Combat sports has found itself in a very strong position with perhaps a lot more attention than it would usually receive – at a time where all other sporting events across the world are on hold and trying to figure out a way back, the UFC held three events within one week to great success as only one fighter would test positive and all other fights would go ahead – there had been a little controversy for both Tony Ferguson and Anthony Smith across two different events as calls that the fight could’ve been stopped much earlier have come through, but as Max would say, it is what it is and these things happen.
The good news here is that it spells an exciting future within the UFC – if Tony were to win then the prospect of a sixth stare down between him and Khabib would seem far-fetched, the fight had fallen through so many times it’s difficult to believe it could ever happen but with Gaethje winning, it presents a whole new opportunity. There are many that have said he stands a real chance of defeating the undefeated wrestling GOAT Khabib and capture the full UFC gold. McGregor is also still very much trying to be active in the division too and has a habit of mixing things up when he starts to talk – after the title fight between Khabib and Justin, we could see McGregor get another shot and shake up the division again.
There has of course recently been the Twitter exchange between Jon Jones and Francis Ngannou – Jones has stated he’s looking to have a catchweight fight before making a transition toward heavyweight. The prospect is extremely exciting for fight fans – Ngannou has the potential to give Jones his first real loss with a single strike, and whilst Jones is known to be slippery, there are concerns that he has been slowing in his last few fights – high fight IQ is great, but is it enough to avoid the strikes? It was a surprise to many that Stipe was able to survive some of the shots that he took and Jones chin hasn’t been tested much in the same way in a long time, will he be able to stand up to Ngannou if they do fight? Maybe we’ll get an answer.
The next big UFC event is 250 with Nunes headlining – it’s not looking as if we’ll be seeing another chain of events as we had for the return, there’s of course fight island still to come which has been promised as a certainty, whether or not that is true is of course yet to be seen but that would quite the spectacle to see. UFC’s home of Vegas is starting to reopen as many look to head back to the brick and mortar after a few months of non gamstop casinos on their mobile devices – if fight island isn’t ready in time then it’s likely we could see the events return back to Nevada and return to a full schedule once again.
