A Crowded End For The UFC in 2019

A Crowded End For The UFC in 2019

By James Lee

Usually the issue of the biggest fights possible filling the biggest events of the year can be a struggle for the UFC, but with just over three months left of the year, that issue has been reversed and too many of the sport’s biggest names are set to miss out on fighting again this calendar year.

Earlier this year especially saw a period of uncertainty around the main event for UFC 233 in January due to a lack of available champions and it led to the event being cancelled. But now at the end of the year, the UFC have the opposite problem.

Too many champions are available with only one pay-per-view left to perform on, that being UFC 245 on December 14th.

The October and November pay-per-view cards are set in stone, leaving just that one card.

October 5th will see the UFC head to Australia for a middleweight fight between champion Robert Whittaker and interim champion Israel Adesanya. No second title fight is scheduled for that card, despite talk of Max Holloway vs Alexander Volkanovski co-headlining.

The November event will be the UFC’s annual event at Madison Square Garden, but oddly, Dana White has announced that the main event of Jorge Masvidal and Nate Diaz will have no title fights underneath it.

Although Diaz versus Masvidal is a hugely credible main event, having no championship on the line is confusing. A co main event of Kamaru Usman versus Colby Covington makes complete sense for the card considering the main event as well but that won’t be the case.

Even a co headliner featuring Valentina Shevchenko or Weili Zhang defending their title would make sense.

Ultimately, that card being full leaves one pay-per-view left this year with multiple champions wanting to fight on it. The UFC have already announced that Amanda Nunes will defend her bantamweight title against Germaine de Randamie on that card, but multiple champions and stars are battling for a maximum of two spots.

Valentina Shevchenko, Weili Zhang, Henry Cejudo, Max Holloway, Khabib Nurmagomedov, Kamaru Usman, Jon Jones and Stipe Miocic are all champions with possibilities of fighting again this year. Only a maximum of two of them will be on UFC 245.

Jon Jones has teased a big fight soon so he looks to have secured his spot on that event, but talks of Khabib Nurmagomedov and Tony Ferguson have also been made.

The featherweight title fight has been tipped to feature on that card as well but not all fights that have been suggested will be set in stone.

Potentially Valentina Shevchenko could headline a Fight Night event but only the South Korea event doesn’t yet have a main event spot. Her headlining in Russia would have made sense but they are going with Junior Dos Santos vs Alexander Volkov.

The UFC 244 announcement has basically ruled out Conor McGregor’s return this year as well. In order for him to feature on the December card, there would be no Jon Jones or Max Holloway and therefore that is highly unlikely.

Usually the UFC host a pay-per-view event late in December but that isn’t the case this year. Potentially a big event could be in January however many fighters don’t like to prepare for a fight during the Christmas period.

Of course, UFC matchmaking has always been based on circumstance. An issue of too many fighters being available is the best issue possible and a complete contrast to the beginning of the year.

It will be interesting to see how the biggest names in the sport line up over the next few months.