So tomorrow we have UFC 256 coming up and some people are saying things like "oh wow it is just such an amazing card!" and I don't think I necessarily agree with that. For one thing the flyweight division almost never does it for me. I just find the fights between the "widdle guys" to be boring normally although Figueiredo did prove me wrong on that one just a few weeks ago.
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So yeah, the fact that Figueiredo is fighting again this quick is pretty impressive, I'll give him that. This is a real rarity that something like this would happen but Covid really shook things up for this card and the UFC threw something together at the last minute. Well, Covid is being blamed for the complete shakeup of the roster but in reality the main event was meant to be Kamaru Usman defending against Gilbert Burns but Usman made the bizarre claim that he "wouldn't be physically ready in time" and that is something that I was unaware you could use as an excuse to not fight. If you are a top-tier fighter, or even worse a champion, shouldn't you ALWAYS be ready to fight?
Anyway, for whatever reasons or excuses they are making the card got all switched around and honestly I am not really looking forward to either of the "co main events" as I am one of the undercards.
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For one thing, I really like it when the big boys fight. I think I enjoy Heavyweight bouts the most of any division even though they do stand a much greater chance of having the fighters gas out since they weight about double what the "real" main event is on this particular PPV.
The reason why this could be really good is because Gane is an up-and-comer in the Heavyweight division....maybe...
I say "maybe" because while Gane is undefeated, I had to dig pretty deep to even figure out who any of the people he has defeated even are. Scoring wins over the likes of Raphael Nunes, and Tanner Boser on Fight Nights up to over a year ago doesn't exactly scream "he's heading for a title shot." There was a time that Dos Santos was a beast in the ring but I believe those days are well behind us and it is only a matter of time before Dana White sends Junior out to pasture like so many of the other guys who have been around in the UFC for years.
Dos Santos has lost his last 3 fights pretty badly as well being knocked out thrice consecutively. If you are losing AND you are near 40 years old, there is a pretty good chance that the UFC is only keeping you around due to lack of other talent in the division. How this man is ranked number 7 after 3 losses in a row is kind of proof of this.
This isn't to say that Junior is a pushover though although I would say that he has become a bit of a stepping stone for people that the UFC wants to give a nice push to be more in the public eye.
Ciryl Gane has KO'd or submitted all of his opponents in his 6-0 run thus far in the UFC. But then again we look at his list of opponents and I think most people wouldn't even know who any of them are.
Gane certainly looks like someone we would want to have in the top ranks and at 6 foot 5 and 250 pounds, you can bet that Dana White and co. are really hoping that Gane can pull off another KO so that they can make a push for him to run up the charts or even better, prime his for a big money showdown with Brock Lesnar who recently quit working with WWE. Their physiques are similar and if Gane can win convincingly against Dos Santos you can't tell me that this isn't something the executives over at UFC have on their minds for when attendance is allowed again.
Of course I could be totally wrong about the excitement factor here: Lord knows I was dead wrong about what was going to be exciting and what wasn't in UFC 255.