It's international fight week! The wait is over. The UFC has a huge event going on in Vegas, but we're not in Vegas, we're not here for all the bells and whistles. Opinion Octagon is here and ready for the fights to come. UFC 290 is a loaded card from top to bottom. Two title fights and plenty of superstars and rising stars are scheduled to fight. It's going to be unbelievable. The firework show that is going to be UFC 290 is going to blow away whatever fireworks you'll be watching tomorrow. Let's start with the exciting prelims. Jack Della Maddalena was originally scheduled to face Sean Brady who had to step out. Now Jack will face Josiah Harrell in his place. Alonzo Menifield will fight Jimmy Crute in a rematch from UFC 284 when they fought to a Majority Draw. This is going to be a fun one for sure, the UFC usually wouldn't re-book a fight like that if they didn't see some fireworks in the future. Lastly, Robbie Lawler is going to fight his final fight against Niko Price. There's a lot to look forward to on the prelims.
To open the main card, Bo Nickal will face Tresean Gore. Bo beat Jamie Pickett fairly quickly in his debut, I believe the UFC is going to continue to build him slowly considering his lack of MMA experience and the fact that he has so much potential. The next fight on the card is Jalin Turner vs Dan Hooker. Jalin and Dan are the 10th and 11th-ranked Lightweights. Jalin and Dan are coming into this fight on opposite trends. Jalin was on a tear beating everyone in his path until losing to Gamrot in March. Meanwhile, since Dan Hooker lost to Dustin Poirier in 2021 he has been desperate for wins. Well, he found that win against Claudio Puelles, now it's time to see if Dan can continue the win streak, or if Jalin Turner is going to prove that the loss to Gamrot was a fluke. Robert Whittaker vs Dricus Du Plessis is going to be wild. Dricus fights are wild. He always looks out of breath after the first, yet he always conquers. Meanwhile, Robert Whittaker isn't going to give you any room to breathe. Bobby Knuckles can knock anyone besides Adesanya's lights out and if he puts out DDP, he's the only real deserving contender at 185 lbs right now and should get that title shot. Sean Strickland is certainly an active Middleweight, but his wins don't stack up with Knuckle's or DDP's. I'm also excited for this one because Dricus actually got surgery done on his nose which is going to open up his airways, or so he says.
Flyweight Champion, Brandon Moreno is sensational. Moreno bested Figgy in their tetralogy for the title and defeated Kai Kara-France in between for the Interim title. Brandon is absolutely on fire. Alexandre Pantoja is one of the last fighters to defeat Moreno and he hopes to do it again this Saturday. However, the Brandon Moreno that Pantoja fought in 2018 is not nearly the same as Brandon Moreno who became the first Mexican-born UFC champion in 2021. The same can be said for Pantoja and that is what makes this fight so exciting. It would be a huge night for Mexico if both Brandon and Yair Rodriguez leave their fights with the belt. Yair is the interim Featherweight Champion and he is facing the Champ, Alexander Volkanovski for the Undisputed Featherweight Championship. Volk has been a bull in a china shop in the Featherweight division. Volk realistically could be the Lightweight Champion as well as he was probably one more round away from finishing Islam Makhachev in their super fight. Yair is a little different than most of the fighters Volk has already defeated. Yair has a unique style that makes him dangerous. He can hit you from nearly any angle and if the fight is taken to the ground, Yair might even prefer that because he can submit anyone from any position. This is an unbelievably exciting fight that tops off an unbelievably exciting card. It's all going down this Saturday Night! Only five more sleeps until UFC 290!
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