Preview: UFC 203

Saturday night will see the UFC Heavyweight Champion, Stipe Miocic face off against Alistair Overeem in his first attempt at defending the belt he snatched from the corpse of Fabricio Werdum.

Miocic is the young gun in the heavyweight division at a paltry 34-years-old, and has shown himself to be a very composed and clinical striker during his run to the UFC title. The Cleveland native has lost a couple of fights during his UFC tenure, but has improved after each of them and fixed the holes that were exposed by both Stefan Struve and Junior dos Santos. Miocic will need to be on his game if he decides to go toe-to-toe with Alistair Overeem, who’s a fighter with one of the best striking pedigrees in the UFC, and probably MMA. Overeem is a tall fighter, who uses his size well in the cage and will want to utilise the range to open up Miocic and punish him during the standing exchanges. However, whilst Overeem maybe a very good striker, his chin has been called in to question in the past and Miocic can bang. This is an extremely interesting heavyweight fight which isn’t something you can say often…

The co-main event features sees former champion, Fabricio Werdum look to get his name back into the title picture with a win over “Ronda Rousey’s boyfriend,” Travis Browne. Werdum has without doubt the best Jiu Jitsu the heavyweight division has ever seen, but he’s also worked hard to improve his striking and can end the fight on the ground or on the feet in a split second. Unfortunately, Browne has never quite lived up to the hype that surrounded him after his first couple of wins in the UFC, alternating wins and losses since beating Josh Barnett handily back at UFC 168, destroying Alistair Overeem prior to that. Browne is a decent fighter but he’s a level below Werdum, so expect to see Werdum finish the fight with a submission with in the three rounds.

The long awaited debut of CM Punk, aka Phil Brooks, takes place on this card against Mikey Gall, in a fight that I refuse to type any more about as it shouldn’t be taking place inside a UFC cage.

Perennial bantamweight and featherweight contender, and former WEC champion, Urijah Faber gets to show the world that he’s still got it against Jimmie Rivera. This won’t be an easy task, Rivera is currently riding an EIGHTEEN fight win streak and he will be looking to add Urijah Faber to his long list of defeated opponents. It’s now safe to say that Faber isn’t good enough to hold a UFC title, but he is still an excellent fighter, and more than capable of handing Rivera his first loss since 2008. However, his recent loss to Dominick Cruz could be the beginning of the end for Faber, so don’t be surprised if Rivera pulls off the upset with a decision win that puts the division on notice.

Joanne Calderwood makes her return to strawweight on the curtain jerker of this card with a tough fight against Jessica Andrade. Both of these women are excellent strikers and posses devastating Muay Thai, so expect a lot of clinch work and a ton of knees to the body from both. Calderwood comes in to this fight on the back of a two fight win streak where as Andrade has been alternating wins and losses for her last four fight. A decent run of wins is exactly the sort of confidence boost Calderwood needed after her deflating loss to Maryna Moroz and with her confidence high, expect the Scot to earn herself the unanimous decision. 

Fights to watch on the undercard: Jessica Eye vs. Bethe Correira, Yancy Medeiros vs. Sean Spencer