UFC Paper

By Will Derryberry

UFC 296 recently finished, which had the welterweight champion Leon Edwards easily defeat loudmouth trashtalker and former interim champion Colby Covington in a unanimous decision. Covington built up the fight very well, constantly poking jabs at Edwards and promoting the fight wherever and whenever he could. He even got former president Donald Trump to make an appearance at the event. The tension and animosity was so high that in the last press conference before the fight, Covington brought up Edwards’ late father which led Edwards to charge at Covington and throw his microphone at him. After the press conference, this brought Edwards to tears because his father is such a sensitive subject to him but after the fight, Edwards claimed it made him even more determined to bury Covington. 

The UFC pound for pound rankings were released and no change has been made in the top six. The top six remains the same with lightweight champion Islam Makhachev sticking at the top, heavyweight champion and someone that many think is the best fighter of all time, Jon Jones ranked #2, featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski at #3, welterweight champion Leon Edwards at #4, light heavyweight champion Alex Pereria at #5, and lightweight number one contender Charles Oliveira at #6. 

The next three UFC events are coming up soon with UFC 297’s main event being middleweight champion Sean Strickland against bitter rival and #2 middleweight contender Dricus Du Plessis. UFC 298’s headliner is the unstoppable force of the featherweight division Alexander Volkanovski facing off against the undefeated Ilia Topuria. UFC 299 features the always unpredictable Bantamweight champion Sean O’Malley vs the #6 contender Marlon Vera.

All of these events are highly anticipated but the event that has UFC fans waiting on the edge of their seat is UFC 300 in April. Every 100 UFC pay-per-views the fight card is always extremely stacked with all of the top fighters competing. Since UFC 290, UFC president Dana White has been planning who should be on the card. UFC 300 is so special because most of the fights before the main events, called the prelims, would be main event-worthy fights on any other UFC PPV. 

There haven’t been any big time fights announced yet, but there are five fights that all fans want to see on potentially the biggest UFC event of all time.

First, the man Sean Strickland beat for the middleweight title is Israel Adesanya. Adesanya is one of the most popular fighters on the roster, bolstering a dominant middleweight champion run to his resume but after the loss, Adesanya claimed he would be taking time off to focus on himself. However, now that Adesanya’s long-time bitter rival Alex Pereira is the light-heavyweight champion, Adesanya might be wanting to finally sit down his rival. After Pereira’s win over Jiří Procházka for the light-heavyweight title, Pereira called out Adesanya in a post fight interview, telling him to,” come to daddy.” Adesanya has been very nonchalant about the situation, but he has been seen training in the octagon so many believe he will be making his presence felt at UFC 300. These two each have a win against each other in the UFC and fans around the world want to see the grudge match between them and see the feud finally come to an end.

Second, women’s flyweight champion Alex Grasso and strawweight champion Zhang Weili have both said they want to put their titles on the line against each other. Grasso escaped with a controversial split draw in her rematch with Valentina Shevchenko in September 2023 and then underwent surgery on her hand in October 2023. Grasso should be ready to return to the Octagon by April, and there has already been talk of her battling strawweight champion Zhang Weili in a champion-vs-champion matchup. UFC 300 needs and is likely to get some diversity in the way of a significant women’s fight or two, and this one makes the most sense. Weili’s most logical next challenger at strawweight is Tatiana Suarez, but she faces Amanda Lemos in February. The winner of Erin Blanchfield-Manon Fiorot on March 30 would appear to have a beeline toward Grasso. In the meantime, the two top pound-for-pound fighters of the women's division facing off against each other would be excellent additions to the UFC 300 card.

Next, Leon Edwards has publicly stated that he wants to defend his welterweight title at UFC 300. Many believe that he will look to become a double-champion and challenge the lightweight champion Islam Makhachev or the winner of the Sean Strickland vs. Dricus Du Plessis fights for the middleweight championship. While this seems like a big-money-move, Edwards still hasn’t conquered the welterweight division. Before he can try and become a double champ, he must beat two fighters first: Belal Muhammed and Shavkat Rakhmonov. Both have strong cases, with Rakmonov coming off a huge win against welterweight great Stephen Thompson, continuing his undefeated streak, and Muhammed coming off 9 straight wins. Overall, Muhammed deserves it more simply because he’s more due for a title fight. Muhammed has been overwritten for years now and now is the perfect time to finally give him a chance at the title. Rakmonov can fight the winner. Also, Edwards and Muhammed have been due for a rematch since their March 2021 clash ended in an accidental eye poke by Edwards just 18 seconds into the second round and left Muhammed unable to continue. This fight would have huge animosity and build up and would be a clash of different fighting styles.

The fourth and most unlikely fight is Brock Lesnar vs the interim Heavyweight champion Tom Aspinal. Now this is very far-fetched, but Lesnar has returned to the octagon out of nowhere before for UFC 200. Lesnar is one of the biggest names in UFC history, making a huge name for himself in the WWE where he would then prove that he could fight, claiming the heavyweight championship in 2008. Lesnar is still in tremendous shape despite the ripe age of 46 and he is currently on a hiatus from WWE. Aspinal also currently doesn’t have a contender for his interim championship and with a little convincing and some serious money, Lesnar could be going back to the octagon one last time and if he can pull off a win, potentially the biggest fight in UFC history would be made: interim heavyweight champion “The Beast” Brock Lesanar vs the Heavyweight champion and the UFC GOAT, Jon “Bones” Jones.

The last and biggest fight that fans all around the world are dying to see is the showdown of the captains of the UFC fighting show, The Ultimate Fighter: Michael Chandler and Conor McGregor. If you have ever heard of the UFC, you know who Conor McGregor is. He needs no introduction. The “Notorious” one is arrogant, flashy, and dominant and he is the richest UFC fighter of all time. 8 of the top 10 most bought UFC PPVs all feature a McGregor main event, truly a one of a kind fighter. Michael  Chandler is a hard hitting lightweight who has shown much promise in his recent fights. He has the best knockout potential in the UFC, with his punches and kicks coming from out of nowhere with perfect accuracy. McGregor and Chander will fight eventually, but it’s about when. If McGregor and Chandler agree to fight at UFC 300, this fight would be one of the most-watched main events in UFC history.

UFC 300 is looking to be massive, with stars everywhere on the card. Imagine 3+ title fights on one card. A dream come true for UFC fans. Now, these 5 fights are all hypothetical but if they happen, which isn’t unlikely, then UFC 300, without a doubt, will go down as the biggest UFC event of all time.