In three weeks, the UFC will visit the place that is pretentious enough to refer to itself as “The” Garden — New York’s Madison Square Garden — for UFC 244.
Friday night, however, the UFC heads to the Garden that is actually synonymous with winning. Unlike MSG, where the Knicks have not secured an NBA title since 1973 and the Rangers have won just one Stanley Cup in the past 79 years, TD Garden in Boston has a glorious championship history with 23 Celtics and Bruins title banners hanging from the rafters.
Under that championship lineage, there will be a more interesting-than-usual weekly UFC offering in the form of UFC on ESPN 6.
This includes both the main event, in which former UFC middleweight champion Chris Weidman makes his light heavyweight debut against undefeated Dominick Reyes; and the co-feature bout, a hot featherweight grudge match between Yair Rodriguez and Jeremy Stephens in a re-do of their aborted UFC Mexico City main event from September.
UFC on ESPN 6 takes place Friday at TD Garden in Boston. The card airs on ESPN2.
Without further ado, then, on to six burning questions for UFC on ESPN 6.
How will Chris Weidman fare at light heavyweight?
On one hand, we’ve seen ample evidence in recent years that going up in weight class, rather than dieting down to the absolute lowest point your body can possibly tolerate, can pay fighters big dividends.
Robert Whittaker went on a tear and won the middleweight belt after going up from welterweight. Anthony Smith became a light heavyweight title contender after being a middle-of-the-pack middleweight. Ditto for Thiago Santos. Bantamweight champion Amanda Nunes had the power to end Cris Cyborg’s win streak when she went up to featherweight. Daniel Cormier, who had a previous long run at heavyweight, went back up at age 40 after his light heavyweight run and held the title there.
So why does Chris Weidman’s move up to light heavyweight seem to have more question marks than the rest? Well, for one thing, the fighters listed above didn’t have to sort of run Weidman had before making a move up. He’s been knocked out four times at middleweight in his last five fights. One of those was by Luke Rockhold, who himself got knocked out when he tried to make the move up just this summer.
Still, though, if you’re a gamer like Weidman (14-4 MMA, 10-4 UFC), what other options are there? If Weidman can channel the same spirit he found when he wasn’t fazed by Silva back in 2013, maybe his second act can in fact be something special.
Is Dominick Reyes the real deal?
The Southern California light heavyweight started off his UFC stint with the type of run you see from time to time: a fighter comes into the UFC with an undefeated record and a string of fast finishes.
For every Francis Ngannou who rises through the ranks all the way to a title shot before he gets checked, there are plenty of others who don’t live up to the hype.
Then there’s Reyes (11-0 MMA, 5-0 UFC), who earned first-round stoppages in his first three UFC fights, including one against current middleweight standout Jared Cannonier.
That was followed with decision wins over a higher level of competition in Ovince Saint Preux and former title challenger Volkan Oezdemir, the latter a split – and highly debatable decision.
So which Reyes will we see? The killer who showed up in his earlier fights, or the one who hasn’t looked as impressive recently? Or will we see a fighter who has learned the lessons of his past couple fights and is ready to bring it to the next level?
Is Jeremy Stephens actually ready to fight?
I mean, you saw what I saw a month ago at UFC Mexico City. You saw Stephens (28-16 MMA, 15-15 UFC) take the blatant eye poke from Rodriguez (12-2 MMA, 7-1 UFC). You saw Herb Dean give him the full five minutes to recover, and then you saw the Instagram photos afterwards in which he had half his skull taped up on and around the injured eye.
You also presumably saw the media-day interview this week in which Stephens kept his shades on the entire time, which isn’t something you’d expect to see from someone who is ready to go.
Stephens has always been a little bit of a hothead, so we’re not going to get too bothered over his overheated comments about Rodriguez. But we can’t help but wonder if this rematch was put together just a bit too hastily, and if Stephens, who is on a two-fight losing skid, will end up regretting his eagerness to jump back into things so soon.
Can Yair Rodriguez answer the same questions we wondered about last time?
This is what we wrote for the Burning Questions piece heading into the original matchup at UFC on ESPN+ 17:
The Chihuahua native initially caught most of our attention the first time the UFC visited Mexico City in 2015, when he earned a split-decision victory an an all-heart, “Fight of the Night”-earning victory over Charles Rosa.
That memorable matchup kicked off a string of spectacular performances in which he earned four post-fight bonuses in five fights, culminating in his vicious finish of B.J. Penn in 2017.
Just as it seemed Rodriguez was going to break through and become the company’s long-elusive breakthrough Latino superstar, though, he was on the wrong end of a wicked one-sided beating at the hands of Frankie Edgar, then got into a quit/fired he said/she said with the UFC in a contract dispute.
Things were smoothed over, and then Rodriguez returned for his all-time classic scrap with Jung for the UFC’s 25th anniversary show, the one which ended with a knockout elbow at the 24:59 mark of what was already and extraordinary battle.
Four years later, Rodriguez is back where this all started (Yes, we know technically he was on “TUF: Latin America 2,” but we also know most of you weren’t watching it). Imagine, if Rodriguez lives up to his full potential, what a fight between he and featherweight champion Max Holloway would look like. We’re not saying a victory over Stephens gets him there, but it would mark proof that he’s fully put his rough patch behind him once and for all.
Let’s be honest here. Unlike Stephens, who has to contend with his eye issues, not much has changed for Rodriguez. The questions still hold.
When will Greg Hardy get some real competition?
Convicted domestic abuser (no, we’re not letting that go) Greg Hardyreturns to the cage Friday night, and as usual, the heavyweight is already griping about things, this time, over his level of competition:
“Here we go again,” Hardy said at Wednesday’s media day. “So he’s going to be a can as soon as I’m done. Man, they’re going to be mad at me again. You’ve got to go through this process, but why?
Here we go again, indeed. Hardy (5-1 MMA, 2-1 UFC) faces Ben Sosoli, a New Zealander we’re sure is a nice enough fellow. Sosoli (7-2 MMA, 0-0 UFC) never fought anyone you ever heard of, and the only reason his name might vaguely ring a bell is because he had a Dana White’s Contender Series fight end in an eye poke no contest in August. Apparently that’s good enough to land a UFC contract.
Anyway, the only question left to ask about convicted woman-beater Greg Hardy is: When will the UFC stop coddling him and give him a step up in competition? Saturday morning television wrestling in the 1980s had less shameless matchmaking than the what Hardy’s faced. If you’re going to insist on continuing to push an unrepentant domestic abuser on us, since the guy seems to have the raw skills to become a solid competitor, at least give us something more compelling than hitting the reset button on “Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out!!” and having him fight Glass Joe over and over.
Does Joe Lauzon have one big moment let in him?
In September 2006, Joe Lauzon overcame huge odds to knock out former lightweight champ Jens Pulver in just 48seconds in his promotional debut at UFC 63.
That was the start of a wild roller coaster ride for the E. Bridgewater, Mass., native. Lauzon (27-15 MMA, 14-12 UFC) never quite reached the championship level, but he gave the fans plenty of thrills, win or lose, and earned 15 post-fight bonuses along the way.
But that style catches up with you. Lauzon has dropped three fights in a row and has just one win since 2016. Lauzon will unquestionably be the hometown favorite against Jonathan Pearce (8-3 MMA, 0-0 UFC). He hasn’t said for sure that this is his final fight, but he hasn’t denied it could be, either. He’s also never going to have a better opportunity to make his exit on a high note, if he so chooses.
