MacDonald and Thompson duel in Ottawa. Photo: Disclosure
This Saturday (18), UFC Fight Night 89 will mark the UFC's first visit to the Canadian capital, Ottawa. And, to reach the new square with everything, the organization escalated a fight that has everything to be electrifying, putting the Rory McDonald e Stephen Thompson.
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They are, without a doubt, two of the main names in the welterweight category. MacDonald is number one in the division's official rankings, just ahead of Thompson – the champion, Robbie Lawler, as well as all title holders, are not on the list.
Despite their prominent position, MacDonald and Thompson occupy very different moments. The young Canadian is coming off a defeat in a title fight in July last year, when he lost a bloody battle against Lawler. In his home country, MacDonald will try to get back on track and put himself back in a position to compete for the title.
Thompson now has everything: he has won six in a row, including a beautiful knockout against the former champion John hendricks in his most recent fight. His main weapons are in his striking, as he is a multi-time kickboxing champion.
Thompson, therefore, will possibly try to keep the fight standing to seek a knockout against MacDonald. The Canadian, theoretically, should look for the ground, although he himself has already surprised strikers calibrated, such as Tarec saffiedine. This strategic puzzle will be an additional item in the already attractive fight in Ottawa.
Other highlights
Like any good Canadian card, UFC FN 89 will be full of local representatives. The highlights are former title challengers Patrick Coté and Valérie Létourneau, as well as the promising Olivier Aubin-Mercier.
Coté will have the second most important fight of the night against the popular Donald Cerrone. The curious thing is that both have already competed for the belt against Brazilians in different categories: Coté has already faced Anderson Silva for the middleweight title (up to 84 kg), while Cerrone challenged Rafael dos Anjos for the lightweight belt (up to 70 kg).
Létourneau, who lost to the champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk in his most recent fight, he will make Joanne calderwood a fight marked by an unprecedented fact: it will be the first women's flyweight fight (up to 57 kg) in the UFC. If the experiment is successful, the organization may consider creating a new weight division for women, since, to date, there are only strawweights (52,1 kg) and roosters (61,2 kg).
The only Brazilian representative at UFC Fight Night 89 will be Leandro Buscapé, who will face Jason Saggo in the last fight on the preliminary card. In five appearances in Ultimate, Buscapé has three wins, one loss and one no-contest.
Check out the UFC Fight Night 89 technical sheet below:
DATE AND TIME: 18/06/2016, from 19:45 pm (Brasília time)
PLACE: TD Place Arena, Ottawa, Canada
STREAMING: Combat Channel
MAIN CARD
Welterweights: Rory McDonald x Stephen Thompson
Welterweights: Donald Cerrone x Patrick Coté
Light heavyweights: Steve Bossé x Sean O'Connell
Mild: Olivier Aubin-Mercier x Thibault Gouti
Flies: Valérie Létourneau x Joanne calderwood
PRELIMINARY CARD
Mild: Jason Saggo x Leandro Buscapé
Light heavyweights: Misha Cirkunov x Ion cutelaba
Medium: Tamdan McCrory x Krzysztof Jotko
Roosters: Chris Beal vs. Joe Soto
Medium: Elias Theodorou x Sam alvey
Straws: Randa markos x Jocelyn Jones-Lybarger
Welterweights: Colby covington x Jonathan Meunier
Flies: Ali Bagautinov x Geane Herrera
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