UFC 200 Preview

The day that all combat sports fans have been waiting for is finally upon us. Despite the circus show this week with the shifting of main events we finally have a set card. The original main event Jon Jones vs. Daniel Cormier was pulled due to Jon Jones testing positive for a banned substance in an out of competition test by the USADA. Despite all of this, Daniel Cormier decided to stay on the card and get his expected big pay day, and replacing Jon Jones, is none other than the former Middleweight champion, and quite possibly the greatest fighter of all time, Anderson Silva. This will be a 3 round Light Heavyweight bout. It is quite the replacement on short notice and win or lose, Anderson will have the respect from the fans and the UFC top brass alike for filling in during such dramatic times. And with that fight being made the UFC decided to give the Woman’s Bantamweight title featuring Meisha Tate vs. Amanda Nunes the main event spot on this milestone card. Even though it seems underwhelming with all the big names on the card, it’s still a very intriguing fight.

Meisha Tate finally accomplished her dream back at UFC 196 when she rallied from behind in a fight she was losing against then champion, Holly Holm, and submitted Holly with a rear naked choke in the final round to become the Woman’s Bantamweight champion. This is a title she‘s long chased since the arrival of the Woman’s division in the UFC. Meisha Tate was always regarded as the 2nd best fighter in her division with her relentless style, top notch cardio, and elite level grappling. She failed to get over the hump when she fought Ronda Rousey but despite that, she never gave up trying to capture the title and began knocking off title contenders one by one. When Holly Holm knocked out Ronda the UFC immediately gave Tate the title shot as Ronda had decided to go MIA, take movie roles, and deal with her depression from suffering such a brutal loss. When Tate was working her way up the ladder for her championship, another fighter was also working her way up the ladder: Amanda Nunes. Nunes is a fighter I‘ve always felt had all the skills and talent to become champion but her cardio always ended up being her downfall. Nunes has shown elite level Jiu Jitsu and knock out power, which is a rarity for a woman fighter. She has a vicious style and always looks for the finish, but with Tate, she is facing a fighter who has shown she can comeback from adversity and win on numerous occasions. You can’t break Tate mentally whereas Nunes has been shown to break when the going gets tough. I expect Nunes to come out the gate and pressure Tate, putting her in trouble early, but Tate will be able to weather the storm and in the later rounds submit Nunes to retain her title.

The biggest fight on the card without a doubt is former UFC Heavyweight Champion and current WWE Superstar, Brock Lesnar, taking on future Hall of Famer Mark Hunt. When news broke at UFC 199 that Brock Lesnar would be fighting at UFC 200, the sports world immediately became chaotic. It was announced shortly after that his opponent would be the the current #8 ranked Heavyweight and fan favorite Mark Hunt. When Brock Lesnar first broke into UFC, he refused to take any tune up fights and wanted to jump into the shark tank right away with the best. Now he is in a similar position and you can’t get any tougher than Mark Hunt. If this fight were to happen in 2008-2009 when Lesnar was atop the UFC division, and Hunt was still learning grappling, this would’ve been an easy submission win for Lesnar. But since Lesnar has been out of the fighting game, Hunt’s grappling has dramatically improved. He has developed good takedown defense and submission defense over the years , and it has shown with his success in the UFC over the last few years. With that said, Lesnar is a different kind of animal and it’s going to be a tall task to stuff the takedown attempts from the 2000 NCAA Division-I Heavyweight champion. Lesnar is a rare, once in a lifetime kind of athlete. With his combination of size and speed it’s tough to game plan against him, but his one downfall is dealing with being punched in the face. No one does that better than Mark Hunt, who possesses legendary knock out power, knocking out the best of the best in both K-1 and MMA. Although Lesnar looks to be in better shape now than he ever has in his past MMA career, cage rust will be a factor, and on top of that with Mark Hunt all it will take is one punch for him to end the fight. I’m leaning towards Hunt to eventually catch Lesnar’s chin and put him out at some point. The only question is when that will happen.

Daniel Cormier has been on an emotional roller coaster all week. Cormier was on the verge of a career defining fight, where he had the chance to avenge the lone loss in his career that had been haunting him, against his biggest arch nemesis in the sport. Then the fight was suddenly called off due to his opponent testing positive for a banned substance, and now he is, to everyone’s shock, taking on arguably the greatest fighter in MMA history (ironically, his originally opponent Jon Jones also is considered the greatest of all time as well). Despite everything, the best possible scenario resulted for Daniel Cormier. He still gets to fight on this milestone card, against a top name, and get the huge payday that‘s coming to him. As for Anderson, this is strictly about testing himself against the Light Heavyweight champion in the world, and possibly shocking the world. In all honesty, it’s hard to imagine how Anderson Silva can win this fight especially on 2 days notice against a fighter who stylistically is and would’ve been a nightmare for him even at the height of his career. But, this is a sport that is all about shock value and upsets as it has shown throughout its history. With that said, I’m expecting Daniel Cormier to rag doll Anderson all over the octagon, and win by TKO via ground and pound.

And finally, the last fight I’m previewing is a rematch from UFC 156 for the Interim Featherweight Championship between Frankie Edgar and Jose Aldo. Frankie Edgar is coming in on an impressive 5-fight winning streak taking on Jose Aldo in his first fight since his humiliating loss to Conor McGregor. While Conor McGregor deals with his Nate Diaz rivalry, Edgar and Aldo fight for a chance to possibly get a chance to fight Conor in the near future. A lot has changed since their first fight. I feel Frankie has gotten more adjusted to the Featherweight division and has proven it, whereas Jose Aldo hasn’t been at the same level he was 4-5 years ago. The Conor McGregor fight aside, Aldo’s last few performances haven’t been very impressive. He basically cruised to a decision against Ricardo Lamas, who while being a game opponent, is someone who Jose would’ve knocked out easily at his peak. His fematch against Chad Mendes, though entertaining, was also the same guy who he knocked out pretty easily before. While Mendes vastly improved since their first fight, he was easily knocked out by Frankie Edgar not too long after that rematch with Aldo, thus making me believe that Aldo has lost a step. On top of that, who knows how Aldo is going to come into this fight mentally after that embarrassing loss against McGregor, whereas Frankie right now mentally is more confident than ever. In their first fight, Frankie Edgar got stronger in the championship rounds and looked to figure out Aldo, albeit a bit too late. I think this time Frankie will finish Aldo in the late rounds by submission, thus becoming the 3rd fighter to become champion in 2 divisions.

While I’ve only previewed these 4 main fights, the rest of the card is stacked with fights that could possibly steal the show like Joe Lauzon/Diego Sanchez, Takanori Gomi/Jim Miller, Cat Zingano/Julianna Pena etc. Even if you are not a massive MMA fan, or you’re just looking to get into the sport, this is the perfect card to watch because from top to bottom there are fights you can’t miss.

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