This Saturday on March 18, UFC 286 is taking place in the “O2 Arena” in London, England with the main bout having Welterweight champion Leon Edwards defending his title for the first time against former Welterweight champion and opponent Kamaru Usman (#1). The co-main bout will also feature top Lightweight contenders, Justin Gaethje (#3) facing off against rising contender Rafael Fiziev (#6). The main card also has some other really good bouts as well like women’s Flyweight contenders Jennifer Maia (#8) vs Casey O’neill (#12), and Middleweight contenders Marvin Vettori (#4) vs. Roman Dolidze (#9).
Leon Edwards (20-3) is coming into this match with a ten fight winning streak with wins against top Welterweight contenders like Nate Diaz, Rafael Dos Anjos, Donald Cerrone, Bryan Barberena, and with his last win was against Kamaru Usman with a last second fifth round KO kick. His last loss was against Usman way back in 2015 by decision, since then he hasn’t looked back and he is now the Welterweight champion of the UFC. Kamaru Usman (20-2) is planning to make his return to this fight, and win Welterweight gold. With his last fight against Leon Edwards, Usman was dominating him the whole fight with takedowns and strikes, until he got caught with that head kick KO in the fifth. Before that fight, Usman was on a fifteen-fight winning streak in the UFC beating top Welterweight contenders like Colby Covington, Jorge Masvidal, Gilbert Burns, and Tyron Woodley. He was also tied with the undisputed (G.O.A.T.) Anderson Silva with his winning streak and almost beat his streak with his fight against Leon Edwards. This will be the third time that the two have met each other in the octagon and on Saturday night, only one will walk out of there as Welterweight champion of the UFC.
Now to the Co-main event, Justin Gaethje (23-4) is coming into this fight with a loss from former champion Charles Oliveria when he was fighting for the Lightweight title at UFC 274 last year. That was also the second time that he’s fought for a title, with his first time fighting hall of fame and former Lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov losing by submission in the 2nd round. Gaethje has only been fighting in the UFC since 2017 and has only been handed top contenders like Michael Chandler, Tony Ferguson, Donald Cerrone, Edson Barboza, and Dustin Poirier. Rafael Fiziev (12-1) is an upcoming Lightweight contender who made his UFC debut in 2019 against Magomed Mustafaev and lost by KO/TKO. But since then he’s been on a six-fight winning streak beating lightweight contenders like Marc Diakiese, Renato Moicano, Bobby Green, and Rafael Dos Anjos in dominant fashion. Fighting Gaethje is going to be his toughest opponent that he’s faced yet in the UFC, and both of them are very high level strikers so I'm expecting them to mostly be standing during the fight, but again I could be wrong.
All I know is that I'm gonna be tuning in for this event and not miss a single second of any fight. Who are you guys excited to watch on this card? And who do guys have for the main and co-main event?
Top comments (1)
It's going to be epic 😃