We are two days away from UFC 289 in Vancouver! The GOAT, Amanda Nunes will defend her Bantamweight Title against Irene Aldana. This is going to be the first meeting between these women as Amanda Nunes has cleared out the Bantamweight contenders. Nunes is looking for her 9th successful title defense as Irene Aldana is looking to put an end to the glorious career of Amanda while earning her first-ever UFC Championship. I'm excited as this is a fresh fight in the Women's Bantamweight Division and regardless of the outcome, it'll be historic.
The co-main event is the real attraction for this card though. The first and third-ranked Lightweights will go head to head when Charles Oliveira takes on Beneil Dariush. Charles is the former champion who lost his belt in October to Islam Makhachev in Abu Dhabi, a win against Dariush should propel him right back to facing Makhachev in Abu Dhabi next October. Meanwhile, Beneil Dariush is on an eight-fight win streak. He really shouldn't even have to go through Oliveira to face Makhachev for the belt. Most would agree that nobody deserves a title shot more than Beneil Dariush right now in the Lightweight Division. I feel that Dariush is too big for the Lightweight Division, the same way I feel about Aljo and Volk for their respective divisions. I believe Dariush is the division's only hope of dethroning Islam in this current landscape. I hope we get a great fight and nobody gets hurt because I only want to see both Oliveira and Dariush at the top of the game, and one of them is going to have a setback on Saturday night. I just don't want to see Charles get "chinned."
The rest of the card isn't spectacular. Dan Ige vs Nate Landwehr, Marc-Andre Barriault vs Eryk Anders, and Mike Malott vs Adam Fugit. Now, that said the main event of the prelims is far more exciting than any of those three. I understand that because the card is in Canada that there needs to be Canadians on the card, but can the UFC stop screwing with Chris Curtis. There's no reason he shouldn't be on the main card. Curtis vs Nassourdine Imavov should be a really fun fight. Curtis's training partner, Sean Strickland already beat Imavov at the beginning of the year. I'm looking forward to this one more than any of the fights on the main card before the co-main, but all in all Saturday night in Vancouver will be fun!
I’m actually going! can’t wait!