UFC 200 Major News Has Fans Around the World Celebrating!
By JM “Shade” Daguio
The Ultimate Fighting Championship is giving its fight fans the best possible matchups in its annual International Fight Week festivities that lead to UFC 200, its premiere pay-per-view showcase for the year.
Before UFC 200 begins on Saturday though, two fight cards will amp up hardcore and casual fans alike with the Rafael Dos Anjos versus Eddie Alvarez lightweight championship fight on Thursday for UFC Fight Night 90 and Joanna Jędrzejczyk [pronounced: yen-jay-check] versus Claudia Gadelha on friday for the UFC Ultimate Fighter Finale, both cards will be held in Las Vegas.
Rafael Dos Anjos will seek to establish himself as a pound-for-pound fighter by defending his title in the most competitive weightclass in the UFC, the lightweight division. Dos Anjos, a Brazilian native with Muay thai and Brazilian Jiu-jitsu background look to dispatch another lightweight contender in Eddie Alvarez.
For Dos Anjos, this title defense is very important amidst the frequent title exchanges happening in the UFC lately, he does not want to underestimate his challenger and will look to decisively finish it to secure his status as one of the best.
Eddie Alvarez does not agree, though, a native of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the 32-year old MMA vet will look to bring his experience and grit into this fight. Alvarez have been champion in organizations outside the UFC but he knows that he will never truly be considered to be the best if he doesn’t fight the best. He will not let the opportunity slide.
For the friday event, Joanna Jędrzejczyk will look to defend her strawweight title against the only fighter that took her to deep waters, Claudia Gadelha.
Claudia Gadelha is the consensus no. 2 strawweight in the world, similar to Dos Anjos, Gadelha is also a Brazilian native and focused her discipline on Brazilian jiu-jitsu and Muay Thai, she proved to be one of the elite in the division after racking 12-straight wins, her 13th fight saw her lose to the eventual champion, Joanna Jędrzejczyk.
Gadelha lost via split decision to Jędrzejczyk and would gladly exact her revenge. Gadelha believes she won the first fight and the second fight will be a decisive victory against the champion.
After utterly dismantling former champ Carla Esparza, Joanna Jędrzejczyk is on a violent tear through her division. The 6-time world Muay thai champion will look to do the same to her opponent Claudia Gadelha, their first fight saw the champion win a razor-thin split decision and doesn’t want any doubts as to who is the true queen of the division in their second fight
Jędrzejczyk is also considered to be one of the best strikers in the UFC, a win against her toughest opponent would put her in the realm of best ever female fighter, Jędrzejczyk is yet to encounter her first loss.
[si-contact-form form=’2′]