Velasquez Vs Ngannou
Taking place in Phoenix, Arizona this weekend is the exciting heavyweight matchup between former champion Cain Velasquez and former title contender Francis Ngannou. This should prove to be an intriguing fight and one that the UFC will be keen to represent the organisation and the sport well. In the States, this will be the first UFC on ESPN event – a major step forward for the UFC as it establishes itself as a major sporting powerhouse, and where better to do it than with the worldwide leader in televised sport. Its been quite a while – July 2016 to be exact – since Velasquez has been inside the Octagon, where he had a first-round knockout victory over Travis Browne, there are many who would love him to get back to his best. A combination of injuries, badly timed events and the birth of a child have all conspired to keep Cain away from fighting until now. The hard punching Ngannou meanwhile, is coming off an impressive 45 second knockout of Curtis Blaydes only last November. This should be the classic grappler versus striker contest – with the winner boosting the prospects of being top of the pile for a title challenge.
The co-main event of the evening features Paul Felder and James Vick in a lightweight contest, where they are both looking to come off defeats and get their respective title challenges back on track. Vick, who is the tallest UFC competitor at lightweight has 13 victories to his name, with 8 of them coming by stoppage, and will be keen to continue in the same vein. Felder meanwhile is returning to lightweight after one fight at welterweight, Felder’s claim to fame is that he holds the most UFC victories (3) as a result of elbow strikes
Remainder of fight card
Cynthia Calvillo vs. Cortney Casey 115 lbs Strawweight
Alex Caceres vs. Kron Gracie 145 lbs Featherweight
Bryan Barberena vs. Vicente Luque 170 lbs Welterweight
Andre Fili vs. Myles Jury 145 lbs Featherweight
Jimmie Rivera vs. Aljamain Sterling 135 lbs Bantamweight
Manny Bermudez vs. Benito Lopez 135 lbs Bantamweight
Ashlee Evans-Smith vs. Andrea Lee 125 lbs Flyweight
Scott Holtzman vs. Nik Lentz 155 lbs Lightweight
Jodie Esquibel vs. Jessica Penne 115 lbs Strawweight
Renan Barao vs. Luke Sanders 135 lbs Bantamweight
Alexandra Albu vs. Emily Whitmire 115 lbs Strawweight
Header Neil Lockhart/Shutterstock
