Back to normal inside the Octagon
FIGHT NIGHT: It won’t match dazzle of UFC 217 but there are still good reasons to tune in this weekend
Wednesday afternoon, as the high from UFC 217 finally started to subside, things in the MMA world started to get back to normal.
And by “normal,” I mean that highly anticipated fights fell apart and people started lamenting this weekend’s UFC Fight Night event in Norfolk, Virginia.
While I too am despondent about Frankie Edgar facing 12 weeks on the sidelines instead of Max Holloway for the featherweight title at UFC 218 in Detroit and Dominick Cruz breaking his arm, scuttling his scrap with Jimmie Rivera at the end of the year, I don’t share the same feelings of sadness about shifting from last weekend’s outstanding event at Madison Square Garden to a televised fight card on Saturday because it’s actually a pretty strong lineup from top to bottom.
Yes, it’s concerning to me that Diego Sanchez is still holding down a co-main event slot in 2017 and that both Andrei Arlovski and Nate Marquardt are featured prominently given their recent struggles, but the lightweight main event between Dustin Poirier and former champ Anthony Pettis is an outstanding fight that carries tremendous significance for both men. And if you’re willing to look a little further down the fight card, you’ll see a host of competitive, compelling match- ups that shouldn’t be overlooked because a couple fading veterans will hit the cage later in the evening.
Raphael Assuncao is an elite bantamweight and has already split a pair of bouts with new (and former) champion T.J. Dillashaw. He’s 9-1 since moving to the 135-pound weight class and rebounded from his UFC 200 loss to Dillashaw with wins over Aljamain Sterling and Marlon Moraes. Even before Cruz got hurt, Assuncao deserved to be in the thick of the title conversation and his stock went up even more given recent events.
Moraes, the former World Series of Fighting champ who debuted in the Octagon amid much fanfare and riding a 13-fight win streak, gets a second chance to pick up his first UFC victory this weekend against perennial contender John Dodson, who was the first man to defeat Dillashaw when he stopped him in under two minutes to win the bantamweight competition on Season 14 of The Ultimate Fighter.
And while the long-running reality TV competition has been much maligned in recent years, one of the best prospects to emerge from the show in recent years, Tatiana Suarez, returns to action this weekend as well.
More than a year after submitting Amanda Cooper in the first round to win the strawweight competition on Season 23, Suarez, a two-time bronze medallist in freestyle wrestling at the world championships, climbs back into the cage against fellow unbeaten upstart Viviane Pereira in a battle to determine the top prospect in the 115-pound ranks.
Mix in an all-action clash between Joe Lauzon and Clay Guida, the return of Sage Northcutt and the UFC debut of Karl Roberson and you’ve got a nice Saturday event from the shores of Chesapeake Bay.
Is it anywhere close to as good as UFC 217? Of course not, but what televised fight card can ever stack up to loaded pay-per-view?
Does it suck the six-fight main card moves at a snail’s pace because of commercials and the way television broadcasts work? Indeed, but it’s not that those are new revelations.
I get that there is a letdown after such an electric event last weekend and that losing two marquee fights back-to-back on Wednesday took the wind out of everyone’s collective sails, but this weekend’s fight card should deliver a handful of outstanding fights and strong performances while potentially moving a few key players forward in their respective divisions.
At this point, that’s all I’m looking for from a Saturday night of fights I don’t have to pay extra to enjoy.
E. Spencer Kyte covers MMA for The Vancouver Sun, The Province and Sporting News. Follow him on social media: @spencerkyte.