UFC returns to “big” Fox tonight\u00a0featuring a champion trying to\u00a0make history.<\/p>\n
In the Octagon’s debut in Kansas City, MO, flyweight champion Demetrious Johnson will attempt to match Anderson Silva\u2019s UFC record of 10 straight title defenses as he puts his title up against Wilson Reis. While this is Reis\u2019 ninth fight in the UFC, it\u2019s the first time the Brazilian will have ever fought on a main card.<\/p>\n
In the co-main event, former title challenger Rose Namajunas takes on the former Invicta atomweight champion Michelle “Karate Hottie” Waterson while we also get a key middleweight tilt with overdue title challenger Jacare Souza vs. rising start Robert Whittaker, who comes in on a six-fight win streak.<\/p>\n
For our other panel picks, we\u2019re looking at a couple key prelim fights that will also air on Fox instead of FS1. Popular heavyweight Roy Nelson will attempt to hand former Bellator champion Alexander Volkov his first UFC loss as they square off, and in what could be a show-stealer, flyweights Tim Elliott and Louis Smolka go to battle. Elliott was last seen taking Johnson to the limit after he won his season of TUF.<\/p>\n
If you’re new here, our panel picks are listed below and listed alongside the fighter’s names are their worldwide FightMatrix rankings, as well as BestFightOdds.com betting odds. The panelist’s 2017 records is in parentheses, and we also have panel consensus picks in addition to how\u00a0the betting favorites did:<\/p>\n
Dave Meltzer (19-9; .679) —\u00a0Wrestling Observer publisher
\nConsensus Picks (19-9; .679)
\nFavorites (19-9; .679)
\nJohn Pollock (19-9; .679) —\u00a0Fight Network analyst, Live Audio Wrestling co-host, MMA Report co-host
\nMike Sawyer (19-9; .679) —\u00a0Tough Talk MMA publisher
\nDavid Bixenspan (18-10; .643) \u2013\u00a0Deadspin pro wrestling columnist; Between the Sheets podcast host
\nSteve Juon (18-10; .643) —\u00a0MMA Mania writer, Angry Marks publisher
\nMike Sempervive (17-11; .607) —\u00a0Wrestling Observer Live and Big Audio Nightmare co-host
\nRyan Frederick (16-12; .571) —\u00a0WrestlingObserver.com UFC writer
\nJosh Nason (15-13; .536) —\u00a0Host of Josh Nason\u2019s Punch Out,\u00a0WrestlingObserver.com assistant editor
\nPaul Fontaine (13-15; .464) —\u00a0MMADraws.com publisher, WrestlingObserver.com writer
\nFront Row Brian (13-15; .464) —\u00a0MMA newsbreaker, beloved internet personality, podcast host<\/p>\n
We are still waiting on picks from Dave Meltzer.<\/p>\n
> UFC Flyweight Champion Demetrious Johnson (25-2-1) vs Wilson Reis (22-6)<\/p>\n
Johnson is the first and only flyweight champion in UFC history and he\u2019s run through all the top contenders, some more than once. Reis, on a relatively modest three-fight win streak over the lower end of the division, is the latest to try and topple him from his throne.<\/p>\n
Johnson already seems to be looking past this fight as he\u2019s made some overtures toward challenging UFC bantamweight champion Cody Garbrandt which honestly might be the best challenge for Johnson at this point. His last loss was to former 135-pound\u00a0champ Dominick Cruz and he\u2019s not only won 11 straight fights, but he\u2019s looked completely dominant in doing so.<\/p>\n
Johnson is the biggest favorite on the card and there\u2019s not much doubt what the outcome will be here, either with the betting public or from our panel.<\/p>\n
Johnson #1; -700 betting favorite: Juon, FRB, Frederick, Sawyer, Pollock, Fontaine, Bix, Sempervive, Nason, Meltzer One again, two of the most popular fighters in the 115-pound\u00a0division get a featured fight on Fox. \u201cThug\u201d Rose is coming off a tough split decision loss to Karolina Kowalkiewicz, who went on to put up a tough fight against division queen Joanna Jedrzejczyk. If not for one judge\u2019s scorecard, she\u2019d be on a four fight win streak.<\/p>\n Waterson, meanwhile, destroyed Paige VanZant in the biggest and most high profile fight of her career in the main event of a highly rated show on Fox. She\u2019s now 2-0 in UFC and if she gets past Namajunas, she\u2019ll likely earn a title shot.<\/p>\n Namajunas #7; -122 betting favorite: Sawyer, Pollock, Fontaine, Nason, Meltzer There is a lot of intrigue in this fight. Souza is the most feared submission expert in the division and if not for a controversial loss to Yoel Romero at UFC 194, he\u2019d be on an 11-fight win streak. Division champion Michael Bisping has publicly stated on more than one occasion that he has no intention of defending against Souza who just re-upped for eight fights with the company Friday.<\/p>\n Whittaker comes in with six straight wins and the New Zealander may be that country\u2019s best hope for a UFC world title as Mark Hunt\u2019s career nears the end. If he should pull off the upset, he may be the next top challenger that Bisping spends time ducking.<\/p>\n Whichever guys comes out of this fight with a win will certainly earn a title shot. Whether he gets it is a completely different story.<\/p>\n Souza #5; -165 betting favorite: Juon, FRB, Frederick, Sawyer, Pollock, Fontaine, Sempervive, Meltzer This will be an interesting spectacle. Nelson is the most unlikely of heavyweight contenders with his terrible physique but he\u2019s managed to carve out a successful career in UFC. Volkov looks like he\u2019s built to be a champion but has lost some key fights in his career and did not look good at all in his UFC debut despite squeaking out a win over Timothy Johnson.<\/p>\n Nelson is on a mini career resurgence with two\u00a0wins in his last three\u00a0with the lone loss by split decision to rising contender Derrick Lewis. Volkov has won three straight, but two of those fights were in Russia against weaker opponents and his split decision win over Johnson in his UFC debut was generous at best. Prior to this win streak, he\u2019s lost his last two fights in Bellator.<\/p>\n Nelson #12; +131 betting underdog: Frederick, Sawyer, Fontaine In that title loss to Johnson, there were moments in the first round where it seemed Elliott could pull off the biggest upset in divison history. He ended up losing a one-sided decision but his stock rose in return to the UFC despite the loss.<\/p>\n At one point, Smolka seemed to be on the verge of a title shot but with two straight losses, he could be fighting for his job here. The Hawaiian is one of the best finishers in the division with three stoppages in his five UFC wins. In a division where the champion has mowed through most of the top contenders, he could be just a couple wins away from that elusive title shot. At just 25 years old, there\u2019s still a lot of time for him to get his career back on track.<\/p>\n Elliott #10; -235 betting favorite: Juon, Frederick, Sawyer, Pollock, Fontaine, Bix, Nason, Meltzer **********<\/p>\n The rest of the card:<\/p>\n > Jeremy Stephens (25-13) vs Renato Carneiro (10-0-1) Stephens #7; -167 betting favorite > Tom Duquesnoy (14-1) vs Patrick Williams (8-1) Duquesnoy #19; -700 betting favorite > Rashid Magomedov (19-2) vs Bobby Green (23-7) Magomedov #29; -330 betting favorite > Devin Clark (7-1) vs Jake Collier (10-3) Clark #66; -137 betting favorite > Anthony Smith (26-12) vs Andrew Sanchez (9-2)<\/p>\n MIDDLEWEIGHTS<\/em><\/p>\n Smith #40; +309 betting underdog > Aljamain Sterling (12-2) vs Augusto Mendes (6-1) Sterling #17; -400 betting favorite > Nathan Coy (15-6) vs Zak Cummings (20-5) Coy #76; +420 betting underdog > Ketlen Vieira (7-0) vs Ashlee Evans-Smith (5-1) Vieira NR; +185 betting underdog Action begins with the Fight Pass prelims at 4 PM EST and moves over to Fox\u00a0at 6 PM EST. The main card continues on Fox\u00a0at 8 PM EST, covered by our\u00a0Ryan Frederick, who will be live at cageside.<\/p>\n – UFC Kansas City preview with Josh Nason & Sean Wheelock<\/p>\n –\u00a0UFC Kansas City discussion on the Board\u00a0<\/u>including Ryan Frederick\u2019s extensive preview of the card and fighter notes<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" UFC returns to “big” Fox tonight\u00a0featuring a champion trying to\u00a0make history. In the Octagon’s debut in Kansas City, MO, flyweight champion Demetrious Johnson will attempt to match Anderson Silva\u2019s UFC record of 10 straight title defenses as he puts his title up against Wilson Reis. While this is Reis\u2019 ninth fight in the UFC, it\u2019s…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5652","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5652","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5652"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5652\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5652"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5652"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5652"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n> Rose Namajunas (5-3) vs Michelle Waterson (14-4)
STRAWWEIGHTS<\/em><\/p>\n
\nWaterson #11; +114 betting underdog: Juon, FRB, Frederick, Bix, Sempervive
\n> Jacare Souza (22-4) vs Robert Whittaker (17-4)
MIDDLEWEIGHTS<\/em><\/p>\n
\nWhittaker #7; +180 betting underdog: Bix
\n> Roy Nelson (22-13) vs Alexander Volkov (27-6)
HEAVYWEIGHTS<\/em><\/p>\n
\nVolkov #19; -140 betting favorite: Juon, FRB, Pollock, Bix, Sempervive, Nason, Meltzer
\n> Louis Smolka (11-3) vs Tim Elliott (13-7-1)
FLYWEIGHTS<\/em><\/p>\n
\nSmolka #17; +225 betting underdog: FRB, Sempervive<\/p>\n
FEATHERWEIGHTS<\/em><\/p>\n
\nCarneiro #48; +160 betting underdog<\/p>\n
BANTAMWEIGHTS<\/em><\/p>\n
\nWilliams NR; +660 betting underdog<\/p>\n
LIGHTWEIGHTS<\/em><\/p>\n
\nGreen #61; +300 betting underdog<\/p>\n
LIGHT HEAVYWEIGHTS<\/em><\/p>\n
\nCollier #70 at middleweight; +130 betting underdog<\/p>\n
\nSanchez #33; -303 betting favorite<\/p>\n
BANTAMWEIGHTS<\/em><\/p>\n
\nMendes #40; +365 betting underdog<\/p>\n
WELTERWEIGHTS<\/em><\/p>\n
\nCummings #34; -400 betting favorite<\/p>\n
WOMENS BANTAMWEIGHTS<\/em><\/p>\n
\nEvans-Smith #16; -199 betting favorite<\/p>\n