The UFC machine chugs along Saturday night when the company’s sole remaining champ-champ puts one of her titles up for grab.
In the UFC 250 main event, featherweight and bantamweight champion Amanda Nunes puts her 145-pound belt on the line for the first time since her swift and stunning knockout to take the title from Cris Cyborg 18 months ago when she takes on top contender Felicia Spencer.
And while this card might not have the sort of marquee value of, say, a Conor McGregor or Nate Diaz fight, the discerning eye will notice a variety of low-key interesting matchups up and down the card.
UFC 250 takes place Saturday at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. The main card airs on pay-per-view following prelims on ESPN and early prelims on UFC Fight Pass/ESPN+.
Without further ado, then, here are six burning questions heading into UFC 250.
Can Amanda Nunes add another chapter to her legacy?
McGregor won the UFC featherweight and lightweight belts, but never defended either. Henry Cejudo won the bantamweight championship while holding the flyweight title, but vacated the flyweight belt before defending either after attaining champ-champ status. Daniel Cormier might have wanted to continue defending the light heavyweight belt after he won the heavyweight crown, but the UFC wanted the belt back, so they came to a deal in which he relinquished the 205 pound belt before defending the heavyweight belt against Derrick Lewis.
Nunes (19-4 MMA, 12-1 UFC), however? Here’s a different breed of cat. Since defeating Cyborg at UFC 230, she’s twice defended her bantamweight belt, defeating Holly Holm and Germaine de Randamie. Now she goes up against Spencer (8-1 MMA, 2-1 UFC), who has made up for her relative lack of experience with plenty of toughness and heart, in the first defense of her 145 belt. A victory here, obviously, makes her the first UFC champ-champ to successfully defend both belts. And an 11th straight win will not only add to her argument for women’s GOAT, but also climb the GOAT list regardless of gender.
Is it do-or-die time for Cody Garbrandt?
Remember Cody Garbrandt’s masterful performance in winning the UFC bantamweight belt from Dominick Cruz at UFC 207? That felt like a changing-of-the-guard moment, with Garbrandt (11-3 MMA, 6-3 UFC) sitting at 11-0 at age 25.
And yet here were are, three and a half years later, and his victory over Cruz sits as his most recent win. Garbrandt has dropped three in a row, all by knockout, all in wild firefights, with the last one, against Pedro Munhoz, one few saw coming.
So will Garbrandt be able to turn things around? Well, he’s working with noted striking coach Mark Henry now, one of the game’s finest, which should help fix the flaws in his aggressive style. Garbrandt returns for his first fight in 15 months, where he’ll meet Raphael Assuncao in a fight originally slated for March. Assuncao (27-7 MMA, 11-4 UFC), himself, is a top-level divisional mainstay with something to prove after two losses, giving this fight an extra sense of urgency.
Can Cody Stamann come through during an emotional time?
Cody Stamann has shown good things in the UFC’s bantamweight division, going undefeated in his first five UFC bouts, including a draw with fellow budding contender Song Yadong last time out.
This time, Stamann (18-2-1 MMA, 4-1-1 UFC) competes at featherweight, where he meets Brian Kelleher on the evening’s preliminary card. But he’s got something much bigger going on as the fight approaches.
Stamann told MMA Junkie early this week that his 18-year-old brother, Jacob, died unexpectedly last week. He also said that even though he was offered the chance to postpone the fight, fighting on is what his brother would have wanted, and as such, he’s decided to fight on.
No offense to Kelleher (21-10 MMA, 5-3 UFC), a good dude and a good fighter who will also be motivated, as he tries to shake off a two-fight losing streak, but it’s hard not to root for Sandhagen here as he perseveres through a difficult life circumstance.
Who will emerge in a key bantamweight showdown?
Not all that long ago, it felt like Aljamain Sterling’s quick and vicious flying-knee loss to Marlon Moraes would be the defining moment of his career. But Sterling (18-3 MMA, 10-3 UFC) has since rallied back for four victories in a row and is back in bantamweight title contention.
Cory Sandhagen, meanwhile, has hit no such rut. His win over Raphael Assuncao at UFC 241 put him at 5-0 in the UFC.
This would have been an important bout at 135 pounds under any circumstances, but the void left at 135 by the retirement of champ Henry Cejudo has made it all the more important. Will Sandhagen (12-1 MMA, 5-0 UFC), who has three finishes in his five UFC fights, add Sterling to that list? Or will Sterling implement his often boring, but undeniably effective grappling game to shut Sandhagen down?
The UFC has made it clear it wants Jose Aldo vs. Petr Yan as the fight to fill the vacant belt, though it isn’t finalized. With an impressive win here, who knows? Maybe Sterling or Sandhagen slide into one of those spots.
Can Sean O’Malley deliver on a statement win?
“Suga” Sean O’Malley has made a lot of noise in his mixed martial arts career, from his flamboyant style inside the cage to his equally intriguing personality outside the arena. Throw in a fairly ridiculous run-in with USADA along the way (an osterine case that would not have been flagged under recently revised rules), and there always seems to be a new episode of “The Suga Show” ready to stream.
What we haven’t seen from O’Malley yet is a win over the type of name that would signify he is ready to move to the next level. And that, he’ll get from the inaugural WEC bantamweight champion, Eddie Wineland.
Make no mistake, the 35-year-old Wineland is a step slower than he was in his prime. But he’s never stopped being a tough out, and in his last fight at UFC 238 his second-round finish of Grigory Popov showed you best not sleep on him. If O’Malley can put on the type of impressive performance over Wineland he’s staged against lesser names up to this point, that would demonstrate he’s ready to the real climb up the ladder.
Will we see a renewed Evan Dunham?
We know the majority of you MMA junkies don’t actually tune in for the opening fight of the card unless you have a compelling reason. UFC 250, however, provides one such reason. Evan Dunham makes his return Saturday after a retirement of two years in the evening’s opening bout, where he’ll meet Herbert Burns at a 150-pound catchweight. A longtime competitor in the lightweight division, Dunham (18-8-1 MMA, 11-8-1 UFC) was at one point 11-0, but never quite reached the levels expected, even though he had a knack for exciting fights.
Dunham, who was originally scheduled to return against Michael Johnson on the canceled April 9 card, was winless in his past three bouts before retirement, and hasn’t won since 2016. He’s not taking an easy fight in his return, as he goes up against Brazil’s Burns (10-2 MMA, 1-0 UFC), a featherweight coming up five pounds who’s won four straight, including a stoppage of Nate Landwehr in his UFC debut in January.
