Kicking off the early prelims, Sabina ‘The Colombian Queen’ Mazo is set to make her debut against Maryna Moroz. This fight was announced in January, you can check out my analysis here. My pick: Moroz’s ground game could spell trouble for Mazo, but ultimately I think Mazo is victorious in her octagon debut

Ray Borg was set to make his return this weekend against Kyler Phillips, but as of yesterday Phillips is out and newly crowned LFA double champ and DWTNCS vet Casey Kenney steps in. LFA flyweight champion Casey Kenney, who captured that title in November, just added the bantamweight title to his mantle this past weekend – now he’s headed to the UFC. Kenney beat Brandon Royval at LFA 53 to claim the flyweight strap then knocked out Vincent Cachero in the first round this past weekend to become the bantamweight champ. Kenney went 1-1 on Dana White’s Tuesday Night Contender Series, the only loss on his 11-1 record and is now looking to stick around with the top promotion. Borg hasn’t fought since his 2017 title loss to then-champion Demetrious Johnson. Injuries and complications with his newborn son has kept him away from the sport, but now Borg is ready to make some waves as he moves to the bantamweight division. My pick: Kenney takes it on short notice after his successful move up to bantamweight, the time off will hurt Borg

One of the top fights on the preliminary card is between the streaking Enrique Barzola and former LFA featherweight champion Kevin ‘Angel Of Death’ Aguilar. Barzola has been on a 4-fight win streak since late 2016, picking up victories over Chris Avila, Gabriel Benítez, Matt Bessette and most recently Brandon Davis at UFC Fight Night 129 last May. Barzola will be tasked with stopping the 8-fight win streak of Aguilar. Kevin Aguilar has been with LFA since 2013, going 8-1 during that stretch and claiming the featherweight title before being featured on DWTNCS. Aguilar didn’t get a contract that night but did get the call for the Ultimate Fighter 28 Finale where he beat out Rick Glenn in a three round war. Aguilar hasn’t quite found that stride that made him a name in LFA, but I think a knockout victory here will gain him some attention. My pick: Aguilar by TKO

On to the main card, where top strawweight contenders Karolina Kowalkiewicz and ‘The Karate Hottie’ Michelle Waterson will face off. Kowalkiewicz came into the UFC on a 7-fight win streak and picked up three wins before getting a shot at the title. Since her loss to then-champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk, Kowalkiewicz has gone 2-2, her most recent fight a brutal knockout loss to the next strawweight challenger, Jéssica Andrade. Waterson was a hot prospect coming into the UFC, going 2-2 before putting together a couple of wins against Cortney Casey and most recently Felice Herrig. A win here for Waterson could mean a title shot, while Kowalkiewicz is looking to get back in the win column. My pick: This is a tough fight to call, but I’m going with Kowalkiewicz via unanimous decision

The last time Josh Emmett fought was at UFC on FOX 28 over a year ago, a controversial loss to Jeremy Stephens where it looked like Stephens landed a knee to a downed opponent; nonetheless, it was the first knockout loss for Emmett. Prior to that, Emmett was 13-1, holding wins over Jon Tuck, Scott Holtzman and former title challenger Ricardo Lamas – his only loss being a split decision to Desmond Green. Emmett is ready to prove himself again after having ‘one of the worst years’ of his life in 2018. Standing in his way is Michael ‘The Menace’ Johnson; Johnson is on a 2-fight win streak after beating Artem Lobov at UFC Fight Night 138. Johnson’s career has been streaky, he went 8-4 from 2010 to 2015 and holds wins over Tony Ferguson and Edson Barboza in that span; but then went 1-5 after that before putting together that small win streak – his lone win over Dustin Poirier. Johnson has fought the who’s who in the featherweight division, and this matchup has FOTN written all over it. My pick: Emmett gets back on track, but this could go either way

The co-main event is a middleweight matchup between David Branch and Jack Hermansson. David Branch is 2-2 in his return to the UFC after winning 10 straight including both the middleweight and light heavyweight championships in the WSOF. Branch took out Krzysztof Jotko and current LHW title challenger Thiago Santos while his most recent fight was a TKO loss to Jared Cannonier. Jack Hermansson is riding his second win streak with the UFC after going 3-2 to start off with the promotion. Hermansson finished Thales Leites and Gerald Meerschaert and is looking to keep that momentum going as he tries to crack into the top 15. This is another fight that could go either way, Branch’s inconsistency is a concern as Hermansson has looked near-flawless in his wins. My pick: David Branch

The main event Saturday night is a gift to MMA fight fans. Edson Barboza is one of the most dynamic strikers in the UFC and that includes having the hardest leg kicks in the sport (just ask Mike Lullo and Rafaello Oliveira). Barboza has only had one small losing streak: a two-fight stretch from December 2017 to April 2018; he has fought the best in the division, including wins over Paul Felder, Anthony Pettis, Gilbert Melendez and most recently taking out the streaking Dan Hooker at UFC on FOX 31 – a fight that was one for the books. Justin ‘The Highlight’ Gaethje is an enigma, he is a NCAA Division I All-American wrestler, but you wouldn’t be able to tell that from his fights. Gaethje went 17-0 with 14 KO’s while competing for the WSOF, capturing the lightweight title and defending it five times before signing with the UFC. In his first fight, he put on a classic FOTN against Michael Johnson and finished him in the second round. Since then he is 1-2, suffering his first loss to Eddie Alvarez and then Dustin Poirier before picking up a win against James Vick in August. Between the two, Barboza and Gaethje have 13 fight night bonuses and have both ended fights via leg kicks. Gaethje’s brawler style is a lot of fun to watch, and Barboza is no stranger to battles, but as the less dynamic striker it might be wise for Gaethje to finally use his wrestling this time. I don’t see that happening. My pick: Barboza wins the battle of the leg kicks

We caught up with the former Cage Warriors lightweight champion to discuss his plans for 2019 as well as the MMA Culture in gyms, including ones in his hometown of Liverpool.

Danty: So tell me, where is your head at following your win in Prague?

Chris Fishgold: I just want to get straight back in to be honest. The win was amazing, you know? I’ve never been finished before, prior to me loss against Kattar. So I had a lot of nerves coming into this fight to be fair. While I’m still in everyone’s face and everyone is still speaking about the win I thought let’s get back in. Let’s keep the ball rolling.

D: What’s the MMA culture in Liverpool like?

CF: You know what? To be fair, It’s massive. I started in 2007. Back then, and I think everyone knows, MMA wasn’t as massive as it is now. I was fighting in little sports tours. I was 15 or 16 when I started. The guys back then who were coming up from the city were tough guys. There was already a lot of people that were known from MMA, like Paul Cahoon. He fought some big shows. Terry Etim, he was in the UFC. Jason Tan, he’s been in the UFC. I think from there we’ve always been a fighting city. Boxing has always been massive. We pride ourselves in our boxing, in our combat sports. MMA sort of took its place from there. I’ve seen it grow and grow. When McGregor came, not just for the UK but in the world in general, he got people that may have seen the sport as brutal to be interested in it, to get involved. The class has grown from when he started to what it is now. Every other person in the city is training MMA,  fighting in MMA, or know somebody who’s fighting in MMA. It’s good that we have a fighting city; we’re never short of training partners or sparring partners or people on the mat in the city.

D: Do you see fighters today coming up to compete in the UFC like you did, or with the same fire?

CF: Yeah, straight up. Not just here, I trained all over the world. Done a little bit of training in the states. I went to Thailand and train there, I went to Australia to train there. Everywhere I go, I see hungry kids training. Where I started, it becomes obsessive. They come once, the next thing you know they’re in the gym as often as you are. They’re learning, taking stuff in. When you start, you’re kind of like a nail, not like a bullying type, but because it’s so technical you’re always the nail; You are going to get tapped. Everyone learns that way by doing that and I see these kids get tapped a few times from a couple of things. You see how they move. You wait a couple of months and they still come back every day. And, I see them doing stuff differently, rolling. It’s good to watch. I see that all around the world. Whether it’s kids or adults, when they come in you see that personality. There’s only a few left to have that addictive personality, that want to do it more. It’s just really great to see. I just hope that they stay at it. The sky’s the limit when you stay at it with repetition. As long as people stay focused they’ll go all the way.

D: There’s quite a bit of activity in the featherweight rankings. What’s your assessment of the division?

CF: I think the  featherweight division is stacked. Aldo beat Jeremy [Stephens] so he’s still in the mix. You got Zabit, you still have Jeremy Stephens; he’s a hard match for anyone. Still got Alex Volkanovski, you got Brian Ortega who just fought for the title. Featherweight’s one of those stacked divisions because everyone’s still got that knockout power but you’re really quick as well. It’s so fast. That was a transition when I dropped down to featherweight. I forgot how fast these guys were when I had to do that. I think my fight with Kattar was a bit of ring rust. Like I said, it was an eye-opener. You can dominate the fight all the way through but it takes that one shot. People are a lot more composed and stuff. From my personal opinion, I think it’s a stacked division. But that’s also great because you never stop to show your skills set. My plan is fight by fight, taking my time. By the end of 2019 I’ll be in the top 10. I think I’d get me ring rust out of me. The last fight was a bit chaotic. Due to me being nervous I feel like I should have finished them within the first round. He just got the better of me I was thinking “Shit, if I lose this…” Nevertheless, I got the win I want to take one fight at a time. I just want to climb the rankings and see where I end up.

D: So, it will be slow, steady climb through the rankings then?

CF: No, no. I figured I’d be making some noise on the along the way. Like I said when I got Kattar he was a top 15 featherweight in the division. I got caught by a lucky shot but I feel I could stand equal against him. I felt like I dominated up until I got caught. I think nine times out of ten I beat Kattar. I feel was just like a lucky shot like I said I do want one more fight but then I’ll start I start climbing up. I’ll see who my next fight is. If I get a top 15 for the weekend or if you give me someone who’s not ranked again but I think the fights after that I’ll start calling people out. Nevertheless, I’m grateful for whoever they get me. It’s my dream to be fighting in the UFC but you do want to be progressing, you know?

D: How is the recuperation going? I recall you saying you wanted to get the London card but you have a 1 month medical suspension?

CF: Oh, yeah. Actually, what I read was they said it was 180 days. If you can look at my finger.

After the fight I don’t know if it was from a grab or a bad angle. If you can see it, I still need to get that sorted but apart from that it feels so-so. Now, I can still make a fist with it. I don’t know if I went for a guillotine or whatever. They said one month but I read up again and it said a hundred eighty days. I’m going to get this sorted this week and as soon as they let me fight, I want to fight again. I spoke to Sean[Shelby] after the fight. I thanked him for giving me the opportunity to fight once again in the UFC. “We’ll get you back fighting as soon as possible,” he said. And, I’m grateful I’m living the dream I just want to stay active keep the ball rolling. I said it enough times: It’s the entertainment business, so it took me a long time. But, I learned you’re only worth as much as the amount of people that want to see you fight, so I’ll keep going. I want to go at a hundred miles an hour and have these entertaining fights.

Chris Fishgold will face Makwan Amirkhani when the UFC heads to Stockholm, Sweeden for UFC on ESPN+ 10 on 1st June 2019.

Frankie Saenz won three different titles before joining the UFC; he won the WFF Featherweight Championship in his fourth professional fight, improving to 4-0 before losing his next two. With a record of 4-2, he fought for the Coalition of Combat Featherweight Championship, and won via majority decision. He then made both his bantamweight debut and KOTC debut, winning the KOTC Bantamweight Championship, and defended it twice before vacating it to join the UFC with an 8-2 record. He won his first three fights in the UFC, a unanimous decision over the 4-1 Tim Ticman, a unanimous decision over the 32-5 Iuri Alcantara, and a split decision over the 12-2 Sirwan Kakai.

Sanez then went on a little bit of a rough patch, and dropped his next three. The first of which he went into with an 11-2 record, and fought the former WEC Featherweight Champion Urijah Faber. Urijah almost finished Frankie in the second round but Frankie gutted through it and made it to the scorecards. His next fight would also be against a former WEC Champion, this time the former bantamweight king, Eddie Wineland; he was doing great in the fight, and most even had him winning it, before getting dropped with a beautiful right cross and finished moments after, about two minutes into round three.

His next outing was against the 5-1 Augusto Mendes, who’d only fought once in the UFC in a losing effort to Cody Garbrandt. Mendes has 17 medals in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, ranging from the Pan American Championships, to the World Championships, to the Brazilian National Championships, to the World Cup, and many more. Augusto was able to out wrestle Saenz, getting four takedowns to the Division I wrestlers zero, and was able to out strike him by 25 more total strikes. Frankie Saenz lost this fight via split decision, and I was just hoping that he wouldn’t get his pink slip from the UFC.

He didn’t get cut, and his next fight was against Merab Dvalishvili in December 2017, the fight didn’t really go his way, but the decision did. Many thought Merab did enough to win the decision, but he fell short via split decision. It was a competitive, back and fourth fight for sure, Saenz landed more significant strikes with 58 to Merab’s 47, and had better accuracy with them; however, Merab landed more total strikes with 104 to Frankie’s 66, and also landed eleven takedowns to Frankie’s zero. It’s not all bad though, Merab Dvalishvili is still in the UFC, and if Frankie Saenz would’ve lost this fight, he wouldn’t be.

His last fight was a good performance against Henry Briones, who he out struck in both total strikes and significant strikes, and was able to gain four takedowns, and gave up none; that’s much better than his last couple fights. He appears to be on the right track again, he is however 38 years old, I have to wonder how much he has left. Marlon Vera just turned 26, and is not an easy opponent either, he’s an elite mixed martial artist.

Marlon Vera is a very dangerous fighter, everywhere. He has nasty Muay Thai, and high level Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu; he can knock you out, he can submit you off his back or from the top, he has relentless, aggressive pressure. He’s no fun for anyone that fights him. Before being forced off The Ultimate Fighter: Latin America with a skin infection, he went 1-0 on the show with a KO win over Henry Briones, that’s a guy Cody Garbrandt couldn’t knock out that he starched with an upkick. Marlon made his UFC debut with a record of 6-1-1; he started off his UFC career 1-2, losing to guys he’d almost indefinitely beat at this point, as he dropped a pair of unanimous decisions to Marco Beltran and Davey Grant, and inbetween the defeats had a triangle choke victory over Ramon Salzar. He was so young then, he has evolved into quite the dangerous, well rounded, high level cage fighter.

By this time he was 7-3-1, and he was about to start his first UFC win streak, firstly he picked up a unanimous decision over Ning Guangyou. He next defeated Brad Pickett via head kick and punches at 3:50 of round three in a very entertaining fight, and next won via armbar against Brian Kelleher, a guy who submitted BJJ black belt Iuri Alcantara in his UFC debut. At 10-3-1, he would drop his next two, both via unanimous decision to John Lineker and Douglas Silva de Andrade. Firstly, I think he’d win the de Andrade rematch, but that’s my opinion, and secondly I think it’s very impressive simply just to not get knocked out by John Lineker. He is back to his winning ways with a pair of second round finishes, as he picked up a TKO over Wuliji Buren last August; and submitted the man that replaced him on TUF, Guido Cannetti, a fight he won via rear naked choke. Marlon Vera is absolutely a finisher, he has three wins via knockout, seven wins via submission, and two wins via decision; while his opponent Frankie Saenz also hold three wins via knockout, he has just two submissions, and eight decisions. Mr. Saenz also holds a blue belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, but I’m not sure it will hold up against Marlon’s submission game, we will see! Out of Saenz’ losses, two are knockouts, two are decisions, and one is a disqualification; and out of Vera’s losses, all five are decisions, he’s tough as nails, as is Frankie.

As I said, both of these guys are looking to make it three in a row; Frankie Saenz is on a two fight decision streak, and Marlon Vera’s on a two fight finish streak. Marlon is 5’8” and Frankie is 5’6”, and Marlon has a five inch reach advantage on Frankie; however, it is generally easier for wrestlers to have success when they’re the shorter party, and Saenz has never been submitted before. 13-5 vs 12-5-1, NCAA Division I vs BJJ black belt.

Who takes it?

Barber had cut her teeth in Legacy Fighting Alliance to begin her career, going 4-0 with three finishes (two by submission, one by ground and pound). Barber’s ground and pound has been on display her last three fights, and when she gets on top and in position, there’s very few who’d be able to withstand it. In her last fight for LFA against Audrey Perkins, Barber caught Perkins’ kick and transitioned to a straight armbar before finishing the fight with relentless G&P.

After her LFA run, Barber was invited to main event Dana White’s Tuesday Night Contender Series and didn’t disappoint. In the 3rd round, Barber finished Jamie Colleen with that same ground and pound that ended her last fight and scored a contract.

Barber then made her debut at UFC Denver last November and faced off against fellow newcomer Hannah Cifers. Barber opened a lot of eyes with a brutal 2nd round stoppage of Cifers while taking minimal damage in the fight.

Barber wants to be a household name along with being the youngest UFC champion ever, and she has a little under 3 years to do so. Standing in her way this weekend is J.J. Aldrich. Aldrich is on a 3-fight win streak after losing her debut, besting Chan-Mi Jeon, Danielle Taylor and most recently Polyana Viana at UFC 227. Barber will make the move to flyweight, where she will have more strength and power to add to her skillset. You can watch ‘The Future’ open up the main card.

UFC Fight Night: Thompson Vs. Pettis streams live on ESPN+ with the main card starting at 8:00PM ET/5:00PM PT.

These three words also serve to describe the American Top Team mainstay’s approach after falling victim to a straight left from Till early on before landing a vicious knockout on the Liverpudlian in the second round.

After a shaky opening minute, Jorge forced a change in the tide in hostile territory and he began fighting from the fence and countering ‘The Gorilla’ on numerous occasions.

Despite the damaging shots from ‘Gamebred’, Till called the striker on and payed the ultimate price mid-way through the second round – a left overhand which completely switched his lights off.

Masvidal followed up with a right hand, and after Darren collided with the canvas beneath, he was met with a left hand before Marc Goddard peeled him off.

Till was ranked at third in the UFC welterweight division heading into the clash. The vicious victory over the one time title challenger in Till will surely catapult him through the top ten into a potential title eliminator at the very least.

Leon Edwards: Bad blood is almost an understatement at this stage.

A heated altercation between the two after the culmination of Saturday’s card resulted in Jorge landing a “three piece and a soda” on Leon, who interrupted his post fight interview with Laura Sanko.

Edwards is alleged to have called for a July meeting with Masvidal which resulted in Jorge’s retaliation, and this ‘beef’ between the pair is sure to escalate in the coming days and weeks.

Edwards looked great against submission specialist Gunnar Nelson in the co-headliner and called for the winner of the subsequent main event in his Octagon interview with Dan Hardy. How about the UFC pit them together for UFC 239 during International Fight Week?

Ben Askren: One man with a keen eye on proceedings on Saturday night was recent UFC debutante Ben Askren. The undefeated wrestling phenom was in attendance at the O2 Arena and was widely expected to be paired off with the main event winner.

‘Funky’ Ben and Darren Till exchanged some barbs via Twitter in recent weeks, but Jorge’s emergence from London with the victory sets up a tantalizing bout with the former ONE FC lightweight kingpin.

A successful debut win over Robbie Lawler, albeit a vexed win, seen the Olympian slotted right in at the number six spot at 170lbs. Similarly to a potential Edwards meeting, a July date would be ideal for this one.

Stephen Thompson vs. Anthony Pettis Winner: Despite spending some considerable time in the same division in among the upper echelon contenders, Jorge Masvidal and Anthony Pettis are yet to meet in the Octagon. This striking affair becomes a legitimate possibility if the division jumper Pettis overcomes ‘Wonderboy’ Thompson in Nashville this weekend.

The three men in question are absolute snipers on the feet in contrasting ways. A bout would be sure to offer fireworks.

Despite already meeting back in late 2017, Thompson and ‘Gamebred’ could easily run it back considering the ongoing personal issues Masvidal was dealing with and has since thankfully resolved.

Kamaru Usman: The least likely match up realistically, but the champ is supposedly chomping at the bit at the prospect of defending his crown against Jorge Masvidal.

Usman displayed a flawless grappling game to neutralize long time champion Tyron Woodley at UFC 235 and is already chalked up to fight Colby Covington in the coming months once he recovers from surgery on his broken foot.

I’m sure Jorge also has no problem leapfrogging fellow American Top Team teammate, Covington into contention judging by his post fight comments where he expressed how “his kids need to eat and go to college”.

Who is your favourite matchup for the Miami based scrapper? I think we can agree, whomever is considered, they are all offering fireworks.

The UFC is back in London at about the same time they were last year, and the card is headlined by Liverpool’s Darren Till and Jorge Masvidal, who is back in action for the first time since November 2017. The co-main event pits streaking Leon Edwards against Iceland’s Gunnar Nelson and filling out the card is an important light heavyweight matchup between Volkan Oezdemir and Dominick Reyes, London’s own Nathaniel Wood and the return of Joe Duffy.

The preliminaries kick off @ 1:00PM ET/10:00AM PT with the main card starting @ 4:00PM ET/1:00PM PT streaming live on ESPN+.

Main Card (ESPN+ 4:00PM ET/1:00PM PT)

• 5-Round Welterweight Bout: Jorge Masvidal def. Darren Till via KO (punch) 3:05, R2
• Welterweight Bout: Leon Edwards def. Gunnar Nelson via split decision (28-29, 29-27, 29-28)
• Light Heavyweight Bout: Dominick Reyes def. Volkan Oezdemir via split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)
• Bantamweight Bout: Nathaniel Wood def. José Alberto Quiñónez via submission (rear-naked choke) 2:46, R2
• Welterweight Bout: Cláudio Silva def. Danny Roberts via verbal submission (armbar) 3:37, R3
• Catchweight Bout (188): Jack Marshman def. John Phillips via split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)

Preliminary Card (ESPN+ 1:00PM ET/10:00AM PT)

• Featherweight Bout: Arnold Allen def. Jordan Rinaldi via unanimous decision (30-26, 30-27, 29-28)
• Lightweight Bout: Marc Diakiese def. Joseph Duffy via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
• Light Heavyweight Bout: Saparbek Safarov def. Nicolae Negumereanu via unanimous decision (29-26, 29-26, 29-27)
• Featherweight Bout: Dan Ige def. Danny Henry via submission (rear-naked choke) 1:17, R1
• Women’s Flyweight Bout: Molly McCann def. Priscila Cachoeira via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
• Featherweight Bout: Mike Grundy def. Nad Narimani via TKO (punches) 4:42, R2

Cristina Ferguson who lives in the Santa Ana area of California along with her husband and son, has ordered the restraining order after multiple, separate incidents which are reported to have occurred at their home since January.

Ferguson hasn’t been arrested nor charged with any crime but a domestic violence hearing is scheduled to take place on April 5th.  Details of the apparent incidents are scarce at the moment, but it is reported that the order was issued after Tony took the pair’s two year-old child back to the family home before changing the locks.

Cristina and their son have since left the house after a police check up on Tony, and unidentified sources claim how he “had not slept in three days, broke apart the fire place and believed someone had placed a computer chip in his leg.” The second source worryingly tells us how Ferguson had made the claim that “someone was inside his walls”.

A phone call was made to the police by Cristina Ferguson after leaving the family home, where she claims Tony “kept throwing ‘holy water’ at her”. Ferguson has not been deemed a threat to himself or others after eventually agreeing to get an evaluation. UFC President Dana White briefly commented on the situation, telling how Ferguson was dealing with some “personal issues”.

Ferguson himself tweeted:

It remains to be seen how this incident plays out, but Cristina Ferguson has since released a statement via her lawyer regarding the ongoing matter

“Tony Ferguson is a good husband and good father to our son. The current legal proceedings are a part of a process to ensure that Tony will receive the help necessary to continue being the best possible husband and father, as well as to pursue his passion and career as a UFC champion fighter. All positive well wishes are sincerely appreciated and I hope our privacy will be respected”.

Since his showstopping win over Conor McGregor, the Eagle has made a decision to pause his activity in MMA in protest to the severity of charges placed on him because of the post-fight brawl at UFC 229, in comparison to Conor’s, by the Nevada Athletic State Commission.

During the UFC 229 melee post win, corner mates Zubaira and Abubakar were caught in the scrap inside of the cage after Khabib jumped outside of the cage to attack Dillon Danis. Both have received fines and suspension sentences for their part in the altercation as well.

The 30-year-old’s voluntary absence resulted in a stall in the lightweight, at which point the UFC president Dana White along with matchmakers decided to create an interim fight between the #3 ranked lightweight Poirier and The featherweight champion Max Holloway.

For the time being, Nurmagomedov is still in Dagestan taking this time interacting with the citizens of his country, waiting out the sentence.

Volkan Oezdemir seems like he came out of nowhere when he was picked up by the UFC. A former kickboxer and Bellator fighter, Volkan made his debut in 2017 and won a split decision against former title challenger Ovince Saint Preux. In his next fight, he stopped the hype train and 8-fight win streak of Misha Cirkunov and then dropped title contender Jimi Manuwa. Both of those fights ended in under a minute, which explains the nickname ‘No Time’. Since then, Volkan has dropped two straight – to then champion Daniel Cormier and most recently Anthony Smith. Now on the first losing streak of his career, Volkan is in a must-win situation as the light heavyweight picture is heating up.

It’s hard to believe that Dominick Reyes debuted back in 2017 when he seems like a fresh addition to the light heavyweight title picture. The 29-year-old Reyes is undefeated at 10-0 and had one bout in LFA before signing with the UFC. Reyes finished Joachim Christensen, Jeremy Kimball, Jared Cannonier and had a near-finish on former title challenger Ovince Saint Preux back in October. Reyes is excited for the ‘brawler vs. kind-of-boxer’ matchup this weekend and is ready to show the division that it’s ‘his turn’.

UFC Fight Night: Till Vs. Masvidal streams live on ESPN+ with the main card starting at 4:00PM ET/1:00PM PT.

The Chicago card takes place on June 8th from the United Centre but it is yet to be determined if Shevchenko and Eye headline the event.

Shevchenko secured the title back at UFC 231 in a vacant title bout with former foe Joanna Jedrzejczyk in a largely one sided unanimous decision, while challenger Jessica Eye established her title tilt in a less dominant decision victory over Katlyn Chookagian.

After an unsuccessful siege of the 135lbs crown against stalwart Amanda Nunes back in 2017, Valentina found instant success a Flyweight. Paired in a largely debated scheduling with Priscila Cachoeira, the Kyrgyzstan native exacted a brutally one sided beat down leaving the Brazilian cover in claret before picking up a rear-naked choke victory in the second round. 2-0 heading into her trilogy with former Strawweight champ Joanna Jedrzejczyk, the similarly technical striker Shevchenko outpointed Joanna throughout their five round affair on her way to her premier promotion championship reign. Shevchenko may have clinched the title sooner on in her Flyweight rebirth but an initial clash between herself and inaugural champion Nicco Montano fell out back at UFC 228 resulting in the vacant title match.

Perennial contender for sometime now a division lower, former Bantamweight prospect Jessica Eye has earned her first title shot in her six year stint in the organisation. We’ve also witnessed an incredible turn around in Eye’s fortunes since her move to 125lbs, ending an astonishing four fight slide last year to find herself riding a three fight win streak heading into this championship pairing. Facing the stiffest of competition at Bantamweight, Eye dropped defeats to former world champion Miesha Tate, title challengers Bethe Correia and Sara McMann and TUF 18 victor Julianna Pena, although she was severely undersized for the division. The Ohio native seen a successful return to Flyweight at the start of 2018, picking up victories over Kalindra Faria, Jessica-Rose Clark and the aforementioned Chookagian.

UFC 238 takes place on June 8th from the United Centre in Chicago, Illinois, with two potential title eliminators announced recently. The Strawweight division will witness a shake up this summer with Rose Namajunas attempting to defend her throne against Jéssica Andrade in hostile Brazil, and either striker’s opponent will be determined after UFC 238, as Tatiana Suarez meets Nina Ansaroff. On the other hand, whoever leaves Chicago with the Flyweight crown is expected to meet the winner of Katlyn Chookagian and Joanne Calderwood’s clash.