UFC 244: Who Will be the Baddest in the Octagon?

MMA fans can’t wait for UFC 244 on the night of Saturday, November 2 in Madison Square Garden as we’ll finally find who the baddest in combat sports is.

Nate Diaz returned recently for his first fight inside the octagon in three years with a unanimous decision victory over Andrew Pettis back in August. He then called out Jorge Masvidal who set up this bout. In order to help promote the fight which will headline the MSG card, UFC president Dana White says the winner will be presented with a BMF belt.

Either Diaz or fellow 34-year-old cage fighter Masvidal are to receive the $50,000 strap from former WWE wrestler and Hollywood megastar Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. It’s also likely the winner will be in line for a future UFC welterweight title shot against ‘The Nigerian Nightmare’ Kamaru Usman.

Both Diaz and Masvidal have had low moments in their cage-fighting careers, but come into this main event on the back of victories. Diaz is now 20-11 in MMA after previously trading losses with Conor McGregor. During his three years away from the octagon, he’s started a family and helped brother Nick with his jiu-jitsu academy in Stockton, California. With a successful return to active competition with a scorecards defeat of former UFC lightweight champ Pettis, Diaz is the outsider in the betting on this fight. This is because he faces the man who recorded the fastest knockout in UFC history in Masvidal when last in the octagon. It took just five first-round seconds for Florida-based Masvidal to send Ben Askren to the canvas with a flying knee at UFC 239.

That makes him a dangerous opponent for Diaz and a previous KO victory over British fighter Darren Till earlier in 2019 also contributes to Masvidal looking a worthy favorite. Despite his recent exploits, Masvidal has a far-from-flawless record in the octagon himself. He is 34-13 from 47 MMA fights.

Diaz will have to be on his guard for early strikes like the one which put Till down. Four of Masvidal’s last six fights have ended in him knocking someone out. This is something of a style’s clash besides the two cage fighters hailing from different coasts of America. Diaz is a submission specialist with nine of his victories in the UFC coming via that method.

Elsewhere on the Diaz v Masvidal card, Till looks to bounce back from that rapid KO with a step up to middleweight against Kelvin Gastelum. Fellow California native Stephen Thompson looks to address a slide of three defeats in his last four fights, meanwhile, in a welterweight clash with Vicente Luque. Bulgarian heavyweight Blagoy Ivanov tangles with Derrick Lewis, while Corey Anderson and Brazil’s Johnny Walker meet in the light heavyweight class.

Two featherweight fights – Julio Arce v Hakeem Dawodu and Shane Burgos v Makwan Amirkhani – have also been announced. Women’s flyweight number one contender Katlyn Chookagian takes on Jennifer Maia with the winner in line for a title bout.