Sports blog information from USA TODAY.
Michael Chiesa discusses his welterweight main event with Neil Magny at UFC on ESPN 20 on “Fight Island” and more in this interview with Mike Bohn of MMA Junkie.
Michael Chiesa discusses his welterweight main event with Neil Magny at UFC on ESPN 20 on “Fight Island” and more in this interview with Mike Bohn of MMA Junkie.
MMA Junkie senior editor Dave Doyle takes you through the key UFC 248 storylines, including two title fights atop the bill.
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A pair of newly crowned champions will make their first title defenses Saturday night at UFC 248 against challengers who are no strangers to main-event spotlights.
There will be an international flavor in Las Vegas as New Zealand’s [autotag]Israel Adesanya[/autotag] puts his UFC middleweight title up for grabs against Cuban native [autotag]Yoel Romero[/autotag] in the main event, and China’s [autotag]Zhang Weili[/autotag] makes her first defense of the strawweight title against former titleholder [autotag]Joanna Jedrzejczyk[/autotag] of Poland.
Beyond that, there’s the usual potpourri of interesting items that you’ll find up and down a card of this magnitude.
UFC 248 takes place at T-Mobile Arena. The main card airs on pay-per-view following prelims on ESPN and UFC Fight Pass/ESPN+.
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Yes, it’s true, granting Romero (13-4 MMA, 9-3 UFC) a title fight was questionable. He’s coming off two straight losses and three in his past four fights, and that’s supposed to merit if there are merit-based title shots.
Adesanya (18-0 MMA, 7-0 UFC), however, was the one who requested this fight after it became apparent the next in line, Paulo Costa, would be on the shelf with a bicep injury.
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And that leads us to why this is still very much an intriguing fight despite the rankings optics: All three of those Romero losses were decisions. In all three, you could make a case for a Romero victory. And never once in his 17-fight career has Romero been stopped.
Adesanya doesn’t just want to defeat Romero. He wants to be the first to finish him. That’s a bold and brash goal – and exactly the sort of thing which would help elevate Adesanya, who gets closer and closer to becoming the next MMA megastar with each fight.
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