UFC 238 Preview
UFC 238 received a surprising addition a few months ago when the promotion announced that Tony Ferguson would be returning against Donald Cerrone.
That is a fight that for the most part would be a main event on any of the free fight cards and would be a big main event.
Cerrone is one of the favourite fighters on the roster and Ferguson has been one of the top lightweights for years as he makes his return after personal issues outside of the octagon.
The announcement was a fight announcement that had everyone excited but there is something more to this announcement.
To some, it is the UFC stacking a card but to many, it is the main attraction for a card with two title fights.
The announcement of this fight was to help boost the sales of a card where two champions are not the bigger sellers.
Henry Cejudo is one of the best fighters in the world after beating two fighters than many considered to be great.
After taking away the flyweight belt from Demetrious Johnson he beat TJ Dillashaw to take the bantamweight title.
Johnson was considered the pound-for-pound great before losing to Cejudo and Dillashaw was supposed to take over multiple weight classes until losing.
Cejudo didn’t just fight a bunch of good fighters to get his way to the top he bet two of the best in the business to get there.
Yet despite that, he is cursed by the weight class bias in MMA which tends to keep lighter fighters out of the spotlight.
The UFC attempted to help these fighters out looking to make Johnson a bigger part of the promotion but it never quite stuck.
People prefer the heavyweights and interest tends to get smaller and smaller as the fighters get lighter.
Cejudo is now the only fighter in the UFC that currently holds two belts and he puts one on the line against a fighter brought in to take the bantamweight title.
Marlon Moraes was considered the best fighter not in the UFC when he signed with the promotion in 2017 but got a rude awakening in his first fight.
Now he looks to take the title after rattling off four straight wins giving him a title shot against Cejudo.
This is a fantastic matchup between two of the best in the weight class but they are the second lightest weight class and generally don’t receive a lot of attention.
The same can be said for some of the women’s weight classes, especially in the flyweight division.
The flyweight division is cursed by a different problem than the fact that people don’t want to watch lighter fighters.
Instead, the women’s flyweight is right in between two very popular divisions but it is a pretty new division in itself.
That means there are few fighters who have made their name in the division with most sitting in the original women’s bantamweight division or the most popular right now, the strawweight division.
Valentina Shevchenko was happy when the UFC added this “tweener” division as she was too big for strawweight but one of the smaller bantamweights.
She fit perfectly into the flyweight division but there are still plenty of women looking to see if they are in the same situation.
The latest is Jessica Eye who has been on a tear and is now taking her three-fight win streak into a title fight with the newest women’s champion.
It is going to be a test as Shevchenko has the potential to be a great but she is still relatively unknown among the other great women fighters.
Like Cejudo, Shevchenko has yet to reach that star status and although they are two great fighters they are not ones to sell pay-per-views.
So in step Cerrone and Ferguson who have a Fight of the Night bonus written all over the matchup and a likely title shot on the line.
Although there is no title on the line and they aren’t the main event there is no question where the focus is on this card, but if you tune in for that fight you might just catch one of the best cards of the year.
The Sport Addiction 