UFC 278 Fun Prelim Factors

                 Let’s Make the Prelims Great Again. Shall We? 

            Let’s keep it real. Yes, this card has Kamaru Usman at the top. Yes a reject from ‘The Bachelorette’ is fighting the Brazilian voted most likely to ‘drink way too much red wine before a fight’. That’s the only reason he lost, how dare you question his integrity. Oh and yes, the guy Conor Mac knocked out in 13 seconds, he’s fighting as well. But that’s not why we’re here. Dive into these prelim fights and let’s see if we can’t make the prelims great again. 

            1. Starting with the first “regular prelim” fight, aka not an ‘early prelim’ fight. We have Miranda Maverick set to take on Shanna Young. Maverick is interesting because she doesn’t really need to fight, at least not for much longer. She’s working on obtaining her PhD in Industrial Psychology and that sounds like a lot more income with a lot less physical pain. What makes this fight compelling though, is her recent call out of the British brawler Molly McCann. She deemed the potential matchup “the fight to see who has a better spinning elbow”. Say she wins on Saturday night, imagine if she wins by spinning elbow K.O. Now I kinda hope she does so we can see that fight. 

*** This fight has been canceled, due to reports that Shanna Young is hospitalized. We hope she is ultimately in good health and recovers quickly ***

            2. As for our second ‘regular prelim’ fight, enter Sean Woodson. The guy has a full on neck tattoo and the words “Born Ready” tattooed above his belly button. So that’s fun, but wait, there’s more. He started off his run with the UFC in Dana Whites Contender Series, scoring a flying knee K.O. over Terrance McKinney. So that’s note worthy. Also he’s won 3 of his last 4 fights, with his most recent win coming by T.K.O. (punches to the body). Ok now I’m really excited to see him take on Luis Saldana. 

            3. We’ve got Jared Gordon going up against Leonardo Santos. Both of these guys got finished by Grant Dawson, so they’re basically blood brothers. Blood brothers from very different backgrounds, fighting for very different reasons. Santos won ‘ The Ultimate Fighter: Brazil 2’ at welterweight, mind you he fights at lightweight. He’s also medaled twice in the World Jiu-Jitsu Championships. So that’s all very impressive. 

            His opponent Jared Gordon on the other hand, he’s riding over 6 years of sobriety after being addicted to heroin at the tender age of 21. Now he’s married and owns a house. He’s very proud of himself, that being said, I’m very proud of him. I’ve had close friends battle similar addictions and that fight is infinitely more intense. After kicking addictions ass, he’s now a cage fighter and looking to pave a path for those who struggle with addiction, way to lead by example. 

            Key takeaway - they’re both coming off a loss in a super stacked lightweight division, so this is a must win for them to bounce back. 

            4. We finally made it, the prelim main event! Ahhhh, such crisp clean air at the top. Wait, preliminary main event? Is that even a thing? I guess it is now. This fight was moved from early P.P.V. obscurity to the preliminary showcase. We have Marcin Tybura vs. King Kong. No wait, that would be must see television, he’s actually fighting Alexander Romanov. His nickname is King Kong. Before you sigh and log off, let me catch you up on Romanov’s recent run. He’s 16 and 0 with wins over Chase Sherman and a guy they call ‘The Mountain’. He submitted Chase with a keylock and tapped Marcos Rogerio De Lima with a damn forearm choke. So what can or will he do to Marcin Tybura? Let’s tune in to find out.