UFC 266 Preview

Two title fights and the return of a legend are the main headlines for the UFC card this weekend. Alexander Volkanovski defends his featherweight belt for the 2nd time against TUF rival Brian Ortega, whilst Valentina Shevchenko looks to continue her flyweight dominance against the in-form Lauren Murphy. As well, the return of a certain Nick Diaz has been the talk of most of the media, as you can imagine. He will be taking on former welterweight champion Robbie Lawler, in a rematch that first took place 17 years ago, with Diaz knocking out Lawler in the 2nd round.

Elsewhere on the main card, two ranked clashes take place, as no.4 heavyweight Curtis Blaydes takes on no.6 Jairzinho Rozenstruik and no.1 women's flyweight Jessica Andrade is facing no.5 Cynthia Calvillo.

There is definitely a lot of food for thought on the main card, however, there are some potential fight of the nights on the prelims too. Marlon Moraes takes on the Georgian machine Merab Dvalishvili, with the former looking to get back on track after a two fight losing streak at the hands of Rob Font and Cory Sandhagen.

The other fight to look out for will be Dan Hooker against Nasrat Haqparast, Hooker has made it well known this week via social media that he was struggling to get his VISA sorted due to the restrictions in New Zealand. Fortunately though, he has that problem solved now and can focus on cutting weight and preparing for the fight.

It was recently announced in the past 12 hours that Dana White is wanting the Diaz-Lawler fight to be fought at 185lbs. Both men usually fight at 170 (welterweight), it must be mentioned that these two have competed at this weight before, Diaz's last fight in the UFC was at Middleweight against Anderson Silva, whilst Robbie competed there at Strikeforce too. We will have to see if Dana gives us his exact reasoning behind this decision.

I am heavily invested in this main event, I think Volkanovski has a case for being the most well rounded fighter on the roster. His integration of crisp, intelligent striking and offensive wrestling makes it difficult to outmatch him in a particular area. If there's one fighter as of now, to seriously challenge the Australian (apart from Max Holloway), it's Brian Ortega. His performance against TKZ was a showing of slick and technical striking, something he had clearly worked on since his hiatus after a painful defeat to Holloway. If you tie in his high level BJJ too, Ortega could most definitely match Volk on the ground. Looking at it from this angle, common sense would be thinking that the champ will use his pressure and striking to outwork Ortega, whilst the latter may stay reserved and pop out his jab, looking for openings to take the fight to mat.

I will certainly try to break down the other title fight and the Diaz-Lawler 5 rounder too. These posts will be up before fight night if they are completed.

Thanks for reading.