Roundtable: What’s the best UFC event of the summer slate?

Alexander K. Lee https://ift.tt/BJZyMT5

Khamzat Chimaev | Photo by Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC

The UFC’s summer season is upon us, and there’s no shortage of championship bouts, grudge matches, and guaranteed bangers to look forward to. But when it’s your hard-earned dollars we’re talking about, little discretion is necessary even for the most hardcore fight fan.

With that in mind, MMA Fighting’s Alexander K. Lee, Mike Heck, and Jed Meshew took a closer look at the upcoming slate of pay-per-view events and made their picks for which UFC show is most deserving of your $80.

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Heck: I’ll go with UFC 317, the UFC’s annual International Fight Week pay-per-view card.

There’s a lot of meat on the bone in terms of storylines, talking points in the aftermath, and most importantly, meaningful fights. Ilia Topuria fighting Charles Oliveira for the vacant lightweight title may not have been everybody’s first choice, but it’s a damn good matchup and so much can come from it. Lightweight is going to be in an interesting place in the fallout of this card, and regardless of the result, Topuria will be the headline grabber for several weeks following.

Photo by Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC

Ilia Topuria

I will be honest and say I don’t love the flyweight title fight, mostly because, in my opinion, the man who should be challenging for the title is fighting on the same card in a different fight with Manel Kape facing Brandon Royval. But any time Alexandre Pantoja fights, you get to see one of the best on the planet compete, and Kai Kara-France is never in a boring fight.

Plus, Paulo Costa vs. Roman Kopylov is weird and silly, Dariush vs. Moicano is a good one, Jack Hermansson is back against Gregory Rodrigues, and Viviane Araujo vs. Tracy Cortez has stakes in the flyweight division. It doesn’t appear as if the fight card is complete either, so I think the UFC will make a big deal out of it. Topuria and Oliveira are both supremely over with the fan base, and having a main event with so much pre- and post-fight sizzle makes the excitement levels only rise. I’m looking forward to this card, gentlemen, even though it’s not the greatest IFW card we’ve ever seen.

Lee: You guys know I’m going full weirdo with this one. That’s right, I’m advocating for UFC 316.

I tend to get more and more excited for an event the closer it gets to fight night, and this is no exception as I’ve gradually warmed up to all the June 7 matchups and the potential silliness that might ensue. No, I’m still not thrilled with Sean O’Malley getting an instant rematch with Merab Dvalishvili, but at least Dvalishvili defended his title in O’Malley’s absence, and there is an undeniable spark between the two—let’s just hope that carries over into the cage this time.

Photo by Cooper Neill/Zuffa LLC

Kayla Harrison

Really, if we’re talking bantamweights, it’s the grudge match on the women’s side that is more compelling. Julianna Peña, love her or hate her, is one of the few women’s 135ers right now that can consistently get a reaction and her fights always leave fans talking (even if what they’re talking about is Peña being too tough for her own good and winning questionable decisions *cough* UFC 307 *cough*. A fight between the UFC champion and Kayla Harrison, MMA Fighting’s No. 1 bantamweight, has been the one to make for a while, even with an Amanda Nunes comeback looming, and we’re going to learn a lot about Peña and Harrison by night’s end.

The rest of the card is such a mixed bag, I can’t help but love it. Kelvin Gastelum vs. Joe Pyfer has fresh heat after their UFC Mexico bout was cancelled due to a Pyfer illness, followed by Pyfer making some dumb comments about the country. Mario Bautista welcomes former PFLator star Patchy Mix to the, uh, mix in a bout no one would have predicted 12 months ago. And Kevin Holland makes his third (!) appearance this year in a perfect matchup against veteran Vicente Luque.

Add in a fire matchup between Bruno Silva and Joshua Van on the prelims, and an equally spicy matchup between “Salsa Boy” Waldo Cortes-Acosta and Serghei Spivac, and I am all the way in.

Meshew: I’d like to thank both of my esteemed colleagues for not stepping on my corner, both because I am obviously the one who should talk about this man, but also because it’s the right answer. I’m speaking, of course, about UFC 319 and Dricus du Plessis defending his middleweight title against Khamzat Chimaev.

Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC

Dricus du Plessis

Khamzat Chimaev is the Prince Who Was Promised. Since his breakout year in 2020, basically everyone believed that would be the year Chimaev would finally claim a UFC title. Initially, we thought it would be at 170 pounds, but now he’s finally getting the chance at 185 pounds. And his opportunity comes against a man who couldn’t be less similar.

Almost immediately after joining the UFC, people began to dismiss du Plessis. They called “DDP” sloppy and goofy, and steadfastly refused to believe he was elite despite his results. I say “they” because I was not one of them. I was one of the earliest adopters of “Stilknocks” as an elite middleweight, picking him to beat Robert Whittaker when people told me I was crazy. Well, who is crazy now? Yes, DDP is unconventional, but he’s also the best, and this fight with Chimaev is incredible.

Chimaev’s brutal efficiency vs. du Plessis’s effective brutality: that’s what I need in my life. Could Chimaev ragdoll DDP en route to a first-round stoppage? Sure. Could DDP survive one round and then out-HOSS a fading Chimaev, despite looking like he is close to passing out? Absolutely. This fight is the middleweight equivalent of two walruses smashing into each other on an unbalanced sheet of ice. Anything could happen in there, and I can’t wait for it.

So, sure, we don’t know anything else about UFC 319, but it doesn’t matter in the slightest. The UFC could fill the undercard of this one with 24 Contender Series signees, and I won’t care at all. This main event is all I need.

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