6 reasons why you should not miss UFC 221
With UFC 211, the MMA leader will host its first event in Perth, Australia. The previous 11 fight cards have given us some historic moments, including Ronda Rousey's shocking upset loss to Holly Holm and Hunt vs Bigfoot I, arguably the greatest heavyweight fight in the organization's history. This fight card shows a lot of promise too and with Valentine's Day just around the corner, the UFC are showering the host crowd with a lot of love by featuring local favorites like Mark Hunt, Tai Tuivasa, Jake Mathews and not in the least, Israel Adesanya.
UFC 211 was rumored to be headlined by a Middleweight title unification bout between Undisputed Champion Georges St. Pierre and Interim Champion Robert Whittaker, health issues have rendered both of them unable to compete. An Interim title bout was set up between former champ Luke Rockhold and Yoel Romero, but since the latter missed weight, only Rockhold will be eligible to win the title. But despite the blemish on the main event, the rest of the card has plenty of must-see reasons to leave fans talking about this event for days to come. Let's take a look at a few of them:
#6 Damien Brown vs "Maestro" Dong Hyun Kim
With Ross Pearson, Jussier Formiga and Israel Adesanya, even the prelims of UFC 221 are pretty stacked and this fight could be the pick of that undercard. Both Brown and Kim have been involved in two of last year's Fight of the Year candidates so it suffices to say that we're dealing with two combustible elements here.
Kim has the momentum with two wins heading into this bout while Brown will look to add to his 'win' column after 2 losses. If their last few fights are anything to go by, the Ozzy crowd could be in for a barnburner with FOTY potential.