The UFC returns to Sin City for International Fight Week with the UFC 290 pay-per-view event. The card is stacked as the headliner features a featherweight title fight between current champion Alexander Volkanovski and interim champion Yair Rodriguez. The co-main event features a title fight as flyweight champion Brandon Moreno and challenger Alexandre Pantoja.
With plenty of other great fights on the card, let’s take a look at all of the action taking place this weekend.
UFC 290 Prelim Card
Lightweights kick off the action as Kamuela Kirk battles Esteban Ribovics. It should be a competitive affair, but Ribovics is expected to edge this one.
Shannon Ross takes on Jesus Aguilar in a flyweight scrap. In what should be another competitive three-rounder, Aguilar is just about expected to come out on top.
Cameron Saaiman battles Terrence Mitchell in a bantamweight tilt. Expect Saaiman to remain undefeated and go 9-0 as he is a massive favorite.
Light heavyweights are also in action as Vitor Petrino clashes with Marcin Prachnio. Petrino looks very likely to go 9-0 and maintain his undefeated career record.
Tatsuro Taira faces Edgar Chairez in a catchweight contest. This one is pretty straight forward -- the undefeated 13-0 Taira is a massive favorite and is all but guaranteed to get the victory.
Jimmy Crute is in action when he takes on Alonzo Menifeld in a light heavyweight battle. Crute is winless in his last three with his last fight being a majority draw against Menifield. But despite that result -- which saw Menifield deducted a point -- the Australian is just about favored to edge the rematch.
Women's strawweights collide when Yazmin Jauregui goes head to head against Denis Gomes. Like the other undefeated fighters on the card, Jauregui is expected to add another win to her record and come out on top.
Exciting welterweight Jack Della Maddalena returns to action when he takes on short notice opponent Josiah Harrell. No surprises here -- Maddelena is a massive favorite and should get a finish.
The featured prelim sees the retirement fight of former welterweight champion Robbie Lawler as he battles Niko Price in a 170-pound contest. The UFC did their job in finding a heavy hitter to face “Ruthless” that will stand toe-to-toe. Lawler is a big underdog and I like a play to cash in as the legend gets a KO in his final bout of his career.
UFC 290 Main Card
Nickal (4-0) vs Gore (5-2)
Bo Nickal will look to continue his winning run when he faces Val Woodburn on short notice in a middleweight fight. Nickal was originally expected to face Tresean Gore before the latter had to pull out, which likely saved him a loss. Prior to that, Gore was a massive underdog and it’s the same case for Woodburn who is expected to lose his own undefeated record against the wrestling standout.
Anything can happen in MMA, but the safe money is on Nickal taking him down and getting an early finish as he’s done in his four career fights so far. The Nickal train should continue down toward a future title shot.
Turner (13-6) vs Hooker (22-12)
Jalin Turner returns to action against lightweight veteran Dan Hooker. Turner recently suffered his first defeat in five fights after getting outpointed by Mateusz Gamrot at UFC 285 back in March. Prior to that, he held wins over the likes of Brad Riddell, Uros Medic and Jamie Mullarkey. He’ll be looking to return to the win column as well as earn arguably the biggest win of his career over Hooker.
Hooker recently returned to the win column with a TKO victory over Claudio Puelles at UFC 281 in November last year. However, prior to that, he had lost four of his last five and Turner is a big step up from Puelles. It'll be interesting to see if Hooker can still hang with the ranked lightweights, but the oddsmakers don't see things that way as Turner is favored to get the win.
Whittaker (25-6) vs Du Plessis (19-2)
An exciting middleweight brawl is on the cards as former 185-pound champion Robert Whittaker battles Dricus du Plessis with the winner getting in the mix a shot at Israel Adesanya’s title at UFC 293. Whittaker remains perfect at middleweight anytime he’s not fighting Adesanya.
He is undefeated against every middleweight not named Adesanya since 2014 and following his close rematch defeat to “The Last Stylebender”, Whittaker rebounded with a dominant victory over fellow former title challenger Marvin Vettori.
Du Plessis, meanwhile, remains undefeated in the UFC. The South African brawler is 5-0 with the promotion and is coming off victories over the likes of Brad Tavares, Darren Till and Derek Brunson. But despite continuing to get wins against all odds, Du Plessis looks very overmatched against “The Reaper” who is simply better than him in every facet of MMA.
It’s no surprise that Whittaker is a solid favorite to win and it’s worth putting money on him getting a rare finish as well given the gas tank of Du Plessis.
Moreno (21-6-2) vs Pantoja (25-5)
The first of two title fights features Brandon Moreno defending his flyweight crown against Alexandre Pantoja. Moreno finally ended his rivalry with Deiveson Figueiredo after a TKO (doctor stoppage) win in their fourth fight to unify the flyweight titles. Prior to that, the Mexican star notably won the interim flyweight title with a TKO win over Kai Kara-France.
However, the Mexican faces his boogeyman in Pantoja who has defeated him at an exhibition as well as the professional level. Their first meeting in 2016 saw Pantoja submit him at The Ultimate Fighter before the Brazilian outpointed him in 2018. Pantoja has also won four of his last five and should be extremely confident given the circumstances.
That said, Moreno has reached another level since 2018 and is notably four years younger than Pantoja as well. It should still be a close contest, but Moreno should finally break the curse and come out on top against the “Cannibal”.
Volkanovski (22-5) vs Rodriguez (16-3, 1NC)
The main event features a highly-anticipated featherweight title unification fight between Alexander Volkanovski and Yair Rodriguez. Volkanovski is coming off a razor-thin unanimous decision defeat to Islam Makhachev at UFC 284.
However, his stock certainly didn’t go down in the defeat as he not only performed much better than expected, but many believed he did enough to beat Makhachev having arguably the toughest fight of his career.
While it was a first loss in the UFC, Volkanovski still remains perfect at featherweight. His last win at 145 pounds saw him dominate Max Holloway in their trilogy fight back in July.
On the same night Volkanovski tested Makhachev, Rodriguez won the interim featherweight title after submitting Josh Emmett. It made it three wins in the last four for Rodriguez who will now get his first chance at becoming a UFC champion.
Unsurprisingly, Volkanovski is a big favorite over the Mexican star…but it won’t be easy. After all, Rodriguez is an accomplished kickboxer who is very dangerous off his back as well – “The Great” cannot afford to make mistakes.
He's the pound-for-pound best fighter in the UFC for a reason and is arguably the most well-rounded fighter in the promotion today. At the age of 34, could Volkanovski slow down? Could “El Pantera” use kicks to keep the distance and win rounds? A very intriguing fight, and with so many unanswered questions a play on the Mexican underdog might be the move to make here.
