UFC on FOX 29 will take place tonight in Glendale, Arizona and the main card on FOX is going to be headlined by a matchup of top ten UFC lightweights when Dustin “The Diamond” Poirier takes on former World Series of Fighting lightweight champion Justin “The Highlight” Gaethje.
Poirer vs. Gaethje should be a fun fight and I am interested in all of the fights that will be part of the four fight main card on FOX (8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT) tonight. Clearly, Poirier vs. Gaethje is my number one fight on this fight card and it should be a fun striking fight between these two 155 pound fighters. The winner of this fight will be in a good position in the UFC lightweight title picture and if Poirier can walk away with the victory, I could see the UFC attempting to book Poirier in a rematch against Alvarez.
In the co-main event of tonight’s card, former interim UFC welterweight champion Carlos Condit will look to snap a three fight losing streak and get his first victory since May of 2015 when he takes on Alex “Cowboy” Oliveira, who took this fight on short notice when Matt Brown suffered a knee injury. Now when you think of both of these fighters, you think about their striking attributes. However, Oliveira has shown his ability to take the fight to the ground and this could end up being his key to victory if he’s unable to finish Condit early in the fight.
When it comes to the rest of the card, there are various fights and fighters I am interested to see how them fair including Israel Adesanya. There is a ton of hype around him and tonight is a perfect platform for his career to take off, but he does have a tough challenge in front of him in Marvin Vettori. On the prelims, I like the flyweight bout between Wilson Reis and John Morago. Both men have been around for some time and the key for Moraga will be to keep the fight on the feet. On the Fight Pass prelims, I am expecting a good amount of stoppage victories and the reason to tune into this portion of the event is heavyweight Arjan Bhullar.
UFC on FOX 29 Pre-Fight Stats:
– Dustin Poirier has the 7th best significant strike accuracy (51%) in UFC lightweight division history (Olivier Aubin-Mercier #1, 57.1%) – Minimum 5 UFC fights and 350 significant strike attempts
– Poirier has the 3rd best strikes landed per minute (6.26) in UFC lightweight division history (TJ Grant #1, 6.83) – Minimum 5 UFC fights.
– Poirier has the 2nd best strike differential (+2.36) in UFC lightweight division history (Khabib Nurmagomedov #1, +2.45) – Minimum 5 UFC fights.
– Carlos Condit has the 10th best strike differential (+1.52) in UFC welterweight division history (Georges St-Pierre #1, +2.39) – Minimum 5 UFC fights.
– Antonio Carlos Junior has the 6th best strikes absorbed per minute (1.47) in UFC middleweight division history (Chael Sonnen #1, 1.12) – Minimum 5 UFC fights.
– Tim Boetsch is tied with Michael Bisping, Rich Franklin, Dan Henderson, and Nate Quarry for the 6th most knockdowns landed (6) in UFC middleweight division history (Anderson Silva #1, 13).
– Boetsch has the 5th best significant strike accuracy (53.6%) in UFC middleweight division history (Anderson Silva #1, 61.4%) – Minimum 5 UFC fights and 350 significant strike attempts.
– Wilson Reis has the 5th shortest average fight time (10:41) in UFC flyweight division history (Ben Nguyen #1, 7:28).
– Reis has the 4th most takedowns landed (28) in UFC flyweight division history (Demetrious Johnson #1, 57)
– John Moraga has the 3rd most cage time (2:25:11) in UFC flyweight division history (Demetrious Johnson #1, 4:14:12).
– Moraga has the 9th best significant strike accuracy (42.5%) in UFC flyweight division history (Demetrious Johnson #1, 56.9%) – Minimum 5 UFC fights and 350 significant strike attempts.
– Moraga is tied with multiple fighters for the 4th most submission attempts (10) in UFC flyweight division history (Louis Smolka #1, 18).
– Brad Tavares has the 8th longest average fight time (12:53) in UFC middleweight division history (Riki Fukuda #1, 15:00) – Minimum 5 UFC fights.
– Tavares has the 9th most cage time (3:13:22) in UFC middleweight division history (Michael Bisping #1, 5:15:15).
– Tavares has the 10th best takedown defense (76.1%) in UFC middleweight division history (Krzysztof Jotko #1, 86.8%) – Minimum 5 UFC fights and 20 takedown attempts by opponents.
– Krzysztof Jotko has the 9th best strikes absorbed per minute (1.68) in UFC middleweight division history (Chael Sonnen #1, 1.12) – Minimum 5 UFC fights.
– Jotko has the best takedown defense (86.8%) in UFC middleweight division history – Minimum 5 UFC fights and 20 takedown attempts by opponents.
– Yushin Okami has the 8th best takedown accuracy (46.6%) in UFC middleweight division history (Cezar Ferreira #1, 66.7%) – Minimum 5 UFC fights and 20 takedown attempts.
– Okami has the 2nd best takedown defense (84.6%) in UFC middleweight division history (Krzysztof Jotko #1, 86.8%) – Minimum 5 UFC fights and 20 takedown attempts by opponents.
My UFC of FOX 29 Picks: Gaethje, Condit, Adesanya, Waterson, Carlos Junior, Salikhov, Moraga, Tavares, Burns, Dobson, Okami, Bhullar, Lopez, and Sanders.