56°F
weather icon Mostly Clear

UFC doubleheader highlights busy Saturday schedule

A week after one of the biggest days in mixed martial arts, the sport gets set for one of the busiest 24-hour periods in history on Saturday.

One week after UFC 205 finally brought the sport to New York after a decade-long battle, three fight cards are on the docket.

Not only will the UFC hold two events on two different continents, but Bellator MMA has a major event of its own in San Jose, California.

It all starts early Saturday morning with UFC Fight Night 99 in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

The main card, which will be headlined by a middleweight rematch between Uriah Hall and Gegard Mousasi, begins at 1 p.m. PST.

The entire card will stream exclusively on the UFC’s online platform, Fight Pass. The preliminary card begins at 9:30 a.m.

While Hall has been incredibly short during media appearances this week, he is the one who emerged from the first meeting with Mousasi victorious. The book on Hall has been that he’s an incredibly gifted striker who just hasn’t been able to put it all together on a consistent basis.

That certainly wasn’t the case against Mousasi, one of the top middleweights in the world.

Hall used a flashy, yet brutal, jumping striking combination to knock him out in the second round in September 2015. That spectacular performance was followed by consecutive losses to Robert Whittaker and Derek Brunson.

Mousasi has gone the opposite direction since the the first meeting. He has won three straight fights, including two straight knockout wins since July.

Though Mousasi is quickly rising up the rankings, he is intent on avenging the only loss he’s suffered since 2014.

‘I’ve trained for him before so this time I just made some little adjustments,” Mousasi said. “I have a slightly different game plan and I’m ready to fight. This is nothing personal. He is a nice guy; I have nothing against him. I respect him for giving me the rematch. He won the first fight fair and square, but now I can settle the score.”

The card also includes a lightweight bout between Ross Pearson and Stevie Ray.

Las Vegan Kevin Lee will take on lightweight Magomed Mustafaev on the preliminary card, which also includes a flyweight bout between former flyweight title challengers Kyoji Horiguchi and Ali Bagautinov.

UFC Fight Night 100, which airs on Fox Sports 1, will complete the organization’s doubleheader halfway around the planet.

It will mark the seventh time the UFC has held two cards on one day and the first since November 2014.

Reno native Ryan Bader will fight Antonio Rogerio Nogueira in the light heavyweight main event on the nightcap card in Sao Paulo, Brazil. It is also a rematch.

Bader has won six of his last seven fights, including a second-round knockout of Ilir Latifi in September. He won a unanimous decision over Nogueira in 2010, but believes it will be a completely different fight.

“Our first fight happened six years ago and I feel that I have grown a lot as a fighter since then,” Bader said. “The way that I win may be the same, but I want them to see that I improved a lot. I have fought in Brazil, I respect my opponent and the Brazilian fans. Energy is energy even if it is against me, I feel their passion and that motivates me.”

Nogueira has dropped two of his last three, but is coming off a first-round knockout of Patrick Cummins in May.

He’s excited to be on the marquee for an event in his native country.

“I started doing this sport when almost nobody knew it in Brazil and today I am headlining a card in the country,” he said. “It’s a dream come true, without a doubt. This fight means a lot to me. Besides the rematch, it confirms the good moment I am in after knocking out Cummins in Curitiba. Bader is a strategic guy, strong, likes to go to the ground, but I am conscious of everything that I need to do to take out his game.”

The main card, which begins at 6 p.m., also includes top women’s strawweight contender Claudia Gadelha looking to bounce back from a narrow title loss to Joanna Jedrzejczyk in July when she takes on Cortney Casey.

Four fights from the preliminary card will also air on the network at 4 p.m. The other two bouts on the preliminary card will stream on Fight Pass at 3, immediately following the UFC Fight Night 99 main card.

The UFC events have plenty of competition on Saturday.

Bellator 165 features a title bout and a showcase fight for one of the organization’s biggest stars.

Former UFC lightweight champion Benson Henderson will challenge Michael Chandler for the Bellator lightweight belt.

It will be Chandler’s first defense since re-claiming the belt in June with a win over Patricky Freire. Henderson unsuccessfully challenged Andrey Koreshkov for the welterweight belt in his Bellator debut in April, then claimed the top contender spot at lightweight with a victory over Patricio Freire in August when Freire suffered a leg injury.

The event also features undefeated welterweight prospect Michael “Venom” Page, one of the most exciting fighters in the sport.

Page, who has stopped 10 of his 11 opponents in the cage, will take on Fernando Gonzalez on a card that will air live on Spike TV at 6 p.m.

Contact Adam Hill at ahill@reviewjournal.com or 702-277-8028. Follow @adamhilllvrj on Twitter.

Don't miss the big stories. Like us on Facebook.
THE LATEST