After the controversial fallout of UFC 208, fans look to the card that looked the best even a few weeks into 2017, UFC 209.
With a star-studded card, including two title fights as the co and main event, UFC 209 from the T-Mobile Arena in Nevada looks to deliver from what's been an underwhelming start to 2017.
In the three fights to be previewed in this article, the effect on the UFC will be looked at as well as how I think the six fighters will fair on March 4th.
Alistair Overeem vs Mark Hunt (Heavyweight bout)
Fresh from his loss to Heavyweight champ Stipe Miocic, Alistair Overeem (41-15 MMA, 6-4 UFC, 1 No Contest) will be looking to get back on track and begin another winning streak that saw him earn the championship fight back in September.
Standing in his way of doing that is Mark Hunt.
Hunt (12-10-1 MMA, 7-4-1 (1 No Contest) UFC, 1 No Contest) is currently suing the UFC, Dana White and Brock Lesnar for a number of charges, including fraud, in regards to Lesnar's two failed drug tests before and after his UFC 200 win over Hunt, which was later overturned to a no contest.
It's very interesting how this fight shapes up with one guy in Overeem being a sore loser in his post-fight interview with Joe Rogan, which Rogan handled brilliantly, and the other guy in Hunt is suing the company he works for. Well that's Sport in 2017 for you.
Both need a win but I favour Hunt with his striking and overall mindset heading into this fight that he asked for via Instagram. There's also the added spitualtion that Hunt will get the majority of the purse money if Overeem tests postivite for drugs.
PREDICTION: Hunt wins via unanimous decision.
Mark Hunt promotes his upcoming fight against Alistair Overeem at UFC 209 on Instagram.
Khabib Nurmagomedov vs Tony Ferguson (For the Interim Lightweight Championship)
The UFC has been criticised for ignoring fans' desire to make Interim or what are essentially Number 1 Contender fights but in a very rare case, they have gotten what they've asked for.
Undefeated Number 2 ranked Lightweight Khabib Nurmagomedov (24-0 MMA, 8-0 UFC) will take on Number 2 ranked Tony Ferguson (23-3 MMA, 12-1 UFC) to crown the interim Lightweight champion and get a one-way ticket to being across the Octagon from Conor McGregor later this year.
Both put in dominate performances in their last outings in the cage, Khabib mulling Michael Johnson and Ferguson getting a comfortable unanimous decision over former Lightweight champ Rafael dos Anjos, and deserve the chance to be the interim champ.
Going into this fight, the pair clearly have their hardest test in front of them and it seems that it will be a battle that comes down to Khabib's wrestling vs Ferguson's unique striking and various submission techniques.
The smart money says Khabib, even though he's never been in the fourth and fifth round, but Ferguson will surprise many by pushing Khabib to his physical limit and thus in my opinion make it the Fight of the Night.
PREDICTION: Nurmagomedov wins via fourth-round submission.
Tyron Woodley (C) vs Stephen Thompson (For the Welterweight Championship)
Here we are again.
Just under four months ago, as the co-main event of UFC 205 at Madison Square Garden, Tyron Woodley (16-3-1 MMA, 6-2-1 UFC) made the first defence of his Welterweight title against the karate-originated Stephen 'Wonderboy' Thompson (13-1-1 MMA, 8-1-1 UFC).
What a fight it was.
Woodley dominated at times with elbows and strikes, at one point getting Wonderboy in a deep guillotine choke in the fourth round. Thompson stayed in the fight and rocked Woodley with sharp karate kicks to push for another slick KO.
However, this wasn't to be the case.
It was quite rightly named Fight of the Night, earning both men an additional $50,000, but it was too close for the judges in New York to call and a majority draw was announced.
Thompson looked for an immediate rematch as he said Woodley as champion shouldn't be happy with a draw. The champ was looking elsewhere though as he mentioned the recently resigned George Saint-Pierre, Lightweight champion Conor McGregor and Middleweight champion Michael Bisping as options for his next opponent.
The rematch was then announced for March 4th, with Woodley claiming that Wonderboy begged for the fight.
Away from the trash talking, the rematch will see the pair look to smooth over errors they made in the first fight (such as Thompson allowing Woodley so much striking room and Woodley allowing Wonderboy to pen him back into the cage at various points of the fight) but it will live up to it's main event billing.
Will it be as good as their fight back in November? It will take some doing and may have to go five rounds again, hopefully with a definite winner this time.
PREDICTION: Woodley wins via third-round TKO.
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