It’s been a memorable run for the UFC in Jacksonville, Fla., but the festivities finally come to an end Saturday night.
UFC on ESPN 8 marks the third fight card in eight days to close out the promotion becoming the first major North American sports entity to begin running events during the coronavirus pandemic.
A previously scheduled main event finally gets a chance to go, and it’s a good one: a heavyweight battle between veteran Alistair Overeem and Walt Harris. Additionally, the co-headliner has the always active Angela Hill returning to meet Claudia Gadelha, and there are several other matchups that make this event worth a look.
UFC on ESPN 8 takes place Saturday at VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena. The card airs on ESPN and streams on ESPN+.
Without further ado, then, here are five burning questions.
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Can Alistair Overeem hit the reset button one more time?
Stop if you’ve heard this one before: Overeem (45-18 MMA, 10-7 UFC) is looking to get himself back into contention after making a critical mistake to lose a fight he was winning.
Several times over the course of his impressive career, Overeem has gone on remarkable runs, only to have them end with tough-to-watch moments. It’s one of the veteran’s most endearing tendencies, as anyone can relate to a person who puts in hard work, nearly gets the job done, comes up just short, then gets started all over again.
This time, though, things feel a little bit different. Overeem was well on his way to victory over Jairzinho Rozenstruik when Rozenstruik hit a home run in his last-ditch effort and scored the knockout at the 4:56 mark in the final round of their Dec. 7 fight, leaving Overeem with a gnarly lip injury.
And while we’ve seen “The ‘Reem” bounce back before, sometimes better than ever, he also turns 40 on Sunday. Somewhere along the way, this mountain is going to get a little bit too steep to climb. Harris (13-7 MMA, 6-6 UFC) is no joke, so we’re going to find out real fast whether Overeem still has it.
How will Walt Harris respond in his first fight back?
What Harris had to endure late last year is something no human should ever have to endure.
Harris was scheduled to face Overeem at UFC on ESPN 7 in the bout that ultimately ended up Overeem vs Rozenstruik. But Harris went through every parent’s worst nightmare when his 19-year-old steppdaughter, Aniah Blanchard, went missing in a case that made national headlines, then was found dead a month later.
We can’t imagine going through such grief, and there are few ways to transition from this topic back to fighting without it being awkward. But life does go on, and Harris has gotten back to his job, which he does really, really well, and he’s stepping back in for the biggest fight of his career.
Because of what Harris has endured, here’s something you may have forgotten: Harris has been making quite a name for himself. He’s won each of his past three fights by finish. His past two were both by knockout in a combined time of 1:02, most recently a 12-second finish of Aleksei Oleinik.
If that run of finishes continues against Overeem, then it’s time to stop calling Harris a prospect and start calling him a contender.
Can Angela Hill keep doing her thing?
Not even a worldwide pandemic can keep Hill (12-7 MMA, 7-7 UFC) out of the octagon.
The Alliance MMA competitor’s happy romp through the strawweight division has been one of the most enjoyable storylines in a year that doesn’t have too many of them.
We last saw Hill on Feb. 23, when she scored a unanimous decision victory over Loma Lookboonmee in New Zealand. That marked her third consecutive victory and pushed her to 4-2 during a run in which she competed six times in 11 months, the most fights a UFC fighter has ever had in that span in the modern era.
Now, Hill is back for fight No. 7 in 14 months, and this time the stakes have risen: Hill is meeting long-time contender Claudia Gadelha (17-4 MMA, 6-4 UFC) in a considerable leap in competition. Hill joined “The Ultimate Fighter” with just one professional career fight. With a win over Gadelha, she’d announce she finally has arrived as a legitimate contender in one of MMA’s deepest divisions.
Can Edson Barboza reinvent himself at featherweight?
It seems unfair to say Edson Barboza was a gatekeeper at lightweight. Barboza (20-8 MMA, 14-8 UFC) has nine fight night bonuses to his credit in a UFC career that dates back to 2011, and has been in a number of thrilling and memorable scraps along the way.
If you beat Barboza to get to the elite level at 155, fans knew you went through an absolute trial by fire, which is a distinction the phrase “gatekeeper” adequately conveys.
Still, though, Barboza never quite broke though to the championship level himself, and the returns were diminishing: Barboza lost two in a row and four of his past five.
At 34, Barboza is not old, and he’s banking on a reinvention at 145. He takes on Dan Ige (13-2 MMA, 5-1 UFC), who has won five fights in a row and isn’t likely to take too kindly to this intruder on his territory. We’ll find out real fast whether Barboza has made the right move.
Should we just pencil in Song Yadong vs. Marlon Vera for ‘Fight of the Night’?
Sometimes you look over the schedule during a busy stretch and do a double take when you realize you hadn’t even noticed a hell of a scrap has been scheduled.
Such was the case, this writer will admit, with the UFC on ESPN 8 main card opener, a featherweight fight between Song Yadong and Marlon Vera.
How has this fight not gotten more attention? Yadong (15-4-1 MMA, 4-1 UFC), a 22-year old Team Alpha Male competitor by way of China, is undefeated in the UFC at 4-0-1, with a point deduction in a draw against Cody Stamann last time out the only thing keeping the fiery competitor from 5-0. Vera (17-5-1 MMA, 9-4 UFC), for his part, has won five in a row, and took “Performance of the Night” last time out, when he finished Andre Ewell on Oct. 12 at UFC Tampa.
Not only is this fight a contender for someone, or both, to take home an extra $50,000, it has the makings of one in which a new contender is made.
