UFC 287: 5 Prelim Fights to Watch

UFC 287 is bringing a stacked PPV predominant card to Miami, Florida, on Saturday. The fourth fight sports activities installment – and second MMA bout – between UFC middleweight champion Alex Pereira and former champ Israel Adesanya is ready to focus on the motion, as “Poatan” appears to be like to go 4-0 towards “The Final Stylebender.”

Miami’s personal Jorge Masvidal will look to get again within the win column towards Gilbert Burns within the co-main occasion, whereas the remainder of the cardboard is rounded out by Rob Font vs. Adrian Yanez, Kevin Holland vs. Santiago Ponzinibbio, and Raul Rosas Jr. vs. Christian Rodriguez.

The UFC 287 prelims are positive to convey plenty of motion as properly to the Miami-Dade Enviornment. Whereas followers ought to purpose to look at each bout on the cardboard, listed here are 5 fights followers shouldn’t miss:

Kelvin Gastelum vs. Chris Curtis

A pair of top-15 middleweights with heavy fingers are set to headline the UFC 287 preliminary card. Gastelum misplaced a choice to Adesanya for the interim 185 championship again in April 2019. He’s 1-4 since and is seeking to reverse his momentum with an enormous win over Curtis, who has put collectively a 4-1 UFC document since becoming a member of the promotion in late 2021.

Curtis has completed Joaquin  Buckley, Phil Hawes and Brendan Allen, solely shedding to Jack Hermansson through determination. A win over Gastelum could be the most important of “The Motion Man’s” profession.

Gastelum has fought a who’s who of UFC competitors. He has notable wins over former UFC middleweight champion Michael Bisping, Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza, former welterweight champ Johny Hendricks, and Tim Kennedy, to call a couple of. His notable losses embrace former UFC middleweight champions Chris Weidman and Robert Whittaker, former 170-pound champion Tyron Woodley, welterweight title challenger Darren Until, middleweight title challenger Jared Cannonier, and Neil Magny.

Michelle Waterson-Gomez vs. Luana Pinheiro

One other fighter who has gone toe-to-toe with the who’s who of her weight class is  Michelle Waterson-Gomez. “The Karate Hottie” has banked wins over Angela Hill, Karolina Kowalkiewicz, Paige VanZant, and Felice Herrig, whereas falling quick towards former UFC strawweight queens Rose Namajunas, Joanna Jedrzejczyk, and Carla Esparza, in addition to Marina Rodriguez, Tecia Torres and Amanda Lemos. In different phrases, she’s solely misplaced to the strawweight elite.

Luana Pinheiro will look to see if she will be able to turn out to be the newest case of recent guard beating outdated guard. Her wins embrace a choice over Sam Hughes and a DQ over Randa Markos. Waterson-Gomez could be the most important identify on her mantle if she may pull it off.

Gerald Meerschaert vs. Joe Pyfer

Right here’s one other instance of recent guard vs. outdated guard, this time at middleweight. Joe Pyfer made fast work of Alen Amedovski and Ozzy Diaz in his first two UFC fights. He will get a major step up in “GM3.”

Gerald Meerschaert has served as an incredible litmus take a look at to see the place prime prospects are at within the middleweight division. Meerschaert efficiently halted the likes of Makhmud Muradov, Bruno Silva, and Deron Winn, being bested by Khamzat Chimaev, Kevin Holland, Thiago Santos, and Jack Hermansson, amongst others.

A win over Meerschaert would show Pryfer, who solely has 12 skilled MMA bouts, is almost prepared to check the waters of the top-15.

Trey Ogden vs. Ignacio Bahamondes

Trey Ogden was set to fight Manuel Torres on March 25 earlier than Torres withdrew due to medical points. “The Samurai Ghost” attracts Ignacio Bahamondes a few weeks later as a substitute. Bahamondes is a ending machine, having ended 10 of his 13 wins inside the gap (9 through T/KO). Bahamondes’s most notable win came to visit Roosevelt Roberts, who he completed through wheel kick with 5 seconds left.

Bahamondes attracts a stiff take a look at within the cerebral Ogden, who considers himself a “martial arts scientist” reasonably than an athlete. Ogden will doubtless look to place his grappling chops to make use of towards the striker in Bahamondes. Will probably be attention-grabbing to see if Ogden is a take a look at he can cross, or if Ogden’s struggle IQ will cease Bahamondes in his tracks.

Karl Williams vs. Chase Sherman

The UFC heavyweight division is at all times searching for new blood. Karl Williams, 33, is younger in struggle years, having gone 8-1 to begin his skilled profession. He defeated Lukasz Brzeski in his UFC debut and now attracts the biggest-name opponent of his profession but in Chase Sherman.

“The Vanilla Gorilla” holds wins over Jared Vanderaa, Ike Villaneuva and Damian Grabowski. Different previous foes embrace Alexander Romanov, Andrei Arlovski, Augusto Sakai, Jake Collier and Shamil Abdurakhimov.

It needs to be an thrilling struggle for so long as it stays standing.

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