The UFC returns to Jacksonville, Florida this weekend with a card that is sure to electrify. The main event in particular set to be fireworks from the get go. Headlined by Emmett vs Topuria, the result of this contest could provide some major changes to the landscape of the featherweight division.
UFC on ABC 5: Fight Card Preview
Josh Emmett vs Ilia Topuria
Head to head on Saturday 👀
Our #UFCJacksonville main event breaks down their matchup 📊
[ Watch them fight LIVE and FREE Saturday at 3pmET / 12pmPT on @ABCNetwork ] pic.twitter.com/qdOt1f9uXe
— UFC (@ufc) June 22, 2023
Josh Emmett is making his return to the Octagon after falling short in his interim title fight against Yair Rodriguez at UFC 284. Disappointed by the result, the American will be looking to get himself back on track towards another shot at the title with a win over Ilia Topuria. Emmett has had an excellent career in the organization and has only ever tasted defeat three times in the Octagon. Emmett has notable wins over the likes of Shane Burgos, Misrad Bektic, Calvin Kattar and Ricardo Lamas to name a few. Yet at 38, Emmett is undoubtedly nearing the end of his career and will not have much time left to secure a shot at Alexander Volkanovski. He must defend his current position from the young up and comer Topuria and then look at climbing his way back into the title picture, likely for the final time.
Ilia Topuria sees that Emmett’s last fight was for the interim title and know that a win over the veteran on Saturday will launch himself among the top contenders of the division. Topuria possesses an impressive record of 13-0 and has gone 5-0 with the UFC since joining the promotion in 2020. Topuria has established himself as a contender in the featherweight division and highlight reel KO’s over Ryan Hall and Jai Herbert as well as a dominant submission win over Bryce Mitchell back in December have proved that he is an extremely dangerous fight for anyone at 145-lbs. Currently sitting at number nine in the rankings, the young Georgian will be banking on breaking into the top five with a victory come Saturday.
Amanda Ribas vs Maycee Barber
A clash in the women’s flyweight division between top-15 combatants is set to take place this weekend. Amanda Ribas is coming off of a decision win over Viviane Araujo at UFC 285 and will be looking to establish some momentum in order to challenge for a top five place. At one time possessing a 4-fight win streak with the majority of wins coming in the strawweight division, Ribas has been somewhat inconsistent since then. A victory in her flyweight debut set her up nicely, yet in the 4 fights she has had since, she has gone even at 2-2. It is clear that she is able to compete at flyweight, she just needs to become more consistent and develop a win streak, similar to what she had going on at 115 lbs.
Maycee Barber is currently experiencing a win streak of her own. Her last loss came to current champion Alexa Grasso back at UFC 258 and since then has won 4 on the bounce, picking up wins over Jessica Eye and Andrea Lee along the way. Now on the cusp of the top 10, Barber knows that a win over Ribas will plant her firmly inside that group.
Austen Lane vs Justin Tafa
The Heavyweights are out this weekend. Former NFL defensive end Austen Lane will be making his promotional debut. Lane has actually managed to accumulate a considerable amount of experience during his MMA career which is somewhat unusual for athletes who were prominent in another sport coming into MMA later on in their life. He has had 15 fights, winning 12 of them. 11 wins coming by way of knockout. It is clear that he is a physical force to be reckoned with.
His opponent Justin Tafa actually possesses less experience than Lane, with 9 fights in his career, A record of 3-3 in the UFC shows that Tafa is a solid fighter, though perhaps not a worldbeater. A win for Lane would showcase that he does indeed belong in the UFC and it is only a question of how high up the roster he can go. Tafa has won his last 2 fights and knows that a win over Lane would help his career tremendously. Win streaks are hard to come by in the UFC, particularly in the heavyweight division. A 3-fight win streak would be nothing to be sniffed at and would certainly guarantee an improvement in competition for Tafa.
David Onama vs Gabriel Santos
Two young featherweights battle it out also this Saturday. David Onama will be looking to bounce back after being defeated by Nate Landwehr in his last fight. Onama has had a decent spell in the UFC, going 2-2 in his time with the promotion. Unable to string together consecutive wins and just bouncing between a win and loss, he will be looking to break free from this cycle on Saturday.
Gabriel Santos will also be looking to establish some momentum for himself after losing his promotional debut to highly rated prospect Lerone Murphy. The split decision result showed that Santos was not out of his depth and when looking at the records of the opponent he fought in his homeland of Brazil, it appears that Santos is capable of making a statement in this division. A win over Onama would certainly put him on the right track and who knows, maybe even a possible rematch with Murphy could be down the line.
Brendan Allen vs Bruno Silva
The final bout on the main card is a Middleweight clash between Brendan Allen and Bruno Silva. Allen is coming into the fight on a 4-fight win streak and with a hugely impressive record of 9-2 in the promotion. He has picked up wins over the likes of Kevin Holland, Sam Alvey and Andre Muniz. At the incredibly young age of just 27, Allen sits at number thirteen in the middleweight rankings and will likely be aiming to break into the top-10 by the end of the year.
Bruno Silva was at one stage the owner of a 3-fight win streak in the middleweight division before picking up losses to former champion Alex Pereira and then Gerald Meerschaert. Yet after picking up a first round Knockout win over Brad Tavares in his last outing, Silva finds himself back in the winners column with hope that he can build from it and pick up a win over a very dangerous Allen. A win over Allen would be massive for Silva and would surely allow him to enter into the top-15.
Preliminary Fights to Watch
Neil Magny vs Phil Rowe
In a somewhat surprising move, Neil Magny has not been placed on the main card of this event but is rather is headlining the prelims. Ranked 11th in the welterweight division, Magny has been fighting the best fighters that the company employs for years now. He has gone 1-2 in his last 3 fights, yet when the two losses come to fighters the caliber of Gilbert Burns and Shavkat Rakhmonov it is hard for his stock to go down. Instead of challenging for a spot up the rankings, it appears that he is instead defending his own from someone below him.
Phil Rowe has been granted a crack at breaking into the top-15 of one of the most stacked divisions in the organization. Rowe is coming off of a 3-fight win streak with victories over notables Niko Price and Jason Witts. Because of this, Rowe will be confident that he can get the job done, yet he has never faced someone the caliber of the “Haitian Sensation” before in his career.
Randy Brown vs Wellington Turman
Randy Brown has been among the most recognizable welterweights outside of the top-15 for some time now. Going 6-2 in his last 8 fights, his only losses have come against Vicente Luque and current hot prospect Jack Della Maddalena. Before the loss to Maddalena, Brown was on a 4-fight win streak. A fighter that seems to be forever on the cusp of breaking into and establishing himself in the rankings, it just has not worked out for Brown as of yet in his UFC career.
He will be hoping to put himself right back on track though with a win over Truman. Wellington Turman will be making his debut at welterweight after a fairly forgettable period as a middleweight in the organization. Fairly undersized at 185-lbs., a record of 3-4 encouraged him to make the drop down to 170. It remains to be seen if this will be a case of a change in weight class changing the career of a fighter or if Truman will struggle at welterweight as he did at middleweight.
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