A stretch of weekly UFC events dating back to Aug. 31 winds to its conclusion Saturday, as the company heads back to one of its most reliable international markets, Brazil, for UFC on ESPN+ 22, before things shut down for a couple of weeks.
As is usually the case when the promotion goes to one of the sport’s true hotbeds, there’s an interesting array of matchups featuring several big names in consequential fights.
This includes the main event, an important light heavyweight showdown with potential championship-picture implications between Jan Blachowiczand Ronaldo Souza.
UFC on ESPN+ 22 takes place Saturday at Ginasio do Ibirapuera in Sao Paulo. The card streams on ESPN+.
Without further ado, here are five burning questions heading into UFC on ESPN+ 22.
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How will the move up to light heavyweight go for ‘Jacare’ Souza?
After dropping two of his past three fights and three of his past five, former Strikeforce middleweight champion Souza (26-7 MMA, 9-4 UFC) makes the move up to 205 pounds for his main event bout with Jan Blachowicz (24-8 MMA, 7-5 UFC).
It’s hard not to draw a comparison to the other former champs who have recently attempted to refresh their careers with moves up in weight.
And, well, it hasn’t exactly gone so well.
Luke Rockhold made the jump earlier this year at UFC 239, where he get mauled in short order by Blachowicz. Chris Weidman tried it out last month, and he didn’t last two minutes before he was finished by Dominick Reyes.
Add in that “Jacare” is a month shy of his 40th birthday, and, well, it doesn’t look good on paper. Until you look a little deeper, that is.
Rockhold, who spent years sparring hard in the gym with bigger fighters in Cain Velasquez and Daniel Cormier at American Kickboxing Academy, was knocked out badly by Michael Bisping and Yoel Romero at middleweight before moving up. Weidman, for his part, was on an even worse string of results, including getting stopped by Souza and Rockhold.
“Jacare,” on the other hand, lost a debatable split decision to Kelvin Gastelum and accepted a dangerous short-notice foe in Jack Hermansson last time out, where he still went the distance before losing.
Blachowicz is no less dangerous for Souza than he was Rockhold, but the simple fact of the matter is this move doesn’t seem to present the same red flags as his fellow standouts who have made the jump.
Would a victory earn Jan Blachowicz a title shot?
In theory, Blachowicz’s ruthless finish of Rockhold could have, and possibly even should have, given him the nod for the next shot at Jon Jones’ light heavyweight title, given it came on the same stage as Jones’ UFC 239 title defense against Thiago Santos.
It was, after all, Blachowicz’s fifth win in his past six fights, three of them by way of finish, and 205 pounds is far from the sport’s deepest weight class.
But Jones, who recently defended his title three times in just over six months, culminating in the Santos fight, has suddenly gotten picky about his next opponent, perhaps because those past three fights didn’t bring in quite the expected revenue he thought his return to action would earn, and Blachowicz isn’t the most recognizable name on the marquee.
Instead, Blachowicz finds himself in a headline spot against another former middleweight star. Dominick Reyes has built his name at 205 in the meantime, so all Blachowicz can do here is continue doing what he’s been doing and hope it’s enough to get the title shot for which he’s been laboring in the UFC six years.
How much longer can ‘Shogun’ Rua’s ride last?
Here’s a fact that will underscore how time really flies: While Mauricio Rua will always be best remembered by longtime fans for his work in the PRIDE promotion, where he once won a grand prix tournament, he’s actually been with the UFC twice as long at this point as he was with the Japanese group.
And there have seemingly been calls for “Shogun” to hang it up since the moment he showed up in the UFC and lost what was considered a major upset at the time to Forrest Griffin in 2007 at UFC 76.
But while everyone has been busy telling the former UFC light heavyweight champ to call it a day, fact is, the 37-year-old won four of his past five fights. And while it’s highly unlikely Rua (26-11 MMA, 10-9 UFC) competes for a title again, he clearly loves what he does, and just as clearly still has something to give the sport.
This time, “Shogun” finds himself in a co-feature bout against the struggling Paul Craig (12-4 MMA, 4-4 UFC), a late replacement for original opponent Sam Alvey, who pulled out with a broken hand. We don’t know how much gas Rua has left in the tank, so rather than catcalling him for not retiring, enjoy what one of the legends of the sport can still contribute while we still have him around.
When will Charles Oliveira get a crack at one of 155’s top names?
You’d think by this stage of the game, the UFC would be able to sell Charles Oliveira in a fight against a top-tier lightweight.
“Do Bronx” has finally embraced competing at 155 pounds after a protracted period in which he pined for a return to featherweight, where he had trouble making the limit. And with his acceptance of his current fate, he’s won five fights in a row, and in the process surpassed Royce Gracie’s hallowed record for most submission victories in UFC history.
Want to sell a fight with Oliveira (27-8 MMA, 15-8 UFC) and a top lightweight name? All you have to do is show the clips demonstrating how slick he is on the ground, and even the casuals will understand.
And yet, he ends up in fights that don’t seem to match his growing stature. Like last time, when he got a Nik Lentz rematch absolutely no one asked for. This time, he fights Jared Gordon (15-3 MMA, 3-2 UFC) an all-heart fighter who is exactly the sort of live underdog who could turn this into a sneaky fun fight. But should Oliveira win here, then it is time for his long-overdue step up to the bigger names in the division.
Renan Barao: Why?
One of the most poorly timed utterings in UFC president Dana White’s career came in the run-up to UFC 173, when he said with a straight face that he considered then-bantamweight champion Renan Barao the No. 1 pound-for-pound fighter in the world.
Barao went out and lost the title in a drubbing at T.J. Dillashaw’s hands in Las Vegas. That kicked off a 2-7 run in the UFC. Which includes four losses in a row. As well as two weight misses. And a rematch with Dillashaw scuttled due to a weight cut gone awry.
Unlike countryman and fellow former champion Rua, Barao (34-8 MMA, 9-7 UFC) straight-up looks like a shot fighter. Last time out, at UFC on ESPN 1, Barao managed to look like his old self for a round against Luke Sanders, then faded in the second and was brutally finished.
Still, he presses on, and this time the former champ is third from bottom on the card against Douglas Silva de Andrade (25-3 MMA, 3-3 UFC). We’re not sure why the UFC hasn’t cut him yet, but another loss here, and it should be time to cut the cord once and for all.
