The UFC makes its fourth visit to Atlanta with Saturday’s UFC 236, and in an unprecedented occurrence, the card is headlined by two interim title fights.
In the main event, UFC featherweight champion Max Holloway moves up to lightweight to face Dustin Poirier for the interim lightweight crown. This is a rematch of a 2012 bout that was contested at 145 pounds. Poirier won the first meeting between these two by first-round submission, but a lot has changed since that first contest.
In the co-main event, Kelvin Gastelumand Israel Adesanya face off to decide the interim middleweight champion.
UFC 236 takes place at State Farm Arena in Atlanta. The main card airs on pay-per-view following prelims on ESPN and UFC Fight Pass.
Here are eight burning questions about the fight card.
1. So one of these guys really has to lose?
If you’ve spent any time ahead of UFC 236 lurking on MMA Twitter, you’ve undoubtedly seen at least one person voice the opinion that it’s going to be a painful experience seeing one of the fighters in the main event lose. And you know what? That’s true.
Poirier (24-5 MMA, 16-4 UFC) and Holloway (20-4 MMA, 16-4 UFC) have both earned the majority of their fans and accolades the hard way, by putting on exciting fights and slowly crawling up the ranks. Neither of these men took a shortcut to get to where they are. Both competitors have consistently delivered high-output offense and exciting fights on their way to the main even of UFC 236. They might not have won all of their bouts, but they’ve never stopped believing in themselves and never ceased to seek the toughest available opponents.
For Poirier, who is the No. 3 ranked fighter in the USA TODAY Sports/MMA Junkie MMA lightweight rankings, the road to UFC 236 began in 2009 with a knockout one a USA MMA card in Shreveport, La. Holloway, who is the No. 1 ranked featherweight, his career started with a 2010 decision on an X-1 event in Honolulu. Now, after a combined 53 fights, the two meet to determine the interim lightweight champion.
So, yeah, it’s going to be a bummer that one of these two men has to lose in Atlanta, but the upside of that is they will both learn from this fight and look to reach new heights in the future. So, if you need a positive to come from one of these guys failing in his mission to win lightweight gold, that’s not a bad consolation prize.
2. Who’s more prepared?
The recent workload of the two fighters in the co-headliner spot could not be more different. Adesanya (15-0 MMA, 5-0 UFC), who is ranked No. 4 in the middleweight division, had his first fight with the UFC in Feb. 2018. His matchup against the No. 8-ranked Gastelum (16-3 MMA, 10-3 UFC) is his sixth fight with the promotion. By contrast, Gastelum has fought once during that same timespan and that contest took place in May 2018.
Yes, I know Gastelum was scheduled to fight at UFC 234 and that he trained for that event, but he never made the walk that night due to middleweight champion Robert Whittaker’s emergency surgery.
And so the question is, which of these fighters will be more prepared and in better shape both physically and mentally when the octagon door closes behind them?
One could argue that Adesanya could be physically spent having spent the majority of the past 15 months in training camp, but that discounts the fact that he’s a former kickboxer who is accustomed to a hectic schedule. As for Gastelum, will the lack of actual octagon competition leave him rusty and slow or refreshed and reinvigorated?
As for the mental game, Adesanya’s confidence has to be through the roof. He’s won four fight-night bonuses in five UFC contests and he knows that many, including UFC President Dana White, see him as a future great. Adesanya also knows that at 29, with no defeats on his record, a loss in Atlanta is not likely to be the end of his UFC title hopes. Gastelum doesn’t have that kind of hype behind him, but he does have an unwavering belief that he belongs at the top of the division.
The beauty of this sport is that these questions will be resolved in Atlanta.
3. Will a change do him good?
Eryk Anders was on the fast track. After two wins in the UFC, the promotion booked the former University of Alabama linebacker against ex-UFC middleweight champion Lyoto Machida in the main event of UFC Fight Night 125. Anders lost that fight by split decision. The setback was the first of his career. Anders, who turned pro in 2015, is 1-2 since the loss to Machida and riding a two-fight losing skid.
Despite landing high-profile bouts, Anders is essentially learning on the job, which is not always ideal when a mistake can result in a smaller paycheck, not to mention getting knocked out cold in front of a few hundred thousand fight fans.
Anders (11-3 MMA, 3-3 UFC) shifted his fight camp to Colorado to prepare for his matchup against Khalil Rountree (7-3 MMA, 3-3 UFC) at UFC 236. While he is still working with his coach Chris Connolly, he has enlisted the help of the crew at Factory X, including coach Marc Montoya. It’s going to be interesting to see what new wrinkles that group can add to Anders’ game.
Another change is that Anders won’t be cutting much weight for this contest. He’ll be competing at 205 pounds and while he has a light heavyweight bout on his record, a 2018 TKO loss to Thiago Santos, Anders accepted that fight on six days’ notice, so he didn’t have anything even close to a training camp to prepare for that 205-pound scrap.
On an unrelated note, the expectation is that Anders and Rountree will meet in the middle of the octagon and slug it out until one of them falls or the referee waves things off.
Rountree is coming off a first-round knockout loss to Johnny Walker.
4. Can Dwight Grant make some moves?
When Dwight Grant earned a contract on the Dana White’s Contender Series 10 card, White acknowledged Grant’s age, which, at 33, didn’t put him a bit past the point where he would be considered an up-and-comer. However, White still awarded the American Kickboxing Academy-trained welterweight a UFC deal. Grant, who is now 34 has a 1-1 record since he signed with the promotion.
His most recent win was a memorable last-second knockout of Carlo Pedersoli at UFC on ESPN+ 3 in February. That highlight-reel stoppage, which launched Pedersoli’s mouthguard more than halfway across the octagon earned Grant a “Performance of the Night” bonus. It also earned him a spot on the UFC 236 PPV card where he meets veteran competitor Alan Jouban.
This is a big opportunity for Grant, an opportunity that he welcomes.
“The only way I can get better is by facing the best guys in the world and being forced to improve,” Grant said after his win over Pedersoli. “If I just sit around thinking I’m good, it means nothing unless I can prove it in the octagon.”
A win over Jouban (16-6 MMA, 7-4 UFC) won’t launch Grant (9-2 MMA, 1-1 UFC) into the rankings, but Grant’s placement on this card shows that he does have the UFC’s attention. However, we know the promotion’s affections are often fleeting, so it is imperative that he do whatever is in his power to keep the spotlight on himself.
Jouban has not fought since he scored a “Fight of the Night” bonus-winning knockout over Ben Saunders in February 2018. A neck injury prevented him from competing at UFC Fight Night 134 in July.
5. Can Nikita Krylov make that comeback?
A good portion of the MMA world was bummed out when Nikita Krylov left the UFC after his first-round submission loss to Misha Cirkunov in 2016. At 24, Krylov was on a five-fight winning streak and ranked No. 13 in the light heavyweight division heading into his matchup with Cirkunov.
Krylov went 4-0 outside the UFC and claimed the Fight Nights Global light heavyweight crown with a knockout win over Fabio Maldonado in May 2018. That run allowed him to retain his No. 13 ranking and earned him a fight against the tough Jan Blachowicz when he did re-sign with the UFC later in 2018.
Before that fight, Krylov said he left the UFC so that he could make a comeback. Things could not have gone worse for him against Blachowicz. Krylov landed just four of the 18 significant strikes he attempted before Blachowicz submitted him in the second round via a D’Arce choke.
With that loss Krylov (24-6 MMA, 6-4 UFC) slipped from the rankings. He gets an opportunity to climb back into the top 15 when he faces the No.14 ranked Ovince Saint Preux in Atlanta. At one time Saint Preux (23-12 MMA, 11-7 UFC) was a top-10 ranked fighter, but he’s alternated wins and losses in his past four bouts and is barely hanging onto a spot in the top 15.
The problem for Krylov in this fight is that five of his six losses have come by way of submission. That number includes a 2014 loss to Saint Preux, who earned a fight-night bonus for his Von Flue choke stoppage of Krylov at UFC 171. Three of Saint Preux’s past four victories have come by way of submission.
6. Have Wilson Reis’ prayers been answered?
In the lead up to his UFC 236 flyweight bout against the No. 6 ranked Alexandre Pantoja (20-3 MMA, 4-1 UFC), Wilson Reis (23-9 MMA, 7-5 UFC), who is ranked at No. 12 in the division, is holding out hope that the UFC is not going to shutter the promotion’s 125-pound weight class.
“I’m praying that the UFC keeps the flyweight division,” Reis told MMA Junkie. “I think it’s very important to the UFC. All the MMA fans I talk to tell me they love our weight class – it’s very dynamic and technical.
“All combat sports need a lighter weight class. I hope the UFC keeps us on. Up to now, they’ve made no public statement announcing the end of the division. I hope we stay on.”
On Wednesday, Reis and his fellow flyweights got a glimmer of hope when the promotion announced that No. 3 ranked Joseph Benavidez and No. 5 ranked Jussier Formiga are scheduled to meet in a title eliminator on June 29 at UFC on ESPN 4. However, that hope remains a small one, as no other flyweight bouts are currently on the UFC’s docket.
7. Can Zelim Imadaev stay undefeated?
I don’t believe I’m saying anything controversial here, but outside of the top two bouts, UFC 236 is not an especially deep card. Which means the event is tailor-made for lesser-known fighters to make a significant impact. One competitor to keep an eye on is Zelim Imadaev. The 24-year-old Russian is 8-0 with eight knockout victories. His most recent bout, a March 2018 matchup on a Fight Nights Global card, lasted all of 13 seconds. The talented and flashy striker has only left the first stanza on three occasions.
Imadaev (8-0 MMA, 0-0 UFC) does not get an easy test in his UFC debut. He faces Max Griffin in this welterweight bout. Griffin (14-6 MMA, 2-4 UFC), who is an exciting striker in his own right, might have a bit of a chip on his shoulder entering this matchup. He’s coming off a split-decision setback to Thiago Alves. That bout took place in Alves hometown of Fortaleza, Brazil and Griffin said after the decision went against him that he felt that the call had something to do with the location of the fight.
Adding a little fuel to this matchup is the fact the these two had a sparring session earlier this year that left Griffin with some hard feelings.
“I don’t like the guy,” Griffin told MMA Junkie. “I’m looking forward to showing him what it’s like.”
Griffin has gone the distance in his past four fights and he’s shown the ability to keep his foot on the gas for a full 15 minutes, don’t be surprised if the 33-year-old tries to test the cardio and defense of his younger and largely untested foe.
8. Who can bounce back and move on?
There’s a lot to like about the welterweight matchup between Curtis Millender (17-4 MMA, 3-1 UFC) and Belal Muhammed (14-3 MMA, 5-3 UFC). Both fighters seemed poised for a breakthrough in 2019 but fell short in their most recent bouts.
Muhammad was on a four-fight winning streak before he ran into Geoff Neal in January. Neal won that fight, which earned “Fight of the Month” honors from MMA Junkie. It was a nasty loss for Muhammed, who was bloodied and dropped twice during the 15-minute contest.
As for Millender, he had a nine-fight winning streak come to an abrupt end when Elizeu Zaleski dos Santos submitted him in the first round of their March matchup.
Both of these men could have looked for a rebuilding type of matchup coming off their recent defeats. Instead, they accepted this contest, which could be a sleeper pick for a performance bonus.
One thing to watch for in this matchup is Muhammed’s takedowns. During his winning streak, Muhammad racked up 10 takedowns. All four of Millender’s UFC opponents have been able to get him to the mat. Muhammed did tell MMA Junkie that he’s been working on his ground game, but just five weeks have passed since his recent loss.
Thoughts to ponder
It’s a new world
Well, here we are a little more than three months into the UFC’s deal with ESPN and with UFC 236, one of the most significant changes of that partnership has been rolled out. Fans in the United States now have only one point of purchase for UFC PPV events and that’s through ESPN+. Yes, in order to purchase UFC 236 and any future pay-per-view card, you need to subscribe to ESPN+, which adds a layer to the process of buying a pay-per-view. It’s going to be interesting to see how this effects the UFC pay-per-view business, not to mention the fighters who get points on pay-per-view buys.
It’s been a while
Boston Salmon, who if you don’t recall, was one of the two fighters to earn a contract on the Dana White’s Contender Series 1 card. After White rewarded Salmon with a UFC deal, the UFC boss said he thought Salmon looked “fantastic.” Fight cancellations and injuries have prevented Salmon from competing since he earned his contract in 2017. Now, nearly two years later, Salmon (6-1 MMA, 0-0 UFC) makes his UFC debut against Khalid Taha (12-2 MMA, 0-1 UFC) in a featherweight scrap at UFC 236. Taha is coming off a decision loss to Nad Narimani in July.
Check the records
Randy Costa faces Brandon Davis in the curtain jerker and while Costa is unbeaten at 4-0, if you dig a little deeper into his record, you’ll see that only one of his previous foes had a win on their record when Costa faced them, and that fighter, Chris Thorne, was 5-8 and on a four-fight losing skid ahead of his meeting with Costa (4-0 MMA, 0-0 UFC). Davis (9-6 MMA, 1-3 UFC), who has fought as high as lightweight, is coming off a submission loss to Zabit Magomedsharipov at featherweight heading into this bantamweight bout.
For more on UFC 236, check out the UFC Rumors section of the site.
