The UFC returns to Ottawa for the first time in nearly three years for Saturday’s UFC on ESPN+ 9 fight card.
A pivotal matchup in the stacked lightweight division serves as the main event of the fight card with former title challengersAl Iaquinta and Donald Cerrone looking to get back in the title picture.
In the co-main event, Elias Theodorou looks to remain unbeaten in his home country of Canada when he faces the hard-hitting Derek Brunson in a middleweight matchup.
Also on the main card, longtime WEC/UFC veteran Cub Swanson looks to put an end to the longest losing skid of his career against Shane Burgos.
UFC on ESPN+ 9 takes place Saturday at Canadian Tire Centre in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. The event streams on ESPN+.
Here are eight burning questions heading in.
1. Can Donald Cerrone stay unbeaten as a dad?
Donald Cerrone has always been someone who follows his own set of rules. Where some fighters make strategic decisions about who they compete against, Cerrone has always had the mindset that he will take any fight offered to him. Where others say their goal is a UFC belt, with Cerrone, the title seemed like a secondary goal.
Well, something has flipped a switch in Cerrone over that past year or so, something that has changed his priorities after 30 fights with the promotion.
What’s changed is Cerrone became a father.
Cerrone’s first fight since the birth of his son was his November welterweight matchup against Mike Perry. At the time, the long-tenured UFC competitor spoke about being a first-time father in the fight game.
“I’ve never felt anything like that in my life,” Cerrone said after his submission win over Perry. “And then when I walked out and I kissed him right before I went into the cage, it didn’t matter what Perry had. No. I’m coming.”
Cerrone dropped to back to lightweight in January to face Alexander Hernandez. He ran through the up-and-comer, scoring a second-round TKO win. Cerrone collected “Performance of the Night” and “Fight of the Night” honors for his effort. Cerrone, who is the No. 15 ranked fighter in the USA TODAY Sports/MMA Junkie MMA lightweight rankings, is now clearly focused on getting a second shot at the 155-pound title.
The UFC record-holder for victories with the promotion looks to keep his winning streak as a father intact when he faces Al Iaquinta, who is ranked No. 4 in the division. Like Cerrone (35-11 MMA, 22-8 UFC), Iaquinta (14-4-1 MMA, 9-3 UFC), who is coming off a “Performance of the Night” win over Kevin Lee, is looking to get back to a title fight. Both men fell short in their first attempts to gain the lightweight crown.
Due to the depth of the lightweight division, this fight, barring some unforeseen circumstances, is not going to get the winner the next title shot, but there’s no reason to believe that it won’t put the victor among the upper echelon of fighters who could be on the shortlist for a title eliminator later in 2019.
2. What’s the plan this time?
Elias Theodorou has not had a finish since he scored a TKO win over Roger Narvaez in March 2015, but, you know what? Theodorou is probably OK with that because since that stoppage, he’s won more fights than he’s lost, and he’s slowly been working up the middleweight rankings.
Theodorou, who is an honorable mention in those rankings, is on a three-fight winning streak heading into his matchup against the No. 11-ranked Derek Brunson. What’s stood out about those three straight victories is just how well Theodorou plans for each specific opponent and how he sticks to that gameplan throughout the fight.
While Theodorou (15-2 MMA, 7-2 UFC) is on a three-fight winning streak, Brunson (18-7 MMA, 9-5 UFC) enters this contest on a two-fight losing skid and is 2-4 dating back to November 2016. Only one of those six fights went past the first round. Before his recent rough patch, Brunson had a run of four first-round stoppage victories.
As far as strategy goes, this might be the most straightforward fight Theodorou has had to plan for in his UFC career. He knows Brunson is going to go for the knockout aggressively. Of course, everyone knows that about Brunson, and he’s still managed to earn 11 career knockout wins. So, yeah, that’s much easier said than done.
Slow and steady has been the plan for Theodorou for some time. If he can get by Brunson in Ottawa, the pace might kick up a few notches for the Canadian competitor.
3. Can Cub Swanson hold onto his ranking?
Cub Swanson has been with the WEC/UFC since 2007. During that time, he’s lost nine fights. Eight of those defeats have come against men who have either held or fought for a title in one or both of those organizations. The ninth and most recent of those setbacks came in August, when Renato Moicano, who looks like he could be a future title challenger, submitted Swanson. Suffice it to say, the 35-year-old has only lost to top-level competitors.
Swanson is currently on the first three-fight losing skid of his career entering his featherweight matchup against Shane Burgos, who turned pro six years after Swanson first began fighting under the WEC banner. Despite his struggles, Swanson (25-10 MMA, 10-6 UFC) remains ranked at No. 13 in the featherweight division while Burgos (11-1 MMA, 4-1 UFC) is unranked.
In December, Swanson was linked to a rematch with Jose Aldo. You may recall that Aldo knocked out Swanson in eight seconds with a flying knee at WEC 41. However, that fight did not come to fruition.
To go from being tied to a matchup against an all-time great to competing against an up-and-comer, well, a message of sorts can be gleaned from the matchmaking, and that message is that Swanson might be on his way to gatekeeper status or worse with a loss in Ottawa.
As a bit of a positive, the last time Swanson fought in Canada was his UFC 206 matchup against Dooho Choi, which was a contender for MMA Junkie’s “Fight of the Year” for 2016.
4. Could this be a breakthrough moment?
Merab Dvalishvili could easily be 3-0 in the UFC. Instead, the former Ring of Combat bantamweight champion is 1-2 with the promotion. In his UFC debut, Dvalishvili dropped a close split decision to Frankie Saenz. In his next outing, he was on the wrong end of a controversial stoppage against Ricky Simon. Dvalishvili made it into the win column in September with a one-sided decision victory over Terrion Ware. All three judges scored the fight 30-25 in favor of Dvalishvili.
Dvalishvili has racked up a whopping 22 takedowns in his three UFC fights, which is kind of incredible. It also kind of lets you know what to expect from the 28-year-old when he enters the octagon. He pushes a fast pace, shoots a ridiculous amount of takedowns and then employs nasty ground striking. Dvalishvili looks like he could make some noise in the bantamweight division. The same thing could be said about his opponent, Brad Katona.
Katona won Season 27 of “The Ultimate Fighter,” as a featherweight, this past July. In December, he dropped to bantamweight and won a unanimous decision over Matthew Lopez to move his career record to 8-0. Like Dvalishvili (8-4 MMA, 1-2 UFC), the 27-year-old Katona (8-0 MMA, 2-0 UFC) fights at a good clip, but he is a more of a technical fighter than Dvalishvili.
Although both of these fighters are still relatively new to the UFC, this matchup could be the winner’s ticket to a top-20 opponent in his next bout. I would expect a fast-paced and exciting fight from these two. It would not be out of the realm of possibilities to see a fight-night bonus award go to at least one of these bantamweights.
5. Two-division champ outside the UFC, but how about inside the UFC?
Marc-Andre Barriault makes the move to the UFC after capturing titles in the light heavyweight and middleweight divisions in Quebec’s TKO promotion. His most recent victory was a first-round knockout over Adam Hunter. The UFC signed Hunter in 2016, but he never fought for the promotion following a two-year USADA suspension after he tested positive for a slew of banned substances.
Barriault is not getting an easy test in his first fight with the promotion. He faces Andrew Sanchez in a middleweight contest. The booking could mean the UFC either thinks Barriault is exceptionally talented or that it feels his credentials are a bit overblown. Whatever the case, Barriault (11-1 MMA, 0-0 UFC) could have his hands full with the well-rounded Sanchez (10-4 MMA, 3-2 UFC), who is a former winner of “The Ultimate Fighter.”
The biggest tests Barriault faces in this contest are regarding his wrestling and ground skills. Barriault is an aggressive and heavy-handed striker, but he hasn’t been tested on the mat and that could be a cause for concern, considering Sanchez has solid takedown skills to go along with a heavy top game.
6. Will Aiemann Zahabi bounce back from a nasty knockout loss?
The last time we saw Aiemann Zahabi in the octagon, referee Todd Anderson was delicately cradling Zahabi’s head after Ricardo Ramos knocked him completely unconscious with a devastating spinning back elbow. The loss was the first of Zahabi’s career.
It’s been 18 months since Zahabi suffered that crushing defeat, and it’s going to be very interesting to see how he bounces back from that loss. Zahabi, who is the younger brother of trainer extraordinaire Firas Zahabi, is known for his excellent gameplanning and preparation for his opponents. That’s no surprise considering his bloodline, but a loss like he suffered to Ramos can change a fighter’s mindset. At 31, Zahabi (7-1 MMA, 1-1 UFC) does not have the largest window to work his way up the bantamweight rankings. With that in mind, any doubt or hesitation he has in this comeback fight against Vince Morales (8-3 MMA, 0-1 UFC) could prove to be disastrous.
Morales is coming off a decision loss to Song Yadong in November.
7. Will we see a different Juan Adams?
Juan Adams kept his streak of knockout wins intact when he stopped Chris De La Rocha in the third round of their December matchup. The bout, Adams’ first with the UFC, marked the first time the 27-year-old had left the first round.
While the outcome of the contest was a stoppage win, the nearly 11-minute bout showed that Adams is still a work in progress. Which, when you consider that he’s only been involved in MMA since 2016, is understandable.
During his post-fight interview, Adams admitted the entirety of fight week was a significant learning experience for him and that the magnitude of fighting for the UFC affected him both inside and outside the octagon. It will be interesting to see how Adams (5-0 MMA, 1-0 UFC) handles his second trip to the UFC cage when he faces Arjan Bhullar in Ottawa. Bhullar (8-1 MMA, 2-1 UFC) is coming off a decision win over Marcelo Golm in October.
Adams has been very vocal about his desire to lock down a fight with Greg Hardy, a man he says he hates. If Adams gets by Bhullar, don’t be surprised if he uses his mic time to make an impassioned callout of Hardy.
8. Uh-oh Canada?
There are 10 Canadian-born fighters competing on the Ottawa card, and the odds are not in their favor. As of this writing, of the eight Canadians who are facing non-Canadian opponents (the opening fight is a Canadian vs. Canadian affair), only one, Zahabi, is a favorite. Theodorou is getting even odds against Brunson. The other six Canadian-born fighters are all underdogs, with the odds in those bouts ranging from slight underdog (Bhullar) to massive underdog (Sarah Moras).
It’ll be interesting to see if the Canadian fighters can make the oddsmakers look bad on this card, which is the UFC’s first visit to Ottawa since 2016. Canadian competitors went 5-4 on that card.
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