He’ll look to prove the doubters wrong again when he faces Israel Adesanya, a slick world-class kickboxer who has transitioned his skills beautifully to the all-encompassing rules of mixed martial arts. The co-main event at UFC 236 features a battle for the interim UFC middleweight title that sees a perennial underdog taking on a man who has been marked out for MMA superstardom.įrom the moment he walked into The Ultimate Fighter gym back in 2013, Kelvin Gastelum has spent his career being written off, but he’s gone on to become a TUF winner, a welterweight contender and now a legitimate world title contender as a middleweight. Pick: HOLLOWAY TO DEFEAT POIRIER: 2/5 GASTELUM V ADESANYA – UFC 236, Sunday 05:00 I’m backing ‘The Blessed Express’ to continue rolling through UFC 236, as he picks up his second world title. But when he has to get past one of the best pound-for-pound fighters on the planet to do it, I just think it’s a bridge too far. Poirier deserves his shot and it would be a real feel-good story to see one of the sport’s genuine good guys win a title. Poirier’s high-pace, high-volume approach will force Holloway to fight from the very first bell, but that’s exactly how the Hawaiian likes it.ĭespite moving up a weight class, Holloway will be the bigger, stronger man on fight night, and he pushes a pace like no other fighter in the UFC. Reigning featherweight champ Max Holloway is moving up from 145lbs to go for interim gold at 155lbs, while perennial contender Poirier is looking to shake that ‘nearly man’ tag and turn his undoubted championship potential to a championship belt. The main event of UFC 236 in Atlanta on April 13 has the potential to be one of the fights of 2019. HOLLOWAY V POIRIER – UFC 236, Sunday 05:45

We’ve even thrown in some way-too-early fight predictions for some ante-post acca action. So, with UFC events coming thick and fast from the weekend onwards, let’s throw things forward and cast our eyes over the upcoming fight cards for April and pick out a six-pack of fights to keep an eye on.

We’re getting set for a packed run of events to take us all the way into the summer.

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