The Ultimate Fighting Championship made its return to internet streaming and national television last weekend, as Dana White and crew packed up for a three-event extravaganza across the span of 7 days. With the coronavirus pandemic causing the majority of sporting events to postpone their events, it was a mere handful of weeks before the UFC was back in action. Let’s take a look back at the accomplishment and discuss some early predictions for UFC 250.
Three nights in Florida
The UFC was the first major sporting organization that returned to regularly scheduled programming this week, and they sure as hell didn’t fail to deliver. First of all, we were gifted with the most stacked pay-per-view event in recent memory, UFC 249, where Tony Ferguson fought a replacement for Khabib Nurmagomedov in Justin Gaethje. Besides the heavily popular main event, the entire UFC 249 event presented an array of familiar faces, in turn selling a huge number of pay-per-views.
The main event matchup was, as expected, nothing short of incredible. Whilst a huge number of fans expected Ferguson to come out victorious, it was Justin Gaethje who walked away with a TKO stoppage. The large amount of damage taken by Ferguson left him disorientated, the fight became unbearable to watch and probably should’ve been stopped earlier.
Four days after the success of UFC 249 the production crew were busy preparing for their second event in Jacksonville, Florida. UFC Fight Night 173 airing live on ESPN+ matched the same level of excitement as the weekend’s PPV did, and the fighters delivered once again. The headliner between Anthony Smith and legend Glover Teixeira produced exactly what it said on the tin, carnage. Although, another shock main event win came as the underdog Glover outclassed Smith from start to finish.
The third and final event to take place in Jacksonville was the second Fight Night event of the week and was headlined by Walt Harris taking on Alistair Overeem. The implications involving Harris’s personal life was always going to make any matchup a difficult one, and after nearly finishing Overeem in the first round, Harris lost his cardio as Overeem overtook and dominated. An eventual stoppage left a sense of lingering sadness but the event was still a huge success.
“It feels good,” UFC president Dana White told reporters at the post-fight news conference.
“I’m happy to have it behind me. It was successful in every way it could be successful. I feel great about it. More importantly, nobody is sick. Nobody has gotten sick. There’s no guarantee in life, but hopefully, that’s the case and we all go home. It was a great event. It was a great week.”
All three events that were in Jacksonville, Florida were held at the VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena with no audience in attendance, which notably made for an awesome sound experience during the broadcast. Echoes of body blows, head kicks and haymakers were exceptionally awesome. We’ve been here before with ‘The Ultimate Fighter’ and ‘Dana White’s Contender Series’ but seeing the elite of the UFC in an empty arena was a first.
What’s next for the UFC?
UFC President Dana White was originally hoping that Nevada would’ve lifted restrictions before the week in Florida came to an end, allowing him to move forward with the scheduled Fight Night event on the 23rd of May. The UFC Apex centre will be the temporary home, but not until Nevada lift the restrictions. The May 23rd event has been rescheduled for May 30th, whilst UFC 250 will take place on the first of June.
UFC 250 main event prediction
The greatest female fighter in UFC makes her return to the octagon to kick-off the UFC’s summer run of events. Given the coronavirus doesn’t wreak any more havoc on planet earth then we should be gifted with an incredible performance from the ‘lioness’.
Her opponent, Felicia Spencer, has certainly held her own since joining the UFC was quickly exposed when she was matched up with Cristiane ‘Cyborg’ Justino. Ok, she managed to avoid the knockout or TKO but for 15 minutes Cyborg was able to have her way with Spencer. So, as we approach this fight from a betting perspective, what are we looking for?
The value is the priority and currently, the odds available at BetOnline are rapidly declining. The Nunes opening line was -400 and has quickly drifted to -450. An early sign that the public is very interested in Nunes considering we are three weeks away from the event taking place.
The question remains, is she worth the -450? I think so, yes. As Cyborg proved, Spencer looks incredible against the lower level competition but fighting a technical striker is her kryptonite and that will cost her dearly versus the greatest female fighter in the UFC. If the -450 is too steep for your bankroll then Nunes makes for a perfect accumulator/parlay contribution.
