MANY OF THE names on the UFC Fight Night 88 bill may not be familiar to casual observers, but don’t allow that to deter you from checking out what this evening’s event has to offer.
The Mandalay Bay bill is stacked with quality from top to bottom, and even though the meeting of Thomas Almeida and Cody Garbrandt isn’t the most high-profile of headliners, the match-up itself is unlikely to disappoint.
Plenty of exciting veterans will be on show — Rick Story, fighting for the first time since he overcame Gunnar Nelson, against former Strikeforce champion Tarec Saffiedine; the featherweight debut of ex-UFC bantamweight champion Renan Barao too — but some potential stars of the future will take centre stage; specifically, three undefeated bantamweights who are all under the age of 26.
Garbrandt (8-0) — the latest Team Alpha Male product bidding to become a challenger — versus Almeida (21-0) — who’s aiming for his 21st consecutive stoppage victory — will be a fascinating tussle, but the feature bout on the Fight Pass prelims shouldn’t be ignored either.
Fighting for the first time since a contract impasse which looked like it might signal the end of his time in the UFC, Aljamain Sterling (13-0) has been pursuing a fight with Bryan Caraway for quite a while. Tonight he gets that opportunity.
Should Sterling, who’s ranked fourth in the 135lbs division, see off eight-ranked Caraway to pick up his fifth UFC win, he’ll have a legitimate case to call for a title shot against the winner of next weekend’s UFC 199 bout between Urijah Faber and champion Dominick Cruz.
TJ Dillashaw and Raphael Assuncao — who meet at UFC 200 on 9 July — will have other ideas, as will the victor in tonight’s main event between Almeida and Garbrandt. Nevertheless, UFC Fight Night 88 will mark the beginning of an intriguing few weeks for a division which had lost its lustre not so long ago.
Who will be victorious in this evening’s UFC Fight Night 88 main event?
Poll Results:
UFC Fight Night 88
Main card (BT Sport 2, 2am)
Thomas Almeida vs. Cody Garbrandt
Renan Barao vs. Jeremy Stephens
Tarec Saffiedine vs. Rick Story
Chris Camozzi vs. Vitor Miranda
Jorge Masvidal vs. Lorenz Larkin
Josh Burkman vs. Paul Felder
TV prelims (BT Sport 2, 12am)
Sara McMann vs. Jessica Eye
Abel Trujillo vs. Jordan Rinaldi
Jake Collier vs. Alberto Uda
Erik Koch vs. Shane Campbell
Fight Pass prelims (UFCFightPass.com, 11pm)
Aljamain Sterling vs. Bryan Caraway
Chris De La Rocha vs. Adam Milstead
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