This weekend, the UFC is putting on fight cards on back-to-back nights. First, UFC Fight Night 55 from Sydney, Australia on Friday night (Saturday morning in Sydney), then UFC Fight Night 56 from Uberlandia, Minas Gerais, Brazil on Saturday night. Over the course of the two nights, there’s 22 fights lined up, featuring 44 fighters. While some of the fighters are household names, like Shogun Rua or Michael Bisping, most of them aren’t. If you don’t have time to watch all 44 fighters go to battle this weekend, here’s the five you should go out of your way to see:
Honorable Mention: Dhiego Lima
Lima was a middleweight finalist on TUF 19. He lost the finals to Eddie Gordon, but his future looks bright. He’s the brother of Bellator welterweight champion Douglas Lima, and he trains with the likes of Brian Stann and Joan Carneiro, in addition to his brother. He’s dropping back down to his more natural weight class of welterweight now that TUF is complete, and expectations for him are high. He fights UFC debutant Jorge Oliveira on Saturday in Brazil. It’ll be exciting to see how he starts his post-TUF UFC career
#5: Thomas Almeida & Colby Covington
Both of these fighters are in similar spots in their careers, they’re in the opening two fights in Brazil, and I couldn’t choose between them, so they’re on the list together. Almeida and Covington are both young prospects who appear to have a bright future ahead of them. Almeida, a bantamweight making his UFC debut, is a gaudy 16-0, and he is a finishing machine. All of his wins have come via finish, with thirteen by knockout, three by submission, and all but two of them coming inside of one round. Covington, a welterweight, is 6-0, with four finishes by submission. This is his second UFC fight, and he was the college roommate of UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones. Fans and pundits alike have high hopes for both up-and-comers, and we’ll know early Saturday night how real the hype is for both. Almeida takes on Tim Gorman; Covington battles Wagner Silva.
#4: Jake Matthews
A mere 20 years old, the Australian Matthews has his second UFC bout this Friday in his home country against Vagner Rocha. After losing to eventual TUF Nations welterweight runner-up Olivier Aubin-Mercier in the opening round of the eight man tournament, Matthews dropped down to his natural weight class of lightweight for a June UFC debut. In the fight, he put on a grappling clinic on Dashon Johnson, finishing him off in the third round with triangle choke. He’s 7-0, with all but one win by finish. The sky appears to be the limit for the young Aussie, and Friday night, his sophomore effort in the UFC will tell us a lot about what to expect from him in the future.
#3: Warlley Alves vs Alan Jouban
This is a bit of a cheat, but both fighters are must-see up-and-coming prospects, and they’re fighting each other Saturday night. Jouban is 10-2, with finishes in seven of those wins. In August, he made his UFC debut against gritty veteran Seth Baczynski, and Jouban impressively knocked him out in the first round. He’s a striker by trade, and the fight with Alves is an awesome match-up. Alves blew through the middleweight field of TUF Brazil 3. He won Submission of the Season, and finished all three of his fights en route to winning the tournament. In his pro career, he’s a perfect 7-0, and he fights like a wrecking ball. Now that he’s the TUF champion, he’s dropping down to his natural weight class of welterweight (a common theme of fighter’s to watch this weekend), and win or lose this weekend, the future is bright for both these welterweights.
#2: Ian McCall vs John Lineker
Ok, another cheat, but this is hands down the most important fight of the weekend. The winner of McCall vs Lineker is very likely to receive the next title shot against UFC flyweight champion Demetrious Johnson. Lineker is 5-2 in the UFC, with four of his wins coming by way of knockout. In fact, of his 24 career wins, 12 are by knockout. Lineker is heavy-handed, but he’s struggled to consistently make the flyweight limit of 125 pounds. As long as he’s making weight though, he is an exciting fighter and dynamic striker, and the fight against McCall should be a real barnburner. McCall’s UFC record is a much-less-sexy 2-2-1, including a draw and a loss to the current champ. But McCall, long considered one of the top 5 flyweights in the world, is one win away from earning a trilogy fight with his rival Johnson, and this time, gold would be on the line. With so much at stake, not only is this the most important fight of the weekend, but with the skills of both men, it should also be the best fight of the weekend.
#1: Luke Rockhold
After this list being made up primarily of fighters on the rise, the top spot going to an established fighter like Rockhold may come as a bit of a surprise to some. But Rockhold is in the prime of his career, and the match-up with Michael Bisping in the main event on Friday night will be his official coming out party. After stumbling in his UFC debut against a TRT-aided Vitor Belfort, the former Strikeforce middleweight champ has torn through Costas Philappou and Tim Boetsch in less than five minutes combined. Rockhold has a penchant for finishing fights in the first round, with 10-of-12 wins coming inside the first round. All MMA fans either love or hate Bisping, but none of them are indifferent towards him, and all of them will tune in to see him fight. With the eyes of the MMA world upon him, I expect Rockhold to have the performance of his career, and a possible title shot in the UFC’s crowded middleweight division is on the horizon for the Californian with a win over the brash Brit.
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