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The UFC is returning to Manchester, England on Saturday, July 27th for the first time since 2016 with a big time card in UFC 304. The English crowd is sure to be crazy…if they are awake. Unfortunately for them, the UFC decided to cater to the United States audience and keep the (mostly) usual start time for the show. Therefore, I’ll be enjoying the main events at the late hour of about midnight while the live crowd will be craving breakfast and sleep. Despite the time debate, this card is pretty exciting. Let’s take a look at the lineup…
Main Card (10 PM - ESPN+ PPV)
Leon Edwards vs. Belal Muhammad for the Welterweight Championship
Tom Aspinall vs. Curtis Blaydes for the Interim Heavyweight Championship
Paddy Pimblett vs. King Green
Christian Leroy Duncan vs. Gregory Rodrigues
Arnold Allen vs. Giga Chikadze
Preliminary Card (8 PM - ESPN/ESPN+)
Nathaniel Wood vs. Daniel Pineda
Molly McCann vs. Bruna Brasil
Caolan Loughran vs. Jake Hadley
Modestas Bukauskas vs. Marcin Prachnio
Early Preliminary Card (6 PM - ESPN+)
Oban Elliott vs. Preston Parsons
Muhammad Mokaev vs. Manel Kape
Sam Patterson vs. Kiefer Crosbie
Mick Parkin vs. Lukasz Brzeski
Shauna Bannon vs. Alice Ardelean
The Prelims
I’m hoping the live crowd stays hot for the whole show, but if not - then at least they’ll be excited for some of the Prelim bangers. Let’s take a look at what I’m looking forward to…
Shauna Bannon will be kicking things off and I’m curious to see if she can shake off the first loss of her career, which took place in her UFC debut, her last time out.
Mick Parkin might be low on the card again, but he’s been stringing together some decent wins and is still undefeated. The local guy will get the cheers.
Muhammad Mokaev vs. Manel Kape being on the Early Prelims is very interesting. It’s a hell of an early fight, as it could be on most Main Cards - maybe even headline a Fight Night. No one knows the true reason why it’s low on the card (yet), but if you know Manel Kape, you know not to fully trust him. He hasn’t been the most reliable fighter recently, so a lot of people are worried about this fight taking place. If it does, though, it could have an important impact on the Flyweight Division.
I can’t wait to see Oban Elliot again. I hope he worked on some of the things from his last fight. However, I just love his character. His interviews are great and he is someone that you can easily get behind if you enjoy a little bit of character work in MMA.
Molly McCann looks to be completely motivated and back on track now that she’s in the Strawweight Division. This will be her second fight in the division and she looks great in the lead up. A big win on Saturday will solidify her as someone to look out for in the rankings.
Nathaniel Wood vs. Daniel Pineda is a great way to end the Prelims. There’s a good chance that this one will be a banger and get the crowd hyped in the very late hours.
Arnold Allen vs. Giga Chikadze
Giga Chikadze was one of the more exciting fighters during 2020, but unfortunately hasn’t fought much over the last couple of years. Everyone is hoping that, win or lose on Saturday, this is a fight that gets him back to fighting every few months. It’s a big test, though. Despite losing his last two fights, Arnold Allen is still ranked #6 in the Featherweight Division. Both men will be looking to get back on track, in more ways than one, to make a case to knock on the door of the Top 5.
Christian Leroy Duncan vs. Gregory Rodrigues
Gregory Rodrigues is 4-1 in his last five fights, all of which went to a knockout finish. Of his 15 wins, 10 have been by knockout and 3 by submission. Christian Leroy Duncan is 10-1 with 8 of those wins being finishes (7 by knockout). Basically, what I’m trying to say is this: don’t go get a snack. Don’t go refill your drink. Don’t go to the bathroom. Honestly, don’t even blink. You might miss something really awesome.
Paddy Pimblett vs. King Green
Paddy Pimblett is riding a seven fight win streak that started off with many fans getting excited for him. Due to a questionable win against Jared Gordon and worries over weight fluctuation, some fans have soured on him. Some fans also worry about him sticking with fights, as he almost pulled out of this one due to mental health issues (which people might not have liked, but would have been valid). And you know what? Sometimes, when you want to test a person to see if they can truly hack it, you send in King Green. This will be Green’s 50th fight of his career. While his career has been up and down, he is currently ranked #15 in the Lightweight Division and is viewed as one of the gatekeepers of the division. He loves to finish guys and tends to try and get into scraps, which doesn’t always work in his favor. Either way, after Saturday - we’ll know just how tough Paddy Pimblett truly is.
Tom Aspinall vs. Curtis Blaydes
This will be for the “Interim” Heavyweight Championship. Of course, the “real” championship is currently in limbo with Jon Jones and Stipe Miocic. Therefore, there are a lot of people calling this a fight for the “real” title. I’m cool with that as these two men are absolute warriors. In a rematch from 2022, everyone is hoping that the finish of this fight ends differently. The first time around, Tom Aspinall injured his knee and couldn’t continue. Since then, though, he has returned looking better than ever - going on a strong run that landed him the “Interim” Championship. Curtis Blaydes has only fought twice since then, losing to the very tough Sergei Pavlovich and putting a big pause to the Jailton Almeida hype train in a win. Both Aspinall and Blaydes are strong on the ground, with Aspinall having an edge in the submission game. While Blaydes does have power in his hands, Aspinall has been lethal with his hands in his career. Therefore, I give the overall advantage to Aspinall. However, anything can happen on Saturday and I’m looking forward to how Aspinall adjusts to Blaydes, who just might be his toughest matchup to date.
Leon Edwards vs. Belal Muhammad
This is another rematch. Just like with Aspinall and Blaydes, everyone is hoping that this Leon Edwards vs. Belal Muhammad fight ends differently than the first fight - where an accidental eye poke rendered Muhammad unable to continue. Since that fight, both men have gone undefeated and now face each other for the Welterweight Championship. The fighter bringing that title into the Octagon is Leon Edwards, who has had a very impressive run of beating Nate Diaz, Kamaru Usman (twice), and Colby Covington since his fight with Muhammad. Belal Muhammad has had one more fight in that time, but the competition hasn’t necessarily been as tough as what Edwards faced. Either way, both men have improved greatly since the last time that they fought. Edwards will be looking to prove that he can have a long run with the title, while Belal will be trying to make everyone eat their words with the chip that he has on his shoulder. This is going to be a great scrap that will probably test each man’s cardio.
My Picks
Leon Edwards
Tom Aspinall
King Green
Christian Leroy Duncan
Giga Chikadze
Nathaniel Wood
Molly McCann
Caolan Loughran
Modestas Bukauskas
Oban Elliott
Muhammad Mokaev
Sam Patterson
Mick Parkin
Shauna Bannon
This is definitely a card worthy of a big time PPV. I feel bad for the live crowd, but I’ll be enjoying it from my couch at a relatively decent time. I guess I’ll never take watching PPVs at 10 PM for granted again. Like I said earlier, though, time debate or not - this is a really good card and I’m truly looking forward to watching it on Saturday.
What do you think? Who will be walking out as the two champions on Saturday? Who else will have a great performance? Let me know at matt.tenhoeve@gmail.com. I’ll be back next week to take a look at the results and talk about the shows that will be taking place next week. See you then!
