The UFC is in Brazil for Saturday’s UFC 237 fight card. In the main event, women’s strawweight champion Rose Namajunasheads into hostile territory when she puts her title on the line against challenger Jessica Andrade.
Namajunas has not fought since she successfully defended her title against Joanna Jedrzejczyk in April 2018. As for Andrade, this matchup represents her second opportunity to gain the women’s strawweight title. She fell short in her bid to unseat then-champion Jedrzejczyk in May 2017.
In the co-main event, former middleweight champion Anderson Silvafights in his home country for the first time since he scored a TKO win over Stephan Bonnar in a light heavyweight contest in October 2012. Silva faces Jared Cannonier.
The resurgent Jose Aldo also appears on the pay-per-view card. Aldo, the former featherweight champion, faces the up-and-coming Alexander Volkanovski, who could secure a title fight with a win over the Brazilian legend.
UFC 237 takes place at Jeunesse Arena in Rio de Janeiro. The main card airs on pay-per-view following prelims on ESPN and ESPN+.
Check out seven burning questions about the fight card.
1. Will the Brazilian crowd make a difference in the main event?
If you watched the “UFC 237 Countdown,” you learned that Namajunas’ coach, Trevor Wittman, was against the idea of the champ traveling to Brazil to defend her title against a Brazilian fighter. You also learned that Namajunas overruled her coach. Namajunas does not seem to buy into the idea that the Brazilian fans, with their passionate chants of “Uh vai morrer,” give local fighters an advantage.
There’s no doubt that the crowd will be on Andrade’s side during this matchup. That could give Andrade (19-6 MMA, 10-4 UFC) an extra bump of adrenaline and inspiration, but will it have any effect on Namajunas (8-3 MMA, 6-2 UFC)? That’s doubtful.
Namajunas showed her strong will and focus in her two bouts with former champion Jedrzejczyk. Jedrzejczyk, who up until her losses to Namajunas, might have been second only to Conor McGregor in pre-fight psychological warfare, was unable rattle Namajunas. She could not illicit one flinch from Namajunas who stared right through her and showed a total lack of interest in Jedrzejczyk attempts to get inside her head. Even when things got ugly and personal, Namajunas did not react.
It’s hard to believe that the location of this fight is going to have anything to do with its outcome. If Andrade, who is the No. 3 ranked fighter in the USA TODAY Sports/MMA Junkie MMA women’s strawweight rankings, does unseat the No. 1 ranked Namajunas it will be solely via her skill and fighting acumen.
2. Does Anderson Silva’s aura still play?
Go back a few years and watch an Anderson Silva fight. Back before he lost the middleweight title to Chris Weidman in 2013. Back before his current 1-5 (with one no-contest) run. Silva had an aura about him during his run as the 185-pound champion. He had a supernatural ability to decipher his opponents in the early moments of the first round and formulate a game plan that not only allowed him to win but to, at times, make his opponents attempts at offense seem almost foolish. He was that good.
Silva, who is the No. 10 ranked fighter in the middleweight division, gave us glimpses of those same skills in his UFC 234 loss to Israel Adesanya, at least enough for some of us to believe that at 44, the ex-champion still has what it takes to get things done inside the octagon. Silva (34-9 MMA, 17-5 UFC) hopes to prove that he is still a viable commodity when he faces rankings honorable mention Jared Cannonier (11-4 MMA, 4-4 UFC) in the co-main event of UFC 237.
The thing about that aura is that Cannonier isn’t buying into it, not at this stage of Silva’s career. Cannonier, who dropped from light heavyweight in November when he knocked out David Branch, told MMA Junkie Radio he won’t show Silva any respect when they face off in Brazil.
The thing about that is that pre-fight talk doesn’t always reflect what happens inside the octagon.
3. Are we seeing Jose Aldo 2.0?
From Dec. 12, 2015-Dec. 2, 2017, Jose Aldo not only lost his featherweight title but he went 1-3. He lost each of those fights by knockout. Aldo returned from that rough patch to face Jeremy Stephens and Renato Moicano. Both of those fighters expected a title shot with a win over Aldo. Both of those fighters saw their title dreams put on pause when Aldo scored his first back-to-back knockout wins since his days as the WEC featherweight champ.
At UFC 237 another fighter looks to use Aldo (28-4 MMA, 10-3 UFC), who is ranked No. 3 in the featherweight division, as a stepping stone to a title fight. That fighter is the No. 5 ranked Alexander Volkanovski (19-1 MMA, 6-0 UFC). Volkanovski is unbeaten in the UFC and coming off a knockout win over former two-time featherweight title challenger Chad Mendes.
Aldo looked like a new man in his wins over Stephens and Moicano. Maybe the fact that he’s unlikely to earn another shot at the UFC title due to his back-to-back losses to current champion Max Holloway freed something in him. Maybe the fact that he could be closing in on retirement flipped a switch. Whatever the case, Aldo seems to have found a bit of the fighter he was when he knocked out six of his seven opponents under the WEC banner, and that could be a big problem for Volkanovski.
4. Should B.J. Penn be fighting?
Right now there is a substantial number of MMA fans who have never seen B.J. Penn win a fight. Folks who have come to the sport since the rise of Conor McGregor and Ronda Rousey are among that group. Penn, who has fought for the UFC seven times since 2011, is 0-6-1 in those contests. The UFC Hall of Famer has been stopped in three of his past four outings. Despite his poor showing over the past eight years, the UFC continues to book the former two-division champion.
What makes Penn’s lightweight booking against Clay Guida even stranger is the fact that Penn has made the news for outside the cage incidents as of late. In April, MMA Junkie reported that Penn’s estranged partner, Shealen Uaiwa, filed for an order of protection against Penn. Uaiwa alleges Penn verbally abused and menaced her in front of their two children and her mother, threatened to kill her family, and sexually abused her. That same month, MMA Junkie reported that Penn is under an active police investigation after he allegedly threatened a taro farmer with a machete in a dispute over trespassing.
As of this writing, the UFC has not commented on Penn’s outside the cage issues. Penn refused to speak to MMA Junkie on two occasions ahead of UFC 237.
Penn’s performance inside the cage over the past few years is reason enough not to book him. His legal problems make this booking even more questionable.
Penn is one of the biggest underdogs on the card at +500.
5. Can Laureano Staropoli capitalize on his impressive UFC debut?
Laureano Staropoli earned his spot on the UFC 237 PPV card with a fast-paced and bloody striking battle against Hector Aldana in November. The fight, which Staropoli won via unanimous decision, earned “Fight of the Night” honors at UFC Fight Night 140 in November.
Staropoli’s performance against Aldana was impressive for several reasons. First, he was coming off a layoff of more than a year. Second, it was his UFC debut. Third, he was fighting in his home country of Argentina. Staropoli showed no cage rust and no butterflies in his first UFC battle. He took the fight to Aldana from the get-go and won the clear decision.
The UFC must have liked way Staropoli (8-1 MMA, 1-0 UFC) fought because not only are they giving him a PPV slot, but they are matching him up against 25-fight UFC veteran Thiago Alves (23-13 MMA, 15-10 UFC). This bout seems to have been booked to provide the fans with an exciting display of striking early on the PPV card. If Staropoli can deliver on the promise of his UFC debut, expect to see him get more significant opportunities in the welterweight division.
Alves is coming off a decision win over Max Griffin in his most recent outing.
6. At 42, does Antonio Rogerio Nogueira still have it?
In September, Antonio Rogerio Nogueira and Ryan Spann fought on the same card in Brazil. That night was a very good one for the Brazilian fighters. They walked away with 11 victories and one draw. Brazilian competitors also took home both “Performance of the Night” bonuses on that card. Nogueira was one of those bonus-winners, thanks to his second-round knockout victory over Sam Alvey. As for the non-Brazilian winners, Spann was one of two Americans to win that night. Spann, who made his UFC debut on the card, earned a decision over Luis Henrique. Spann (15-5 MMA, 1-0 UFC), a former LFA light heavyweight champion, returns to Brazil to face Nogueira (23-8 MMA, 6-5 UFC).
Nogueira’s win over Alvey was his first fight in nearly two years. Before that win, the 42-year-old had gone 1-3 and been knocked out twice. Unsurprisingly, Nogueira heard calls for his retirement during that rough patch. The win over Alvey quieted some of that talk, but not all of it.
Before the Alvey fight, Nogueira said he wanted to see how he performed in that bout before he decided his future. He was obviously satisfied with the result of that bout. Nogueira looks to stave off further retirement talk by facing a fighter who is 15 years younger than he is.
7. Is Irene Aldana ready to break through?
Before she signed with the UFC, Irene Aldana fought for titles with Jungle Fight and Invicta FC. She fell short in both of those bouts, which were the only losses on her record when she joined the UFC in 2016. Perhaps because of those two title fights, the UFC threw Aldana into the deep end in her first two bouts with the promotion. The results were not in Aldana’s favor. She dropped decisions to Leslie Smith and Katlyn Chookagian in those outings.
The UFC matchmakers eased up a bit on Aldana in her nest two bookings. The 31-year-old won both of those fights by decision, including her most recent bout, a “Fight of the Night” bonus-winning victory over Lucie Pudilova in September.
It looks like the matchmakers are ready to see if Aldana (9-4 MMA, 2-2 UFC), who is the No. 14 ranked women’s bantamweight, is prepared to start testing herself again, as they matched her up against former women’s bantamweight title challenger Bethe Correia in Brazil. Correia (10-3-1 MMA, 4-3-1 UFC) makes her return to the octagon after two years on the sidelines to deal with an eye injury that required surgery. Correia is a rankings honorable mention. She’s coming off a knockout loss to Holly Holm in her most recent contest.
For more on UFC 237, check out the UFC Rumors section of the site.
