![](https://www.thescrap.co/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/usa_today_11026545.0.jpg)
The fights to watch at UFC Fight Night 151 in Ottawa, Canada
On Saturday, May 4th, UFC makes its return to Ottawa, Ontario, Canada for Fight Night 151: Iaquinta vs Cowboy. Check out the fights to watch on this weekend’s main card:
1. Al Iaquinta vs Donald Cerrone
This fight is huge for the UFC’s lightweight division and it has definite title implications. The winner of this is likely to get a fight with either Tony Ferguson or Conor McGregor. Cerrone was slated to fight McGregor, prior to this fight being made, so we’ll see what happens. There were rumors of Iaquinta vs Ferguson prior to this being made but it didn’t come to fruition.
Iaquinta is currently the #4 ranked lightweight contender in the world. Cerrone is currently the #8 ranked lightweight in the world. Iaquinta has won 6 of his last 7 fights, the one loss being to current lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov. Iaquinta looked great in his last fight against Kevin Lee, where he won by unanimous decision. Cerrone has won 3 of his last 4 fights, all three of which came by some type of stoppage. Those wins include a second-round TKO of Alex Hernandez, a first-round TKO of Yancy Medeiros and a first-round arm bar submission of Mike Perry.
Needless to say, this fight is going to be amazing.
2. Derek Brunson vs Elias Theodorou
This fight is important for both of these middleweight contenders.
Brunson, current #8 middleweight, is 2-2 in his last four fights, with first-round knockout wins over Lyoto Machida and Daniel Kelly. His last two losses were against two of the top-5 middleweights in the world, Ronaldo ‘Jacare’ Souza and current middleweight title challenger, Israel Adesanya. It is safe to say that Brunson has only been fighting the best of the best lately.
As for Theodorou, current #13 middleweight, he has won 5 of his last 6 fights, with unanimous decision wins over Sam Alvey, Daniel Kelly and Trevor Smith. In his most recent fight, he defeated Eryk Anders by split decision.
For Brunson, a win over surging contender Theodorou would mean a lot, bringing him back up in rankings and into the win column again. For Theodorou, there is more at stake because a win over Brunson could give him a huge jump-up in the rankings. He could potentially take Brunson’s #8 spot with a win here. He would also be cracking the top 10 of the division and everybody knows, if you’re inside the top 10, you are now in the ‘conversation’ for a title fight.
We’ll see what happens when these two middleweight killers collide this Saturday.
3. Cub Swanson vs Shane Burgos
This fight is a must-win for Cub Swanson and has huge implications for ‘Hurricane’ Burgos.
Swanson has been in sort of a rough patch for a while now. He was on a 4-fight win streak and in talks for a title fight before being stopped by former title challenger, Brian Ortega. Since then, he has lost to Frankie Edgar and Renato Carneiro. His is on a 3-fight losing streak right now and 2 of those 3 ended in a finish. At the same time, two of the three losses are to top-5 featherweights in the world. Cub needs this fight to show us whether or not he’s still got it in him to be a true competitor at 145-pounds. We’ll see.
As for Burgos, he has won 6 of his last 7 fights, 4 of which by TKO or submission. He has wins over Charles Rosa, Terrell Hobbs, Kurt Holobaugh, and many more. Although the interesting dynamic about it, is that he is not ranked. He is outside the top 15 and is still a bit unknown to most fans because he hasn’t faced top competition. I believe that Swanson will be the big test of his skills.
We’ll see what happens when these two featherweights collide at Fight Night 151. Be sure to tune in this Saturday, live on ESPN+, to catch all of the action.
____
Make sure to follow The Scrap News (@thescrapnews) on Twitter.
Follow our writer Kevin Mahoney (@KeysRealTalk).
Average Rating