Everyone talks about the next PPV or the next star-studded event, however, on December 2, the UFC returns to Austin, Texas for what could very well go down as the sleeper card of the year.
UFC on ESPN 52 features a main event between lightweights Beneil Dariush and Arman Tsarukyan. In the evening’s co-main event, another lightweight match-up between Dan Hooker and Bobby Green goes down. The major bookies set odds on the favorites.
Stacked Preliminary Card
This card is as stacked as it can get, right down to the very first preliminary bout, between Veronica Hardy and Jamey-Lyn Horth.
Hardy, the wife of Dan Hardy is 2-4 in her UFC career and got her most recent victory against Juliana Miller at UFC 286. Her opponent, Horth, is undefeated in her professional career at 6-0. She made her debut in April of this year and earned a very gritty unanimous decision against Hailey Cowan.
The eight-fight preliminary card has some other top-notch fights on it as well. Including a women’s bantamweight bout between former champion Meisha Tate, as she takes on Julia Avila.
The featured contest on the preliminary portion is a battle between veteran Clay Guida and Joaquim Silva.
41-year-old Guida is coming off of two straight losses but is always putting on exciting fights inside the Octagon. Silva lost his last outing as well, a third-round ground and pound loss to main event fighter Arman Tsarukyan. Both men will be looking to get back in the win column.
Six Fight Main Card
Kicking off the ESPN main card is a fireworks fight between two knockout artists, Khalil Rountree Jr. and Azamat Murzakonov.
As we move up the card, a slick fight between welterweights Sean Brady and Kelvin Gastelum goes down. Brady is coming off the first loss of his career at UFC 280 in October 2022 against Belal Muhammad. His opponent Gastelum found his way back into the win column in his most recent outing against Chris Curtis at UFC 287, according to agamble.com.
Former flyweight champion Deiveson Figueiredo will move up to bantamweight after losing to Brandon Moreno against Rob Font. These are two fighters that always look to put on a show for the fans in attendance and on TV.
Dan Hooker will look to continue on his winning ways in the evening’s co-main event against Bobby Green. Another fireworks fight on the ESPN portion of the card. Hooker earned a split decision victory against Jalin Turner in his last fight and Green is coming off a 33-second knockout victory against Grant Dawson.
A main event for the ages
Headlining the card is a fight that could easily be co-main or main event on many pay-per-view cards, however, due to it being a non-title fight, the UFC has put it on ESPN.
Beneil Dariush was riding an eight-fight winning streak before losing his most recent fight to Charles Oliveira at UFC 289. Dariush is ranked at number four in the lightweight division. His opponent, Tsarukyan has been touted as the next big thing in the division and is currently on a two-fight winning streak. Most recently, the Armenian finished Joaquim Silva in the third round of their June fight.
Talk about a star-studded, stacked event. What fight are you looking forward to most on the UFC on ESPN fight card?
