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The UFC returns to action Saturday night with its second pay-per-view offering of 2020, as the octagon heads to Houston for UFC 247.
On the surface, the card appears to be headlined by a pair of “showcase” title fights, with underdog upstarts gunning for gold.
[autotag]Jon Jones[/autotag], who is on any reasonable person’s short list of the sport’s GOAT candidates, defends his light heavyweight title against undefeated [autotag]Dominick Reyes[/autotag]. Meanwhile, [autotag]Valentina Shevchenko[/autotag], who is No. 2 in the USA TODAY Sports/MMA Junkie women’s pound-for-pound rankings, puts her flyweight title up for grabs against [autotag]Katlyn Chookagian[/autotag].
Both champions are heavy favorites. But then, faster than you can say “Matt Serra,” you remember strange things seem to happen in H-town, and the night becomes a little bit more intriguing.
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UFC 247 takes place Saturday at Toyota Center with the main card on pay-per-view following prelims on ESPN and early prelims on UFC Fight Pass/ESPN+.
Without further ado, here are six burning questions heading into UFC 247.
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How does Jon Jones respond to his last outing?
It’s a testament to just how dominant Jones (25-1 MMA, 19-1 UFC) has been as light heavyweight champion that a rare non-dominant performance causes you to wonder what’s up.
But it’s hard not to take a look back at his last fight and wonder whether it will affect him going forward.
Thiago Santos threw everything but the kitchen sink at Jones last July, wrecking both of his legs but still pressing forward for 25 minutes. It took all of Jones’ tenacity to eke out a split decision victory.
If you’ve been watching this sport long enough, you remember how Fedor Emelianenko, on his 10-year winning streak, struggled before putting away Brett Rogers, and how the intellgentsia scoffed when anyone suggested this might mean anything going forward. And then Emelianenko went out and lost his next three fights.
Maybe, as heretical as it might sound, the Santos fight indicated things are finally starting to catch up to Jones. Or maybe a competitor with the style of Reyes (12-0 MMA, 6-0 UFC) is just the type of fight to remind fans what Jones — who has scored only one official finish in nearly seven years, to go with six decisions and a no-contest — is capable of doing when he unleashes the beast.
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