The UFC makes its third visit to Abu Dhabi on Saturday, as UFC 242 takes place in the United Arab Emirates.
And while one can certainly debate the morality of doing business in a place with an atrocious track record on women’s and LGBT rights and decide from there whether this is something you wish to support with your money, the fact is, the show is going on. And it’s headlined by unquestionably one of the most anticipated fights of the year.
UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov is a gigantic star in the Middle East, something which has become quite apparent this fight week, and he’ll be the crowd favorite when he meets interim champ Dustin Poirier in what promises to be a thrilling title unifier.
But that’s not all that’s of interest at UFC 242. The co-headliner features Edson Barboza and Paul Felder in a rematch of what was a phenomenal 2015 bout, and there’s plenty more.
UFC 242 takes place Saturday at The Arena at Yas Island in Abu Dhabi. The main card airs on pay-per-view following prelims on FX and UFC Fight Pass/ESPN+.
With that, here are seven burning questions ahead of UFC 242.
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Should a win put Khabib Nurmagomedov on the GOAT short list?
No, we’re not just talking lightweight GOAT, although there’s that, too.
Who’s on the overall GOAT list these days? Demetrious Johnson was regularly name-checked on that list, for good reason: He had a great run as an undersized bantamweight and an all-time great title reign at flyweight once the UFC got around to having a division in his natural weight class. Georges St-Pierre is high on that list, too. GSP has only lost twice and not since 2007, held the UFC welterweight title for five-and-a-half years during his second reign, then came out of retirement and won the middleweight belt. Jon Jones, of course, has never legitimately lost a fight, and while you can say plenty about his outside-the-ring escapades, there’s no debating what he’s done in the cage.
Jones debuted in April 2008 and has fought 27 times (including a no-contest). Nurmagomedov (27-0 MMA, 13-0 UFC) debuted in Sept. 2008 and will fight for the 28th time. Jones went through what was then a murderer’s row at 205 pounds. Nurmagomedov is 13-0 in the UFC’s deepest division, lightweight. Both fighters are so dominant that it’s news when their fights are competitive.
We’re not saying Nurmagomedov is the GOAT, but it’s becoming time he gets name-checked on the short list, and a victory over a red-hot Poirier (25-5 MMA, 17-4 UFC) would only bolster his case.
Will Dustin Poirier take the final step on one of the longest roads to UFC glory?
The way Jones and Nurmagomedov bulled their way to the top in the octagon is worthy of respect. But the way Poirier has gone about it is the type that earned people’s admiration.
We’ve basically watched Poirier grow up in the national spotlight. He was just 21 when he made his WEC debut in 2010. We’ve seen him hit stumbling blocks, go down to featherweight, back up to lightweight, winning and losing exciting fights along the way. He’s never stopped learning from his mistakes, improving, growing, taking on the toughest challenges.
In that way, a victory over the undefeated Nurmagomedov in the Middle East, where it has become clear this week he’s a major sports icon, would be a fitting tribute to the way Poirier has conducted his entire career.
Both main eventers agree Tony Ferguson deserves a title shot. Will he get next?
We normally wouldn’t speculate about who might get the next title fight before a main event even goes down, but this time we must have an eye on the future.
That’s because in the leadup to UFC 242, both Nurmagomedov and Poirier have made one thing abundantly clear: If they win, Tony Ferguson deserves the next title shot.
This is important for a couple reasons. One, it’s no big secret anymore that the UFC will give a title shot to someone who isn’t the clear-cut No. 1 contender if it feels the other option will make more money. That might tempt the UFC to make a bout between the Khabib-Poirier winner and Conor McGregor, despite the fact McGregor has not won an MMA fight in nearly three years.
Two, it sends a clear-cut message from both competitors that even if the UFC doesn’t want to protect the integrity of their championships, the belts still mean a whole hell of a lot to the fighters. For Nurmagomedov, a Ferguson fight, a matchup which has been the great white whale of this MMA generation having been scheduled four times and fallen out just as many, would be the one to complete his legacy. For Poirier, it would be a matter of giving another guy who had to claw his way to the top his rightful opportunity. Either way, the notion both want T-Ferg only adds to the stakes of a fight being contested by two guys doing this for all the right reasons.
How will Edson Barboza-Paul Felder 2 play out?
Probably really, really fun. And we could probably leave things at that, and most of you would understand why.
But for the sake of filling this out, the first time they met at UFC on FOX 16 in 2015, the matchup between the two was a thrilling slow burner of a kickboxing fight that kept building to higher and higher levels. Barboza (20-7 MMA, 14-7 UFC) took a correct unanimous decision on across-the-board scores of 29-28, and both took home “Fight of the Night” bonuses.
Since then? Well, look, both guys are more experienced, but they’re still the same fighters at their core. The difference is in the stakes. Felder (16-4 MMA, 8-4 UFC) was in just his third UFC bout when he took the first Barboza fight. Now he’s entering his 13th UFC fight, has won his last four lightweight bouts in a row, and is on the verge of finally breaking through the the top of the sport’s deepest class.
Barboza, for his part, always seemed right on the brink of reaching that tip-top level, but never quite got through. He’s dropped three of his past four fights and badly needs a win to keep from being relegated to “fun fighter, but no longer a contender” status.
Even with all that, this fight should still be pretty damn fun.
Is this make or break time for Joanne Calderwood?
It feels like Joanna Calderwood has been right on the brink for quite some time now. If you followed the Scotland native during her Invicta days, when she blitzed her way to an 8-0 record, she seemed like a world champion in the making.
Her UFC tenure, however, has been a series of fits and starts. Calderwood (13-4 MMA, 5-4 UFC) bounced between strawweight and flyweight. She’s changed gyms on several occasions, settling in most recently at Syndicate MMA in Las Vegas.
She won her first two fights after moving back to flyweight before dropping a unanimous decision to Katlyn Chookagian at UFC 238. Now she faces Andrea Lee (11-2 MMA, 3-0 UFC), who has seven straight fights and all three of her UFC bouts. Calderwood is hitting that point in her career in which she’s either going to be defined as a contender or a gatekeeper, and this fight very well might spell the difference.
Can Curtis Blaydes get back in the heavyweight title hunt?
Remember when Curtis Blaydes defeated Alistair Overeem at UFC 225? After the admittedly impressive third-round TKO, Blaydes made a lot of noise about feeling disrespected that he wasn’t fast-tracked to face the winner of the Stipe Miocic-Daniel Cormier title fight at UFC 226.
Then Blaydes (11-2 MMA, 6-2 UFC) got knocked out by Francis Ngannou in 45 seconds in his next fight, which doesn’t exactly bolster one’s case.
And while that was the Chicago native’s only loss in his past seven fights, he’s more behind the eight ball in the title chase than it appears at first glance. Miocic won the title back from Cormier at UFC 241. If they don’t have a trilogy fight, a revitalized Ngannou likely gets the next shot. Blaydes has been finished twice against Ngannou. All Blaydes – who among his last eight fights has been shipped off to China, Australia, Croatia, and now Dubai – can do is win against an opponent in Mairbek Taisumov (27-5 MMA, 7-1 UFC) and then hope things break his way.
Is it Islam Makhachev’s time for a breakthrough?
It’s fitting that Dagestani lightweight Islam Makhachev is teammates with Nurmagomedov, because the UFC is subjecting Makhachev (17-1 MMA, 6-1 UFC) to the same long, slow climb to the top the current champ faced. The American Kickboxing Academy standout and World Sambo Championship gold medalist hss won five in a row, cleaning out the tier of fighters which includes Nik Lentz, Gleison Tibau, Chris Wade, and so on.
Now he’s getting another fighter who’s gotten a hard road, hasn’t had much name recognition, and is also looking for his break. Brazil’s Davi Ramos (10-2 MMA, 4-1 UFC) is a former ADCC gold medalist who has won four in a row with three submissions in that span. If Makhachev passes this formidable test, then it’s time to allow himself to start testing himself against one of the division’s bigger names.
