The octagon returns to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil for the fifth time in under four years this Saturday evening. The card is headlined by Brazil’s own Amanda Nunes, who defends her bantamweight title against sizeable underdog Raquel Pennington.
With the main event aside, this card is pretty good… but possibly not one of pay-per-view standard. Ronaldo ‘Jacare’ Souza will co-headline, taking on rising middleweight contender Kelvin Gastelum.
Souza is in the twilight of his career at thirty-eight years old. After capturing Strikeforce gold earlier in his career, he is yet to earn a shot at the UFC middleweight crown. His only losses inside the octagon have been against current champion Robert Whittaker and (uncrowned) interim champion Yoel Romero.
You can’t fault Jacare’s resume however, with wins over the likes of Vitor Belfort, Gegard Mousasi and Robbie Lawler to name a few over his near fifteen-year career. The Brazilian has been well known for his jiu-jitsu exploits over his career, with seventeen of his twenty-five victories coming by way of submission. It’s clear to see why Jacare is the favourite to pick up a victory in Rio.
After winning the Ultimate Fighter Season 17, despite being seeded in last place, four consecutive wins at welterweight saw Kelvin Gastelum’s rise look to take him to the welterweight title. However, Gastelum struggled to make the weight on a number of occasions, being forced to move up to middleweight. Only Tyron Woodley and Neil Magny managed to get the best of Gastelum at 170lbs, both by split decisions.
Wins over Nate Marquardt and Tim Kennedy marked a successful move to 185lbs, with a controversial decision made to declare his next victory over Vitor Belfort as a no contest, due to Gastelum testing positive for THC, a metabolite found in marijuana. He vowed to never fight in Brazil again, but just over a year later… he returns!
A loss to Chris Weidman in Long Island, New York snapped momentum, before a stunning knockout of Michael Bisping in China got the twenty-six-year-old back on track. With Gastelum ranked at #5 and Jacare ranked at #3, the victor could meet the winner of Whittaker and Romero at the tail end of this year.
Another week, another weight cutting calamity, with jiu-jitsu specialist and Instagram-happy Mackenzie Dern missing the 116lbs strawweight limit for a non-title fight by a whopping 7lbs. The face-off between her and Amanda Cooper didn’t lead to a lot of love being shown.
Credit to Amanda Cooper, who still accepted the fight with a 30% fine heading out of Dern’s likely decent purse straight to Cooper. Dern is currently a perfect 6-0 in her mixed martial arts career with three wins by submission. Cooper is 3-3, with a 2-2 record in the UFC. Dern heads into the fight as the favourite.
The main card also features a bantamweight showdown between the always entertaining John Lineker, taking on Brian Kelleher. It marks a huge opportunity for Kelleher, who is yet to enter the rankings at 135lbs, whilst Lineker is firmly in contention at #6.
The main card is opened by a legends matchup between Lyoto Machida and Vitor Belfort. Both Brazilian men have given so much to the sport, with Belfort having fought in the UFC as early as 1997 at UFC 12!
Machida is a former light heavyweight champion, who has faced pretty much everyone across 205lbs and 185lbs, including Jon Jones, Dan Henderson and his legendary front kick knock out of Randy Couture.
Full Fight Card
Main Card (3AM on BT Sport)
UFC Women’s Bantamweight Championship: Amanda Nunes © vs. Raquel Pennington
Middleweight: Ronaldo Souza vs. Kelvin Gastelum
Catchweight (123lbs): Mackenzie Dern vs. Amanda Cooper
Bantamweight: John Lineker vs. Brian Kelleher
Middleweight: Lyoto Machida vs. Vitor Belfort
Prelims (1AM on BT Sport)
Middleweight: Cezar Ferreira vs. Karl Roberson
Heavyweight: Aleksei Oleinik vs. Junior Albini
Lightweight: Davi Ramos vs. Nick Hein
Welterweight: Elizeu Zaleski vs. Sean Strickland
Early Prelims (11:15PM on UFC Fight Pass)
Welterweight: Warlley Alves vs. Sultan Aliev
Middleweight: Thales Leites vs. Jack Hermansson
Welterweight: Alberto Mina vs. Ramazan Emeev
Middleweight: Markus Perez vs. James Bochnovi
