If you are a fan of the Ulimate Fighting Championships, the next 6-7 weeks will have you salivating. The organization known as the leader in Mixed Martial Arts, will have no less than five (5) different events in two different countries, with one being televised on free tv.
To get things started will be UFC 80, which goes down this Saturday night, January 19th in Newcastle, UK. This event will feature the title fight between lightweight contenders BJ ‘The Prodigy’ Penn vs Joe ‘Daddy’ Stevenson. There is also a heavyweight contender match between Gabrial ‘Napao’ Gonzaga vs Fabricio Werdum.
Four days later on January 23rd, the UFC returns home to Las Vegas, with UFC Fight Night 12. This event will be broadcast live on Spike Tv and will be headlined by Mike ‘Quick’ Swick making his welterweight debut vs Josh Burkman. The event is jam packed with talent with other big bouts like Canadian Patrick ’The Predator’ Cote vs Drew McFreddies, Alvin Robinson vs Nate Diaz and other big names like Thiago Tavares, Kurt Pellegrino, Gray Maynard, Cole Miller and the much anticipated return of Corey ‘The Real Deal’ Hill.
Ten days later, on February 02nd, the UFC has their next big pay per view event with UFC 81. The main event will see Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira take on Tim Sylvia for the UFC’s Interm Heavyweight Championship. This event will also showcase the debut of former WWE champion Brock Lesnar, as he takes on former UFC heavyweight champion, Frank Mir.
While it appears the UFC may be taking a full month break before their next event, it may be because they will return rather quickly with two pay per views within the span of one week. UFC 82 is scheduled for March 01st, in Columbus, Ohio and will be headlined by Anderson ‘The Spider’ Silva defending is UFC Middleweight Championship vs Pride Middleweight Champion, Dan Henderson.
Rumour has it that seven days later, on March 08th, the UFC will return to London, England for UFC 83. This event appears to already have a few fights signed as it looks like hometown hero Michael ‘The Count’ Bisping will make his middleweight debut vs Charles ‘Chainsaw’ McCarthy. This event will also mark the return of fan favourite Houston ‘The Nebraskin Assasin’ Alexander, as he takes on James Irvin.
All this bodes well for major UFC content as we get closer to the UFC’s debut in Montreal, April 19th, for UFC 84. This event will be headlined by Georges St.Pierre, as he looks to unify his newly acquired interm welterweight title with current champion, Matt Serra.
Be sure to listen to ‘The Showdown’ this Thursday night as I will have many more updates on the Montreal card, as well as UFC 80 updates from Neil Davidson from The Canadian Press, who will be on location to give us the scoop. Also on the show, we’ll hear from BJ Penn and Joe Stevenson.
