3, 2, 1: A stacked UFC card, women in BKFC spotlight & some returners
With everything starting to open up around the world, MMA has been able to thrive once again. Especially regional MMA. Nowadays, there are so many options for fight fans to watch around the world thanks to UFC Fight Pass and various other streaming platforms.
This week alone, people can tune into BKFC 19, B2 Fighting Series 127 & 128, Colorado Combat Club 7, Ohio Combat League 14, Fury FC 48, and another phenomenal UFC Fight Night, Saturday evening. With options, comes questions; so The Scrap decided to put together a new column — a one stop shop titled ‘3, 2, 1.’
Most weeks we will feature three fights to watch, two fighters to keep an eye on, and one regional card you can’t miss.
3 FIGHTS TO WATCH
Maycee Barber vs. Miranda Maverick
This is a matchup between two of the UFC’s top young prospects in the entire promotion. Barber is now coming off her second loss in a row, and finds herself fighting to stay in the rankings at #14. Maverick is riding an opposite wave of momentum, climbing the rankings while sitting at #13 currently. With both women being under 25 years old, they have long and bright futures ahead of them regardless of the result on fight night.
Adrian Yanez and Randy Costa find themselves in a similar situation. With both fighters being 27 years old, they are primed to stake their claim a top 15 opponent. Yanez has burst onto the scene with 2 impressive TKOs since joining the UFC. He will be fighting for the third time within a calendar year of earning his Contender Series contract. Costa has bounced back from his first professional loss in his UFC debut. He has won 2 fights in a row, with just as many first round TKOs. The winner of this scrap will have plenty of hype, and it will be warranted.
Paige VanZant vs. Rachael Ostovich
The fight between Paige VanZant and Rachael Ostovich has so much buzz around it. The two have fought before, when they were in the UFC. Paige won that meeting via submission, which will obviously not be the result in this meeting. Ostovich makes her debut in the sport of Bare Knuckle Boxing as she transitions away from MMA. VanZant lost her Bare Knuckle debut after signing with BKFC in her free agency, so she’s going to want to get that first win under her new promotion.
2 FIGHTERS TO WATCH
After defeating Paige VanZant last time out, Britain Hart returns to the BKFC ring in the co-main event of BKFC 19. This time, she faces Jenny Savage. If you’re not familiar with Jenny, she’s the one who interrupted Britain’s post-fight speech after the biggest fight of Hart’s career. So there is serious bad blood here, making this a must watch fight.
With a win, Hart could make yet another claim for BKFC to promote her like the star she is. Her post-fight speech went viral, she’s looking better than ever, and seems to be coming into her own under the promotion.
After over a year of inactivity, “The Shadow” makes his return to the Colorado Combat Club cage in the promotion’s main event. Khai is an exciting bantamweight with a great stand up game. He brings lots of eyes when he fights and hopes to elevate the Colorado-based promotion while representing Taiwan.
With a win, it will extend his win streak to fight-straight wins. It will also put Wu in an interesting position amongst the regional bantamweight division.
1 REGIONAL CARD TO WATCH
Filled with a bunch of quality scraps, Fury FC 48 is the regional card to watch this week. It’s always nice when you think fights are done with for the week after the UFC cards on Saturday and then there’s a Fury card on Sunday.
Though there are several quality fighters, two matchups that stand out are Alec Williams vs. Kolton Englund and Levi Mowles vs. Teruto Ishihara. Englund will hope to punch his ticket into a future main event title fight, while Mowles looks to punch his ticket into the big leagues.
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