3 UFC Fight Night events where stars were born
A UFC Fight Night event is meant to be a lower-tier set of events with cheaper access than PPVs. Fight Nights usually take place on the weekends before PPV events to raise hype for the same.
However, these are by no means to be taken lightly. Any UFC fan knows that a lot of great fights take place during UFC Fight Nights. In addition, these events have given birth to the careers of several future stars of the UFC by giving them their promotional debut in the preliminary or main cards.
On that note, here are 3 UFC Fight Night events where stars were born:
3) UFC Fight Night: Bisping vs. Le
The event headlined a fight between Michael Bisping and Cung Le. It also gave birth to the career of top welterweight contender and former UFC Interim welterweight champion Colby 'Chaos' Covington.
On the preliminary card for this event, 'Chaos' faced Wang Anying in a welterweight bout. Covington scored a spectacular first-round TKO victory by way of ground-and-pound.
Covington went on to become one of the most polarizing fighters present in the UFC due to his trash-talking skills and his patronage by former American President Donald Trump.
2) UFC Ultimate Fight Night 5
This Fight Night was one of the initial Fight Night events that happened all the way back in 2006. The event gave birth to the legendary career of the longest-reigning future UFC middleweight champion, Anderson 'The Spider' Silva.
Silva was scheduled to fight Chris Leben in the co-main event. 'The Spider' knocked out his opponent in the first round, thus making an explosive UFC debut. Silva went on to have a spectacular 16-fight win streak in the UFC, starting with this fight.
To this day, Silva's winning streak is the longest in the promotion's history.
1) UFC Fight Night: Nelson vs. Story
Being the third UFC event in Sweden, it was headlined by a welterweight bout between Gunnar Nelson and Rick Story. Current UFC light heavyweight champion Jan Blachowicz made his promotional debut the same night on the main card.
The Polish fighter had his first UFC fight against Ilir Latifi. Blachowicz landed a liver shot in the first round by throwing a body kick that had Latifi curled to the ground in pain. Jan Blachowicz immediately finished the job with punches, thus showing the UFC its first instance of 'Polish power'.
After some ups and downs in his MMA career, Blachowicz defeated Dominick Reyes at UFC 253 by TKO to claim the vacant light heavyweight belt.
Jan Blachowicz made his first title defense at UFC 259 against the undefeated UFC middleweight champion Israel 'The Last Stylebender' Adesanya. The Polish champion won via unanimous decision, handing the Nigerian native his first professional MMA loss.
Israel Adesanya came into the fight as the betting favorite, owing to his brilliant striking skills and star power. However, he was not only out-grappled but also out-struck by the UFC light-heavyweight champion.