Ufc

vegas 18

Date and venue:

February 6, Las Vegas (USA).

Significant fights:

Alistair Overeem -

Alexander Volkov,

Corey Sandhagen - Frankie Edgar,

Timur Valiev

- Martin Day.

The first tournament of the Absolute Fighting Championship in February will be led by Alexander Volkov, who will make a second attempt to fight the legend of mixed martial arts Alistair Overeem.

Previously, matchmakers had already tried to organize this fight at a show in St. Petersburg in April 2019, but due to the Russian's health problems, it did not take place.

As a result, another domestic fighter, Alexei Oleinik, was identified as a rival to the Dutchman, but he could not make a worthy competition.

It is noteworthy that, like two years ago, Volkov occupies sixth place in the ranking of the heavy division and is adjacent to Overeem in it.

But if in 2019 he was ahead of his counterpart, now he is behind.

Of course, the victory will help him not only to bypass the Dutchman, but also to wedge into the championship race again, but you should not count on a quick fight for the title.

At the moment, Francis Ngannou and John Jones are already in the queue.

An equally important fight will take place within the lightest division, where a belt contender may well be determined.

True, in the not very near future, since in March there will be a battle between Peter Yan and Aljamein Sterling, the winner of which will most likely be forced to meet with the former belt holder T.J. Dillashaw.

Thus, Corey Sandhagen and Frankie Edgar will have to wait at least until the second half of 2021, and at most until 2022.

At the moment, the 39-year-old MMA veteran had only one fight in the category up to 61.2 kilograms, having dealt with Pedro Muñoz with some difficulty.

Against the background of the spectacular victory of the counterpart over Marlon Moraes, this seems like a small achievement, as a result of which Edgar can hardly rightfully wear the status of a favorite.

The bookmakers who prefer Sandhagen think so too.

There is another notable bantamweight fight on the undercard.

Timur Valiev will try to rehabilitate himself for an unsuccessful debut in the battle with Trevin Jones and win his first victory in the UFC.

The opponent is pretty good.

In the last three battles, Martin Day never defeated a counterpart, and in two cases he was completely forced to admit defeat ahead of schedule.

He was first knocked out by Englishman Davey Grant, and then strangled by Brazilian Anderson dos Santos.

Ufc 258

Date and place:

February 13, Las Vegas (USA).

Significant fights:

Kamaru Usman (h)

- Gilbert Burns.

A week later, the biggest tournament of the month in the Ultimate Fighting Championship will take place.

By name, he is unlikely to compete with UFC 257 with the participation of Conor McGregor and Dustin Poirier, but still has a chance to attract the attention of the general public.

At least due to the duel between Kamaru Usman and Gilbert Burns, in which the welterweight title will be at stake.

It should be noted that this is the third promotion attempt to bring the fighters together.

In July, the meeting was interrupted by a positive test for coronavirus in Burns, and in December - Usman's injuries, which remained unreported.

If this time everything goes well, then the champion will face one of the most difficult tests in his career.

Recently, the challenger has improved a lot in the stance, and in grappling he is able to give odds to many.

This is confirmed by the black belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and medals at competitions under the auspices of the ADCC and IBJJF.

True, it may not come to the ground, because Usman is known precisely for his clinching skills.

Yes, his style can hardly be called spectacular, but as long as the judges continue to positively assess his monotonous, exhausting work at the net, it will be difficult for him to find an equal.

In this aspect, Burns is unlikely to be able to compare with Kamaru, which automatically puts him in the status of an underdog.

The second most important battle of the evening promised to be interesting.

After an unsuccessful transition to light heavyweight, Chris Weidman returned to his native middle and outright prevailed over the representative of the top 15 - Omari Akhmedov.

To take another step towards the top five, he needed to defeat Yuraia Hall again after 11 years.

However, a positive test for COVID-19 at the end of January confused the ex-champion with all the cards.

However, according to rumors, if the fighters do not change their minds, they will be brought down again at UFC 261.  

Ufc

vegas 19

Date and place:

February 20, Las Vegas (USA).

Significant fights:

Curtis Blades - Derrick Lewis,

Yana Kunitskaya

- Kathleen Viera,

Alexey Oleinik

- Chris Dakas.

In the main duel of the evening, two heavyweight stars will fight, who could become future rivals of Volkov and Overeem.

Under normal circumstances, the triumphant fight between Blades and Lewis (second and fourth division numbers) would probably have received the title of first contender, but due to recent events this seems unlikely.

Dana White has already stated that most likely it is John Jones who will face off against the winner of the duel Stipe Miocic - Francis Ngannu.

And taking into account the order of the title holder and the challenger, this will take place no earlier than autumn-winter 2021.

In such a scenario, Curtis or Derrick will be able to compete for the trophy only next year, but such a long simple one hardly fits into the plans of both the fighters themselves and the promotion.

As for the battle itself, Blades is rightfully considered the favorite.

He has won four battles in a row, and all of them are against representatives of the top 10.

During his career, he lost only twice and both times Ngannu became his offender.

Lewis is noticeably inferior in speed, hits less, misses more and does not look very confident on the ground.

On paper, Curtis should be easy to deal with a compatriot, but in heavyweight, one hit can decide everything.

This is exactly what Derrick demonstrated with 11 seconds before the end of the battle with Volkov in October 2018.

The tournament will also feature two representatives from Russia.

Yana Kunitskaya will have a postponed fight with Kathleen Viera, originally scheduled for August 2020.

From that moment on, both girls won once, and therefore their duel only added to the relevance.

The Russian woman prevailed over the Lithuanian Yulia Stolyarenko, and the Brazilian over the American Sizhara Ibenks, which allowed them to rise to the eighth and sixth lines of the rating, respectively.

Another success can secure a place in the top 5 and include in the number of contenders for the trophy.

Unlike his compatriot, Alexey Oleinik in Las Vegas will solve other problems.

Three defeats in the last five battles almost cost him a place in the top ten, and another failure can completely throw him out of sight.

This time, the 43-year-old native of Kiev will face the young and promising Chris Dakas, who won both fights in the UFC by knockouts in the first round.

Despite not the most athletic physique, Dakas is distinguished by speed and the hardest blow, so exchanges with him are unlikely to end well for Oleinik.

If Alexei can move Chris to the ground, the advantage will be on his side.

Otherwise, he may face a repetition of the plot of the fight with Lewis. 

Ufc

vegas 20

Date and venue:

February 27, Las Vegas (USA).

Significant fights:

Jairzinho Rosenstrik - Cyril Gan,

Nikita Krylov

-

Magomed Ankalaev

, Dustin Jacobi -

Maxim Grishin.

At the final UFC tournament in February, all key fights will be held in heavy weights.

The show will be crowned by a duel between Jairzinho Rosenstrike and Cyril Gan - the third and seventh numbers of the division up to 120 kg.

In addition to the status of one of the most promising representatives of the category, they are united by the fact that in the last fight, both dealt with the former champion Junior dos Santos.

On paper, the battle promises to be one of the brightest in 2021 and will probably end ahead of schedule.

For two, the fighters fought 18 fights, and only in two of them did it come to the referee's notes.

The fight between Krylov and Ankalaev can be called no less expected.

Moreover, this confrontation could well have become purely Russian if Nikita had solved the issue of obtaining a passport.

Luganchanin initiated this process in 2019, but due to high employment he could not complete what he started.

Nevertheless, this does not make the duel less interesting for the domestic audience.

For Ankalaev, this battle will be one of the most difficult in his career.

He suffered his only defeat by submission in a battle with Paul Craig, after which he did not meet with grappling specialists.

Krylov is strong just in this aspect, which is confirmed by 15 victories with painful and choke holds.

If Magomed can prevent the transfer to the ground, he will most likely have an advantage.

But if Ankalaev is trying to break into the top 10 of the division, then Maxim Grishin is trying to gain a foothold in the promotion.

His victory over Gadzhimurad Antigulov turned out to be rather controversial, and Dustin Jacoby will try to prevent him from extending the streak.

The American made his UFC debut more than nine years ago, but suffered two defeats and was expelled.

Subsequently, with varying degrees of success, he performed in Bellator and the kickboxing promotion Glory, and thanks to his participation in the Dana White's Contender Series, he managed to break into the # 1 MMA organization again.