(Editor’s note: This story originally published on Nov. 1, 2019.)
The hour is drawing near. The fight for the hardcore fans, the throwback fight for those who have watched MMA evolve from outsider status to corporate juggernaut and lose some of its soul along the way, the reward for two fighters who have been through all the ups and downs over the years, is finally upon us, as Jorge Masvidal and Nate Diaz square off in the main event of UFC 244.
The welterweights will throw down for the “BMF” belt in one of the world’s great fight arenas, New York’s Madison Square Garden, in what from all indications will be the biggest fight card of the year.
That alone should be enough to get even lapsed fans to cough up money for the pay-per-view. But this is a deep card filled with intriguing matchups which matter in their respective divisions.
UFC 244 takes place Saturday at Madison Square Garden in New York. The main card airs on pay-per-view following prelims on ESPN2 and early prelims on ESPN2/ESPN+/UFC Fight Pass.
Without further ado, then, here are seven burning questions heading into UFC 244.
Can the ‘BMF’ fight possibly live up to the hype?
If you’re an MMA fan long enough, you can learn to find clouds on even the sunniest days. After all, for everything people love about this sport, for the natural high a killer fight produces, there are the maddening moments, the infuriating moments, and the pure letdowns.
The latter category comes into play when when a can’t-miss fight, does. You expect fireworks and get a dud instead. And, for all the excitement Masvidal (34-13 MMA, 11-6 UFC) and Diaz (20-11 MMA, 15-9 UFC) have delivered over the years, with a combined 88 pro fights, they’ve had their share of less-exciting matchups, too.
Add in all the extra pomp, with a belt being made specifically for this occasion and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson in the house and even Donald Trump risking going into a non-hand-picked crowd and getting booed again, and yeah, the hype level is high.
Fortunately, Masvidal and Diaz have appeared to be entirely unmoved by everything swirling around them, which is an encouraging sign, and part of the reason why we love this fight in the first place.
Congrats, you are the ‘BMF.’ Now what?
So, let’s say you’re victorious on Saturday night, and you’ve had Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson put the BMF belt around your waist. Now what?
Assuming this fight lives up to expectations, or at least comes close, the winner is going to be able to write their own ticket to their next destination.
It won’t matter that the winner of this fight, regardless of whom gets their hand raised has double-digit losses. Masvidal and Diaz have created something through their authenticity that flies in the face of the UFC’s belief that there needs to be a weight-class championship atop every pay-per-view, to the degree the company has come up with tortured reasons to create interim belts at time to do so.
Nope, Masvidal vs. Diaz is the biggest fight of the year, and the winner should be in position to continue forward as a bigger draw than ever. So what would the winner do from here? Go the conventional route and go after the winner of the UFC 245 bout between Kamaru Usman and Colby Covington? Hold out for a megabucks fight with Conor McGregor, assuming that McGregor wins his expected return bout against Donald Cerrone in January goes according to form? Maybe do something else entirely? As long as this fight isn’t a dud, the winner will have a rare level of autonomy for a UFC competitor.
Can Kelvin Gastelum rebound?
If you’re Kelvin Gastelum, it’s hard not to look around and think “what if.”
Gastelum was coming off a pair of tremendous wins over former world champions Michael Bisping and “Jacare” Souza heading into what was supposed to be his shot at Robert Whittaker’s middleweight belt at UFC 234. Then Whittaker fell ill the day of the card and had to withdraw. Then Gastelum came up just a hair short in a thrilling fight with Adesanya for the interim belt at UFC 236. Then Adesanya went out and rolled over Whittaker to take the belt, leaving Gastelum thinking he could have done the same
This game just isn’t fair sometimes.
Now Gastelum (16-4 MMA, 10-4 UFC) has to wrap his brain around the new scheme in the middleweight division, and he’ll do so in the evening’s co-feature bout, where he will take on Darren Till (17-2-1 MMA, 5-2-1 UFC), who finally arrived in New York on Thursday after a visa hang-up. Till himself has something to prove as he finally makes his long-advised move up in weight. Middleweight is a division full of shark tanks, and Gastelum will have to prove he’s still got a sharp set of teeth.
Where does the Stephen Thompson-Vicente Luque winner fall into the welterweight mix?
UFC 244 seems to be an endless string of consequential, meaningful fights, the sort of lineup longtime fans swear that every pay-per-view card once had (but really didn’t).
Few fights on the card mean as much in the divisional scheme, though, as the welterweight showdown between Stephen Thompson and Vicente Luque.
“Wonderboy” went on a tremendous run to start his UFC career, winning eight of his first nine in the company. Since then, Thompson (14-4-1 MMA, 9-4-1 UFC) is 1-3-1. But his loss to Tyron Woodley was close, his loss to Darren Till was a borderline robbery, and he was winning his fight with Anthony Pettis before he got caught. That’s the type of stretch an elite fighter can pull himself through.
Luque (17-6-1 MMA, 10-2 UFC), meanwhile, has been given your classic hard-road, non-star-treatment path to the top. That’s paid off in a six-fight win streak which has included wild fights with Bryan Barberena and Mike Perry. All he needs to put himself over the top is, well, a fighter with Thompson’s pedigree, on a stage like MSG and UFC 244.
There’s a bit of a logjam atop the 170-pound pack at the moment, but the winner of this fight won’t be far off the top.
How much gas does Derrick Lewis have left in the tank?
Thirteen months ago, Derrick Lewis had what, as of now, stands as his crowning achievement. Lewis (21-7 MMA, 12-5 UFC) earned a knockout for the ages at UFC 229, stopping former Bellator champ Alexander Volkov cold with 11 seconds left after losing for the vast majority of the fight.
It was an incredible moment by the fighter who may have gotten the most out of heart alone as anyone currently on the UFC roster. And it paid off with a title shot which he took on short notice just a month later.
But the fairytale story ended there, as he was submitted by then-champion Daniel Cormier, then was knocked out by Junior dos Santos the next time out.
This time, the “Black Beast” takes on former WSOF champ Blagoy Ivanov (18-2 MMA, 2-1 UFC). How much does Lewis have left? He took a lot of punishment simply to make his improbable run to a title shot. Here, we should learn whether he’s given all he can give, or whether he has another run left in him.
Is Saturday night Gregor Gillespie’s time to shine?
An undefeated fighter who has been wrecking people left and right in the UFC’s deepest division, who also happens to have just as strong a dedication to fishing as he does fighting? How does this guy not have a fishing show on ESPN yet?
Well, partly because they haven’t been giving him the exposure he should be getting. Gillespie has fought six times in the UFC and won six times. Only one previous fight has been on a pay-per-view card. Even after building up a four-fight UFC win streak, and making it obvious in the process he’s going places, he was relegated to fight-night level cards in his past two.
Now, he’s finally getting the spotlight he deserves. And getting a legit name, too, in a consequential fight in the main-card opener. Former interim title challenger Kevin Lee (17-5 MMA, 10-5 UFC) is back down to 155 after going up to 170, and needs this win to stay relevant. Gillespie (13-0 MMA, 6-0 UFC), though, can make his name at Lee’s expense. And if that happens, Endeavor will have no choice but to get off their backsides and figure out a way to monetize this guy.
What will we see from Johnny Walker?
The last time we saw Johnny Walker, he put on one of the most impressive performances we’ve seen in quite some time, as he steamrolled Misha Cirkunov 36 seconds, continuing a run which in which he win all of his UFC fights by knockout in less than two minutes.
Clearly, we finally had a new contender beginning to emerge to eventually challenge Jon Jones. And then Walker injured himself breakdancing during his post-fight celebration.
Welp.
Several months later, Walker is fully rehabbed, back, and ready to take his place on the biggest stage. And he’ll get a real test, to, when he meets the perpetually underrated Corey Anderson in the featured prelim bout. Every striker who cuts a flashy path needs to past their big wrestling test. Israel Adesanya did it against Derek Brunson and then went on to become champion. If Walker can do the same here, he could be well on his way to a date with “Bones.”
You know, so long as he doesn’t hurt himself afterwards.
How high can Edmen Shahbazyan fly?
I’m not going to lie here: I pretty much wrote off the Glendale Fighting Club after Ronda Rousey’s spectacular MMA downfall. And if you’re being honest with yourself, you probably did, too.
But, in roughly the amount of time it takes to yell “head movement!” along came the fighter who could turn out to be GFC’s saving grace. Just 21, the undefeated Edmen Shahbazyan, Rousey’s former training partner has been terrorizing the lower tier of the middleweight division, and doing so in a manner that’s demonstrated his toolkit has all the tools: After going the distance to decision Darren Stewart in his debut, he had a 38-second TKO of Charles Byrd and a first-round sub of Jack Marshman.
Now, he takes on one of the division’s toughest outs in Brad Tavares. We last saw Tavares taking a wicked beating — but still lasting 25 minutes — against current champ Israel Adesanya, 18 months ago. He’ll have something to prove in his return. If nothing else, this is a quality test for the up-and-comer.
