 12 ranked middleweight and a former title challenger, the UFC sends a message that it wants to see if Jotko is ready to take a step up in competition.
9. First for Wales and UFC
Jack Marshman, the first Welsh fighter to sign with the UFC, makes his promotional debut in Belfast. Marshman signed with the UFC in early October, vacating the Cage Warriors middleweight title to do so. It’s the same title that Jack Hermansson vacated earlier in 2016 so he could sign with the UFC.
Marshman enters this fight on a six-fight winning streak, and he’s picked up five of those wins, including his title-winning fight, by stoppage. Marshman, who relies mostly on his powerful hands, won’t have an easy go in his UFC debut as he faces Magnus Cedenblad, who’s won three of his last four UFC fights by stoppage.
Cedenblad (14-4 MMA, 4-1 UFC) isn’t afraid to stand and strike, but he’s likely to assess the hardiness of Marshman’s (20-5 MMA, 0-0 UFC) all-around fight game, and that could prove to be an interesting test if Cedenblad gets the fight to the mat.
10. Looking to build on debut
Jack Hermansson made his UFC debut in September after defeating Scott Askham by unanimous decision. The former Cage Warriors middleweight champion showed no signs of octagon jitters on his way to his ninth straight win.
Hermansson (14-2 MMA, 1-0 UFC) heads into hostile territory at UFC Fight Night 100, where he faces Cezar Ferreira (10-5 MMA, 6-3 UFC), the winner of “The Ultimate Fighter: Brazil,” in Ferreira’s home country of Brazil.
Hermansson looks like he has the skills to make some noise in the middleweight division, and he told MMAjunkie that’s exactly what he plans to do against Ferreira, who’s on a two-fight winning streak.
For more on UFC Fight Night 99 and UFC Fight Night 100, check out the UFC Rumors section of the site.
Filed under: News, UFC