The UFC’s traveling carnival makes a stop on the other side of the planet Saturday, as UFC on ESPN+ 20 takes place in Singapore.
And while this card is more or less a placeholder with the huge UFC 244 event at Madison Square Garden just around the corner, there are nonetheless some fairly intriguing reasons for hardcore American fans to get up at odd hours and catch the UFC’s latest weekly offering.
Not the least of which is the main event. Ben Askren, coming off his memorable loss to Jorge Masvidal, returns to an arena he once ruled as ONE welterweight champion. There, he’ll square off with a 170-pounder who is also in an interesting career spot in veteran Demian Maia.
UFC on ESPN+ 20 takes place Saturday at Singapore Indoor Stadium. The card streams on ESPN+.
Without further ado, then, here are five burning questions.
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Can Ben Askren rebound from that flying knee?
We live in a day and age of contrarianism and endless hot takes, where there are endless attention-getting opportunities for those who try to make things more complicated than they are so they’ll sound smart.
But sometimes the simplest questions are still the right ones.
Such as: How will Askren (19-1 MMA, 1-1 UFC) respond to being on the wrong end of the fastest knockout in UFC history, which also happened to be one of the most violent?
We’re not questioning Askren’s toughness, and it’s commendable that he got out in front of his loss and owned it when so many others would have avoided ever talking about such a loss.
Still … we’re just one weekend removed from last weekend’s Chris Weidman loss to Dominick Reyes, which reminds us of the fact that Weidman was undefeated and unstoppable until the first time things went south against Luke Rockhold. And that was the start of a stretch of five losses in six fights.
So, how will the former ONE and Bellator champ respond? He’s familiar with the territory, as he fought three times at Singapore Indoor Stadium for ONE. And he’s got a good style matchup in the grappling-heavy Maia (27-9 MMA, 21-9 UFC). This fight should indicate whether Askren will go the way of Weidman (i.e. never the same after his first loss) or whether he’ll make the necessary adjustments and go on another tear.
Where exactly does Demian Maia stand?
It wasn’t all that long ago we were whispering about whether Demian Maia’s long and memorable UFC career was finally coming to a close.
After all, he’ll be 42 years old in a few weeks. He’s had an admirable run, working his way to a middleweight title shot, then making the necessary changes — most notably improving his standup — to work his way back to the brink of the welterweight title.
And then he lost three straight fights to competitors who have held welterweight gold (of the real or interim variety) in Tyron Woodley, Colby Covington, and Kamaru Usman. Even Maia himself was openly talking about his retirement timetable.
But then Maia went out and showed he still has his slick jiu-jitsu game on point with a first-round submission of former Bellator champion Lyman Good. For an encore, he stopped a red-hot fighter in Anthony Rocco Martin, who thought Maia was his stepping stone to a title shot.
So could a two-time title challenger improbably lift himself into the discussion one more time? With a win over Askren, it would be hard not to put him back on the short list.
Is the Michael Johnson-Stevie Ray winner a factor again at lightweight?
There were times when Michael Johnson seemed right on the cusp of real contention at 155 pounds, including a three-fight winning streak that included Tony Ferguson’s only UFC loss; and four-fight winning streak from 2013-2015. Then he dropped five of six, and then went to featherweight, which was a mixed bag.
Now he’s back up to lightweight, but he’s got a lot of tread on the tires at this stage of his career.
Stevie Ray, for his part, won his first three UFC fights and five of six. But he, too, ran into trouble, and the Scotsman comes into this fight the loser of three out of his past four.
A win for either of these guys certainly isn’t going to enable them to cut the line for a shot at Khabib Nurmagomedov’s belt. But Johnson (19-14 MMA, 11-10 UFC) still has a name, and Ray (22-9 MMA, 6-4 UFC) is still young enough to get his act back together, and a win in a co-feature bout should give the victor a fresh burst of momentum, so that’s something.
What is Muslim Salikhov’s ceiling?
At first glance, welterweight Muslim Salikhov seemed like just another interchangeable competitor being produced on the Dagestani MMA assembly line, complete with the requisite collection of World Sambo Championship gold medals.
Then Salikhov went out and absolutely starched Nordine Taleb with a vicious knockout at UFC 242, earning his first career UFC post-fight bonus for the first-round finish.
That will get your attention, especially when it’s paired with his knockout of Ricky Rainey in his previous fight.
Salikhov (15-2 MMA, 2-1 UFC) wanted a quick turnaround, and he gets it in the form of Laureano Staropoli (9-1 MMA, 2-0 UFC). And while this fight isn’t going to be watched by the largest audience, make no mistake: If Salikhov can finish the year with his third straight win, then he’s going to be marked as one to watch at 170 pounds as the calendar turns to 2020.
Randa Markos: Contener or pretender?
Strawweight Randa Markos is about to have her 13th UFC fight, which is usually a point by which you have a read on whether a competitor is going to make a real run in their chosen division.
And yet, we still can’t decide either way on the TriStar product. One fight, Markos (9-7-1 MMA, 5-6-1 UFC) looks like a world beater, like when she ran through Angela HIll in March, submitted her, and earned a “Performance of the Night” bonus. Others, like her recent unanimous decision loss to Claudia Gadelha, she looks out of her element against one of the division’s top-tier fighters?
Which puts some extra importance on Markos’ fight with Ashley Yoder (7-4 MMA, 2-3 UFC), who carries a two-fight winning streak into their featured prelim bout. A win would put Markos with just one loss in her past four fights. A loss would mean she’d have just one win in her past four … and at age 34, that’s not a spot you want in one of MMA’s youngest divisions.
