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In what has already been declared the biggest fight in the history of mixed martial arts, former two-division champion, Conor McGregor, returns to the Octagon Saturday for the first time since 2016, while he faces the current king of lightweights Khabib Nurmagomedov. The likely pairing of the two best 155-pound hunters in the world is on the UFC 229 map in Las Vegas, which is expected to break the pay-per-view record with a grudge match that intensified in April when McGregor attacked a bus. carrying Nurmagomedov a few days before UFC 223 in Brooklyn, New York.
An arrest for crime and some trial dates later, we fight ourselves. But it is equally important to note that we also have a strong co-main event and a fairly exciting underlying map, rich in interesting intrigue.
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Let's take a closer look at the biggest competitors that will arrive on Saturday at the T-Mobile Arena.
1. Did Conor McGregor bite more than he can chew? Two years after his last appearance in the Octagon, nothing looks like a preparatory fight, the Irish Irish star is prepared for a free fall in the game against the most dangerous opponent available. Nurmagomedov is not only undefeated in 26 fights and perhaps even the most dominant wrestler in the history of the sport, but his greatest strength is opposed to McGregor's most blatant weakness in his fights on the back.
If that were not enough, it is the destroyer of Russian origin who enters the fight to avenge McGregor's infamous attack six months earlier. At their news conference in New York in September, "The Notorious" spent more than 45 minutes attacking even more the bear with a scathing and very personal verbal aggression. This is without a doubt the biggest challenge and the most dangerous fight of McGregor's career, and a stunt of his own machismo to not indulge in an easier fight given his gain in $ 100 million in boxing last year. . Whether McGregor, the outsider of sports betting, does or does not produce magic once again, he deserves the respect he deserves to run his business in such a risky way.
2. Do not get me wrong – McGregor's return is the best for business. Call it cliché or fantasy as you please, but the surprise announcement made in August, before UFC 227, that McGregor was finally coming back, triggered an audible response: sound recordings at the company's Las Vegas headquarters can be heard around the world. Let's face it, no one has been able to sell paid services in the history of MMAs, such as McGregor, who reportedly made 5.3 million acquisitions over four 11-month UFC bouts with the UFC 205 in November 2016. His next appearance, during a boxing match against Mayweather last August, yielded 4.4 million times alone.
How much did PPV bought by UFC compare since McGregor left two years ago? Of the 23 PPV cards that followed, only three managed to reach 400,000 and one – UFC 207: Amanda Nunes vs. Ronda Rousey – eclipsed a million. It's no secret how much UFC, who has announced a new deal of six fights with McGregor, needs him. That's why it seems that nothing is less than the stake McGregor has requested after the UFC 205 is no longer out of reach. Not only did the company grant McGregor's new whiskey line a valuable advertising spot on the battle canvas Saturday, let's not forget the UFC's controversial decision not to punish him despite a criminal attack against his fellow pity.
3. Nurmagomedov finally gets his decisive fight. It's a notion that may seem a bit ridiculous on the surface since Nurmagomedov is the undefeated champion of the UFC at 155 pounds. However, injuries and misfortunes conspired to deprive the 30-year-old player of a fight after each other, each in front of the cement – without a shadow of a doubt, such as light weight the most elite of the UFC. But four years after his decisive victory over future champion Rafael dos Anjos, Nurmagomedov has still not won that victory. Yes, the dominant victories over competitors like Michael Johnson and Edson Barboza have reminded us of his stamina and pedigree, but do we really know how good Nurmagomedov is?
On four occasions, he had to face Tony Ferguson and four times, the fight was doomed to failure. Along the way, "The Eagle" missed two full years because of a knee injury and another full year after a back operation. Against McGregor, Nurmagomedov finally has his chance to show if he is one of the best pound-to-pound fighters in the world or just a B-level competition favorite.
4. Tony Ferguson makes a big bet on himself. On a 10-game winning streak, there is no more deserving fighter of a title in the UFC's deepest division than Ferguson. The problem for "El Cucuy" is that no one has had more trouble getting one. In March 2017, Nurmagomedov withdrew from his acting fight under the UFC 209 after being hospitalized due to a difficult weight reduction. Seven months later, after Ferguson took over the provisional strap by defeating Kevin Lee, his fourth attempt to fight Nurmagomedov – this time for the full title at UFC 223 – was hit by a knee injury. tower. Ferguson was not only shamelessly stripped of his temporary belt soon after, but McGregor took his place after attacking Nurmagomedov a few weeks later.
However, instead of queuing knowing that he is the most deserving to face the winner of Nurmagomedov-McGregor, Ferguson decided to risk everything by confronting former champion Anthony Pettis in the same event. At 34, after suffering a serious knee surgery, it is unclear whether Ferguson would be able to return to the title game if he lost Saturday. The match does not do him any good either as Pettis seemed to free himself from a recent crisis and starts to look like himself again.
5. Derrick Lewis has a second chance to make a new impression. Let's not kick here, Lewis's decision on Francis Ngannou at UFC 226 in July was meant to be an unwise and violent showcase of what makes MMA heavyweights so entertaining and unpredictable. He was also supposed to declare who could be next in the race for a shot at the title (before former champion Brock Lesnar collapses after Daniel Cormier won the championship later in the evening). Instead, the fight was anything but foolhardy, violent or amusing. The only thing unpredictable about it was how boring it was, because Lewis, who was suffering from a back injury, equaled Ngannou 's inactivity during a medical session. passive and boring training.
Surprisingly, UFC President Dana White chose to blame Ngannou for the absolution of the sentence in front of Lewis. The award of the "Black Beast" is a return fight against former Bellator champion Alexander Volkov, who leads a run of six consecutive wins. In theory, a win for Lewis would probably put him on the verge of facing the winner of Cormier-Lewis or, at worst, former champion Stipe Miocic. Anyway, it's a rare second chance for him to let it be known that he's next, while distancing himself from Ngannou's debacle.
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