International Fight Week concludes on July 8th with UFC 290. Supposedly Jones vs Miocic for the Heavyweight Title was a lock for the main event. However, within the past week, two title bouts were announced for UFC 290. Four days ago, ESPN announced Alexander Volkanovski vs Yair Rodriguez for the Undisputed Featherweight Championship. This morning ESPN announced Brandon Moreno vs Alexandre Pantoja for Moreno's Flyweight Championship. These are two super exciting fights. Both Volk and Yair bring the fight to their opponents, so there'll be fireworks in that one. With Moreno and Pantoja, this is going to be a high-paced fight between two of the best, if not the two best Flyweights in the world. Is there a chance that the UFC books three title fights for UFC 290? Considering that it's International Fight Week and the UFC likes to make that a bigger deal, yes. There is still a chance that Jones vs Miocic can get booked for UFC 290. That being said, Dana White has said time and time again that he hasn't heard from Jon since he won the belt last month. Most recently, Dana said this on The Pat McAfee Show. Why Pat didn't ask Dana if Dana has tried to contact him? I have no idea, Pat isn't really that good at asking non-football-related people questions in my opinion. Hopefully, the UFC can get a deal done for a super card for International Fight Week, but right now the chances are seeming slim, unfortunately.
The UFC has only had 7/287 PPVs with three championship bouts. UFC: 205, 214, 217, 245, 251, 259, and 261. Interestingly enough, I would like to point out that Alexander Volkanovski has co-main evented 2/7 of these cards. UFC 245 and 251 featured both Volkanovski vs Holloway one and two. If the UFC adds Jones vs Miocic to headline UFC 290 it'd be the first card in three years to feature three championship bouts. If not, we're still in store for a ton of action. The Featherweight Champ, Alexander Volkanovski just went toe-to-toe with the Lightweight Champ, Islam Makhachev, and many argue he won. On that same card, Yair Rodriguez spectacularly earned the Interim Featherweight Title against Josh Emmett. It's time to declare an Undisputed Champion in the Featherweight division and Volk and Yair are two of the most entertaining fighters on the planet right now! While Brandon Moreno looks to keep the Men's Flyweight in Mexico, Alexandre Pantoja has been waiting for the conclusion of the Moreno/Figueiredo Tetralogy since July of last year because he knows that he is the number one contender. Pantoja is on a three-fight win streak while Moreno is on a two-fight win streak. I can't wait for this one. It's going to be really hard to predict. Both fights are actually. I know a lot of people might say Volk is going to crush Yair, but I think Yair could surprise some people with how skilled his striking ability actually is. Yair is also a very talented jiu-jitsu grappler, and if he can get Volk in the same choke hold that Ortega had Volk in, I don't know that Volk gets out.
UFC 290 has all the makings of an amazing card regardless if Jon Jones vs Stipe Miocic is the headliner or not. Selfishly, I hope Jones vs Miocic is the headliner, but with the Undisputed Featherweight and Men's Flyweight titles on the line how could anyone be disappointed?
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