The second leg of the UFC’s three-shows-in-eight-nights relay goes down Wednesday, with the promotion fresh off a memorable evening at UFC 249.
Jacksonville, Fla., once again hosts the octagon, this time for UFC on ESPN+ 29. And while the card isn’t as deep as Saturday night’s pay-per-view offering, there are still plenty of items of interest during the evening’s festivities, including an intriguing light heavyweight headliner between former title challengers Anthony Smith and Glover Teixeira.
And besides, what else are you going to do on a random Wednesday night a couple months into isolation?
UFC on ESPN+ 29 takes place at VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena. The card streams on ESPN+.
Without further ado, here are five burning questions heading into UFC on ESPN+ 29.
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Can Glover Teixeira make an improbable run to another title shot?
We recently passed the six-year anniversary mark of Glover Teixeira’s unanimous decision loss to Jon Jones in a light heavyweight title fight at UFC 172.
Teixeira (30-7 MMA, 13-5 UFC) was already 34 at the time and had a fair bit of tread on his tires with 25 fights at that point, and it seemed like, as a simple life inevitability, a slow decline would start here.
And yet, here we are, in May 2020, and a 40-year-old Teixiera has won three consecutive fights, four of five, and earned finishes in three of those victories. Granted, those wins haven’t been over the very top of the class in the division. But now Teixeira has a chance to prove, in a 205-pound weight class whose dynamics have shifted dramatically over the past year, that he has a real chance at joining the short list of contenders for Jones’ throne.
Is Teixeira the underdog against Smith (33-14 MMA, 8-4 UFC)? Sure, but never count out a man with the ability to turn things in his favor in the blink of an eye.
Can Anthony Smith pick up where he left off?
Sure, this might sound a little bit weird, considering that in Smith’s last fight, he went over to Stockholm and submitted Alexander Gustafsson on his home turf. But that fight was nearly a year ago, and Smith had locked himself into a groove, which catapulted him up the light heavyweight standings by staying active and fighting often.
Granted, some of this was out of his hands, as this fight with Teixeira was originally slated to go down a month ago, and he’s fighting an opponent who has been just as long.
But still, Smith was a buzzsaw in eight fights over the span of just over two years, and including three straight finish victories to catapult him to his UFC 235 title shot against Jones.
Will nearly a year away lead to ring rust? Or will the break turn out to be exactly what Smith needed in order to recharge and go on another similarly impressive run? We’ll find out soon enough.
How will Ovince Saint Preux’s heavyweight experiment go?
I’ll admit: I didn’t have “OSP goes up to 265” on my 2020 MMA bingo card.
For one thing, the last we saw from Ovince Saint Preux, he out-slicked a noted finisher in Michael Oleksiejczuk and earned a “Performance of the Night” bonus for racking up yet another one of his patented Von Flue choke finishes.
For another, I wouldn’t have anticipated Saint Preux (24-13 MMA, 12-8 UFC) go up against a lumbering bruiser like Ben Rothwell, to whom he’s going to give up a fair bit of weight, in his 265 debut.
But then you look at the bigger picture and think, why not?
OSP has been part of the UFC light heavyweight division since 2013. Prior, he was a Strikeforce 205 mainstay going back to 2010, He’s cobbled together an entire respectable career but never quite gotten to the top, peaking with an interim title fight lost to Jon Jones in 2016.
If not now for the 37-year old competitor, then when?
Rothwell (37-12 MMA, 7-6 UFC), who is on the back nine of his career but is still dangerous, is exactly the sort of test OSP should take at HW. If he passes this test, maybe this weight class is meant to be. If not? He’s still got that last exciting performance at 205 to fall back on.
Is Drew Dober finally ready to break through?
For someone whose introduction to UFC fans was losing a win-to-get-into-the-house fight on “The Ultimate Fighter 13,” Drew Dober sure has become a reliable part of the scenery in the promotion.
Dober’s been on the roster since 2013, and along the way, win or lose, he’s been one of those guys who, if you see he’s on the card, you can rest assured he’s going to give the fans their money’s worth in terms of effort.
But in recent outings, Dober (22-9 MMA, 8-5 UFC), based out of Denver’s Elevation gym, has been making real headway, and Wednesday just might be his time to bust out with a breakout performance.
The brash Alexander Hernandez has gotten most of the hype. But Dober, in fact, has won five straight, including two in a row. Both of those wins were knockouts in 1:10 or less, most recently a “Performance of the Night” winning effort against Nasrat Haqparast at UFC 246. A win over an up-and-comer like Hernandez (11-2 MMA, 3-1 UFC) would serve as a statement that Dober has finally arrived.
Can Ray Borg finally get it all together?
Some of Ray Borg’s issues over the years have been of his own making, most specifically his ongoing weight issue at both flyweight and bantamweight. Others, such as his son’s well publicized health issues and falling victim to Conor McGregor’s van attack at UFC 223 media day, in which he suffered an eye injury, have been through no fault of his own.
And yet, through all the ups and downs of his memorable UFC run, Borg (13-4 MMA, 7-4 UFC) is still only 26 years old. And he’s on a two-fight winning streak heading into his bantamweight bout with Ricky Simon.
For one thing, the way Borg and Simon (15-3 MMA, 3-2 UFC) can bring the action when they’re on, this is a sleeper pick for a potential “Fight of the Night” bonus. For another, a victory here would give Borg three in a row for the fist time since 2015.
For all he’s been through, don’t count him out just yet.
