UFC Philadelphia gets its Main Event
The Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia will welcome the UFC for Fight Night on March 30th, and now has its main event. The UFC have announced on their Twitter account today that we are in for a stand-up war.
The leading MMA promotion has announced that highly ranked Lightweight’s Edson Barboza Jr and Justin Gaethje will come eye to eye across the octagon in the events main event.
Being similarly ranked in the lightweight division, this fight could go a long way to a future title fight for the 155lb belt.
Barboza (19-5) is the most recent of the two to strap on the UFC gloves, having beat Dan Hooker by KO/TKO in round 3 last December, having come off a two-loss streak, having been the wrong side of the result against Kevin Lee and current 155 champion Khabib Nurmagomedov.
Gaethje (19-2) is in a similar boat but has had longer between fights. The 30-year-old American last stepped inside the Octagon back in August, beating James Vick in the first round, a fight that got him the Performance of the Night Bonus. However, like his Brazilian counterpart, he had lost his previous two, facing defeat against Dustin Poirier and now departed Eddie Alvarez.
For fans of the Stand-up side of MMA, this will be an absolute war. Neither fighter is a fan of taking the fight to the ground, with both having almost identical takedown defence in 80%. Number 6 ranked Barboza hasn’t attempted a takedown in his last four bouts, where number 7 Gaethje has only gone for a takedown twice in the same period.
Each fighter in their own respective professional careers has only won once by submission, whereas Gaethje has won 16 by KO/TKO, and Barboza has 7 wins by KO/TKO.
Going on past results, don’t expect this one to go the distance, this has got a KO finish written all over it.
UFC Fight Night comes from The Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia on March 30th, tickets for the event will go on sale February 8th.
Follow MMA Latest News for all news, previews and results for the event.
