2018 in the UFC kicks off in St Louis, Oklahoma on Sunday night with a highly-anticipated Featherweight matchup headlining. Jeremy Stephens meets the Korean Superboy Doo Ho Choi as number 9 faces number 13 in the Featherweight rankings.
The scheduled co-main event between Uriah Hall and Vitor Belfort was cancelled on Saturday after Hall failed to weigh in. The bout was supposedly set to be Belfort's last outing in the Octagon after he claimed he would be retiring afterwards.
Elsewhere, Paige VanZant returns to face Australian Jessica-Rose Clark in a Flyweight bout as the new division begins to seek contenders. 23-year-old VanZant returns to the Octagon for the first time since her first round submission loss to Michelle Waterson in December 2016.
Clark won a split decision against Bec Rawlings back in December, an opponent who VanZant knocked out 17 seconds into the second round of their bout in August 2016.
A former Bantamweight, Clark has had trouble making Flyweight in the past, failing her previous two attempts, including her UFC debut against Rawlings where she missed weight by two pounds.
An intriguing matchup takes place in the Welterweight division, where Kamaru Usman takes on Norway's Emil Meek.
Number 10 ranked Usman has talked up fights with title contenders such as Darren Till and Colby Covington, but he will need to first get past Meek in a rescheduled bout from UFC 219.
In a fight initially scheduled to headline the FS1 prelims, Michael Johnson makes his Featherweight debut against Darren Elkins. The form could not be much different for the two, with Johnson 1-4 in his last five fights while Elkins is on a five-fight winning streak.
With 35 UFC appearances between them, this bout between two Octagon veterans could well be one that could push the winner towards title contention in the future.
No comments:
Post a Comment