UFC Pivoting Towards a New Main Event for This Weekend’s Fight Card: Here’s What to Look Forward To?
With Amir Albazi withdrawing from his main event matchup this weekend against Tatsuro Taira, the UFC has pivoted in a new direction and called in undefeated HyunSung Park. With Joshua Van beating Brandon Royval at UFC 317, he is next in line for a title shot. Regardless, both of these Flyweights can put themselves right at the top of the line with an impressive victory, having neither faced the current champion, Alexandre Pantoja, yet. Many casual fans will look at this fight card and plan on skipping it due to its underwhelming nature. However, I will break down fights that will keep you in your seat and entertained throughout. Most of the time, the lack of star power on fight cards makes the athletes fight even harder to make a name for themselves. Skipping this card could mean missing out on the next big athlete in any weight class.
Elves Brener vs. Esteban Ribovics
Elves Brener is a relentless animal who is always moving forward, trying to back his opponent up and get the fight to the ground where he excels. His comeback victory over Guram Kutateledze showed that no matter how badly he’s being beaten, he never gives up and is never out of a fight. Esteban Ribovics is a dangerous striker who, on the feet, is as good as anyone. He was in a three-round war with Daniel Zellhuber, where he was able to come back and win the fight by split decision. Both of these fighters will be in each other's face and aggressively looking for a finish. Both have an exceptional ability to recover, so we could be in for another three-round war, or there will be a breathtaking stoppage.
Chris Duncan vs. Mateusz Rebecki
Mateusz Rebecki is one of those fighters; when you look at his physique, you have no idea how he can make 155. He is a tank who has no real weak points besides his cardio, which he showed to be good enough to win an absolute bloodbath against Myktybek Orolbai last October. He is a good striker with big power, dangerous leg kicks, and good grappling ability. He is always looking for a finish and looking to do the most damage possible every time he throws. Chris Duncan is a high-level wrestler with really good Jujitsu. He is coming off back-to-back victories where he was able to submit both of his opponents. He has heavy hands and is always aggressive with his forward pressure. This is gonna be a battle that could spend a lot of time in the pocket with wild exchanges. Duncan is going to be in Rebecki’s face for the first two rounds nonstop and could wear him down enough to look for a potential finish. Either way, there is going to be a lot of action and hard-hitting exchanges in this fight, and both fighters, even with a loss, are worthy of being in the top 15 of the Lightweight Division.
Tatsuro Taira vs. HyunSung Park
Tatsuro Taira looked like the most dangerous title challenger in the Flyweight Division. He was undefeated with a record of 16-0 and was set up for a title shot shortly. However, he ran into a roadblock in Brandon Royval last October and showed his inexperience throughout the fight. With that main event under his belt and a new motivation to improve the areas of his game that are lacking, he should be a completely different fighter this time around. The fight against Amir Albazi was going to showcase how good his wrestling and grappling truly are, as both fighters excel in that area. We would have seen how much improvement his stand-up game has gotten over the past year. Now he’s matched up with Hysunsung Park, who, since joining the UFC, has been nothing but a finisher. He has finished all three of his fights. He’s a well-rounded fighter with a 90% finish rate and has only seen ten third rounds of a fight twice. This is going to be action-packed from the start, and with this fight being on a week's notice, there’s not much game planning for Park to do, so he will be pushing the pace and going all out because he has nothing to lose.
This fight card doesn’t have the star power that fans look forward to, but it has some good match-made fights that should be exciting for fans throughout. A big performance from many of these athletes could set them up for a ranked fight in their near future. You're not going to want to miss all the action this Saturday, August 2nd. The main card starts at 9:00 p.m. EST.
