UFC makes its return to Brooklyn this Saturday, Jan. 19 at the Barclays Center with UFC Fight Night 143. This is the first-ever event that will be exclusively on ESPN+.
The one women’s fight will be the Flyweight division. 24-year old Paige VanZant, 7-4-0 will face off against the 27-year old Rachael Ostovich who is 4-4-0.
This will be VanZant’s first fight in over a year after suffering a fractured arm in her Flyweight division debut last January.
VanZant has gained extreme popularity since her debut fight back in 2014. Since then, she has received some backlash from the fans. Most of the fans accused her physical attractiveness as the reason for her rising popularity.
Ostovich has been in the news recently as well. It was reported back on Nov. 18 that she was involved in a violent domestic assault incident. It came out that her husband, Arnold Berdon who is also a professional MMA fighter, violently assaulted her in their Hawaii home.
Ostovich suffered a broken orbital bone as well as other injuries but after a second opinion, she was cleared to go forward with the fight.
The main event, which has the Flyweight championship belt on the line will feature two of UFC’s most notable fighters.
The 31-year old Henry Cejudo, 13-2-0 will try to defend his belt against the 32-year old Bantamweight champion, T.J. Dillashaw who is 16-3-0.
Cejudo will have his hands full Saturday when he defends his Flyweight title for the first time in his career. This could potentially be the most difficult title defense in UFC history.
Cejudo is already a very skilled wrestler but he has recently developed a karate style of striking to add to his repertoire. One of Cejudo’s weaknesses is that he has not shown a lot of potential for finishing his fights. So it seems that he will have to try to outpoint Dillashaw in order to come out victorious.
Dillashaw is arguably one of the best fighters in the UFC right now. He just recently defended his title against Cody Garbrandt back in August. He is a very good defensive wrestler but many say his most formidable weapon is his ability to read and analyze his opponent’s weaknesses throughout the fight.
If Dillashaw comes out on top, he will be just the fourth UFC fighter in history to hold two different championship belts at the same time. He would join the company of Conor McGregor, Daniel Cormier, and Amanda Nunes.
Saturday’s UFC Fight Night 143 coverage is exclusively on ESPN and ESPN+. The Preliminary cards begin at 6:30 p.m. ET on ESPN+ and 8 p.m. ET on ESPN. The main event will begin at 10 p.m. ET only on ESPN+.
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