The UFC is in Rochester, N.Y. for the first time in promotional history for Saturday’s UFC on ESPN+ 10 card.
In the headlining bout, former UFC lightweight champion Rafael dos Anjos, who made the move up to welterweight in 2017, welcomes former interim lightweight title challenger Kevin Lee to the 170-pound division. And in the co-headliner, Ian Heinisch, who has just one UFC bout to his name, looks to make a big jump up in the middleweight division against dangerous submission artist Antonio Carlos Junior.
The event also features a matchup of former Invicta FC champions, as well as a rare non-title trilogy bout.
UFC on ESPN+ 10 takes place at Blue Cross Arena. The card streams entirely on ESPN+. Here are eight burning questions heading into it.
1. Will Kevin Lee be able to reboot at welterweight?
Lee has long been a proponent of the UFC adding a 165-pound weight class. However, with UFC president Dana White saying that won’t happen, Lee is moving up to 170 to fight dos Anjos after a history of struggling to make 155. That includes missing weight before an April 2018 win over Edson Barboza.
For Lee (17-4 MMA, 10-4 UFC), this is the kind of fight that could reboot his career. At 26, he’s still young enough to make a run (or two) at the 170-pound title. The first step toward that goal is to get by Dos Anjos, who’s ranked No. 9 in the USA TODAY Sports/MMA Junkie welterweight rankings.
Lee needs to approach this matchup against his 34-year-old opponent like it’s his UFC debut. Without the dehydration related to his past weight cuts, Lee should be able to gauge his cardio better and also think more clearly inside the cage. If he does emerge victorious, he instantly becomes a player at 170.
2. Will Ian Heinisch rise against a top-15 opponent in just his second UFC fight?
Leading up to his UFC debut, Heinisch was all over the MMA media landscape, detailing the troubled life he put behind him. Heinisch’s story of how far he’s come since those days was refreshing in a sport that sometimes gets mired in negativity and sordidness.
Heinisch (12-1 MMA, 1-0 UFC), the former interim LFA middleweight champion, impressed in his UFC debut win and now takes a big step up in competition against No. 14 Carlos Junior (10-2 MMA, 7-2 UFC), who’s won five straight, with four of those victories by way of submission.
Despite only having one UFC bout to his name, Heinisch requested a top-15 opponent following his win over Cezar Ferreira. The UFC must see more than an inspirational story in Heinisch, because they gave him his wish. This bout should give all concerned a good idea as to where Heinisch stands.
3. Does Sijara Eubanks have something to prove?
Few fighters have been able to accumulate ill will in their UFC tenure as quickly as Sijara Eubanks because of her defiant and unapologetic attitude following two weight misses. It didn’t help that she almost met Valentina Shevchenko for the vacant women’s flyweight title at UFC 230 in a fight many thought she didn’t deserve, and then missed weight for her non-title fight on that same card.
So now Eubanks moves (back) up to bantamweight at UFC on ESPN+ 10, where she faces Aspen Ladd, the No. 3 women’s 135-pounder. The fight is an opportunity for revenge, as Ladd owns a 2017 unanimous-decision win over Eubanks under the Invicta FC banner.
This feels like a “prove yourself” type of matchup for Eubanks. After all, Ladd was booked to face ex-women’s bantamweight champion Holly Holm at UFC 235. Ladd, who is undefeated at 7-0, is just 24 and already considered a potential future champion. A win over her would be the perfect way for Eubanks to kick off her run at 135.
4. Has Megan Anderson worked on her ground game?
Former Invicta FC featherweight champ Megan Anderson recently said she was excited to learn the UFC had begun to sign additional women’s 145 pounders to the roster. We’ll find out if that excitement remains when she steps into the octagon against one of those recent signees in Felicia Spencer.
Anderson (9-3 MMA, 1-1 UFC) will have some physical advantages in this bout – six inches in height, five inches in reach – over Spencer (6-0 MMA, 0-0 UFC), but the story of this fight might be what happens if it hits the mat. Spencer is a black belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu, and Anderson struggled mightily when Holly Holm put her on the mayt at UFC 225. During that contest, UFC commentator Joe Rogan described Anderson as looking “like a fish out of water here with someone mounting her.”
Expect Spencer to do everything in her power to get the fight to the mat and test Anderson’s development in her ground game.
5. Does this Nik Lentz vs. Charles Oliveira trilogy make sense?
At the conclusion of their UFC Fight Night 67 bout in 2015, commentator Brian Stann said of the featherweight contest between Charles Oliveira and Nik Lentz, “I don’t care what they’re ranked. Have these guys fight every year.” That was four years after the two first met at UFC on Versus 4. Now, four years after that second meeting, the two face off for the third time
On paper, this fight might not make much sense. Oliveira (26-8 MMA, 14-8 UFC), a rankings honorable mention at lightweight, is on a four-fight winning streak and had requested a top-five matchup after his UFC on ESPN+ 2 finish of David Teymur. Instead, he’ll settle for unranked Lentz (30-9-1 MMA, 14-6-1 UFC), who is 3-1 in his four most recent outings and coming off a decision win over Scott Holtzman at UFC on ESPN 1.
So, does this trilogy fight make sense? Before you answer that I implore you to watch the first two meetings. OK, if you’ve done that, then you’ll know that, yes, this fight makes a lot of sense.
The first two Lentz-Oliveira bouts took place at a blistering pace. Given those bouts led to three fight-night bonuses combined, don’t be shocked if this matchup adds to that total.
6. Will Vicente Luque be negatively affected by the last-minute opponent change?
After racking up eight finishes in 10 UFC fights and participating in an early candidate for 2019 “Fight of the Year,” Vicente Luque seemed on the verge of an opportunity to break into the welterweight rankings when he was matched up against Neil Magny. Unfortunately for him, Magny was removed from the Rochester card this week after the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency flagged him for a potential violation.
Luque (15-6-1 MMA, 8-2 UFC) now faces UFC newcomer Derrick Krantz (24-10 MMA, 0-0 UFC), which has to be a letdown. The worry in situations such as this is that there will be a drop-off in the intensity of the fighter who lost his original opponent.
Luque is a fierce competitor with a defined goal in mind. But in a sport as unforgiving as MMA, where one brief lapse can result in a knockout or submission, he needs to stay on point and focus on the long term. His team needs to make sure he’s dialed in but also not overly aggressive when he faces Krantz, who has absolutely nothing to lose.
7. Will Desmond Green make his hometown proud?
Desmond Green got at least one of the things he asked for after knocking out Ross Pearson in March at UFC on ESPN 2.
Green, a native of Rochester, told UFC commentator Jon Anik that he would “literally fight in Rochester for free.” After he left the octagon, he added that he wanted to face a top-20 opponent in his next outing.
Green is fighting in Rochester, but he is not facing a ranked opponent. Instead, Green (22-8 MMA, 3-3 UFC) is matched up against newcomer Charles Jourdain (9-1 MMA, 0-0 UFC), who joins the UFC after capturing the TKO featherweight and interim lightweight titles in his two most recent outings.
Green is a heavy favorite and undoubtedly will be pumped to fight in his hometown for the first time as a UFC competitor. Could that lead to an overly aggressive performance? That wouldn’t be wise against a fighter like Jourdain, whose victories have all come by way of stoppage.
8. Will Michel Pereira wow us in his UFC debut?
Flashy does not begin to describe Michel Pereira’s performance during his February Road FC bout. Things started with a moonsault and escalated from there. Pereira’s theatrics went viral. The UFC took notice and signed him not long after that jaw-dropping display.
The 25-year-old Brazilian has vowed to bring those same shenanigans to the octagon when he makes his UFC debut against Danny Roberts. Pereira told MMA Junkie that his biggest focus in the cage is to put on a show for the fans who have paid to be entertained.
We’ll find out if he can deliver in Rochester.
For more on UFC on ESPN+ 10, check out the UFC Rumors section of the site.
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