by Jentezen Smith
This weekend, the UFC returns to the 305 for the third consecutive year as UFC 314 goes down at the Kaseya Center in Miami, Florida on Saturday at 9 PM.
Headlining the main card is a fight between #1 Alexander “The Great” Volkanovski (26-4 MMA Record) and #3 Diego Lopes (26-6 MMA Record) for the vacant featherweight title.
This fight for the championship materialized following the decision of former champion Ilia Topuria to vacate his featherweight championship and move up weight classes in pursuit of the lightweight title.
Now, Volkanovski and Lopes, both at completely different points of their career, look to capitalize on their championship opportunity.
Less than two years ago, Lopes lost his UFC debut. Since then, he’s won five straight fights, winning three by finish and the other two by dominant decision.
At 30 years old, the Brazilian makes his first title fight appearance.
“For me it’s so incredible to be in the UFC for two years and I’ve worked a lot for this,” Diego Lopes said. “It is my moment, all I have to do is put that work into practice and get it done.”
Meanwhile at 36 years old, Volkanovski makes his ninth straight title fight appearance after losing back-to-back fights for the first time in his career.
Make no mistake though, those losses came to the pound-for-pound #1 and #3 ranked men’s fighters, Islam Makhachev and Ilia Topuria.
Now more than a year after his knockout loss to Topuria, Volkanovski seeks to regain his featherweight throne and prove his career is far from finished.
“We’re back baby. We’re back for a while too, so let’s go,” Alexander Volkanovski said. “He’s dangerous, there’s a reason he’s getting this shot as well. He’s fighting anyone, anywhere and I love that type of stuff, so I’m very happy to share the octagon with him and we’ll put on a show. But the belt’s coming back to Australia, it has to.”
The matchup presents a clash of two extremely well-rounded fighters, so it will be exciting to see who prevails.
The direction of the featherweight division lies in the result of Saturday night as a new era of dominance could begin with Lopes or Volkanovski could reinstate himself as champion and further cement his GOAT status.
Featured in the co-main event is another veteran versus prospect matchup at lightweight between #7 “Iron” Michael Chandler (23-9 MMA Record) and #12 Paddy “The Baddy” Pimblett.
Pimblett is undefeated in six UFC fights and seeks his first win against a top 10 ranked opponent, but Chandler is by far the biggest challenge he’s faced in his career.
Even though Chandler is only 2-4 in his six UFC appearances, he’s been extremely competitive in every fight and is still one of the hardest hitters at 155 pounds.
With Chandler’s two UFC wins being by knockout and Pimblett having four finishes in the UFC, be sure to stay on the edge of your seat because the co-main could be over in the blink of an eye.
Also on the main card is two featherweight contender fights between #5 Yair “El Pantera” Rodriguez (16-5 MMA Record) and Patricio Pitbull (36-7 MMA Record), and #13 Bryce “Thug Nasty” Mitchell (17-3 MMA Record) and Jean “Lord” Silva (15-2 MMA Record).
In the matchup between Rodriguez and Pitbull they have a combined 36 fight finishes, while in the matchup between Mitchell and Silva they have a combined 24.
Meaning you can expect fireworks in these featherweight fights as each contender seeks a potential matchup with the winner of the main event.
Rounding out the main card is another ranked matchup at light heavyweight between #8 Nikita “The Miner” Krylov (30-9 MMA Record) and #11 Dominick “The Devastator” Reyes (14-4 MMA Record).
Both entering the fight with wins streaks, each fighter will look to keep their momentum with another victory.
With the future implications of each fight in their divisions, UFC 314 is going to be electric and it all goes down this weekend live on pay-per-view.
