The UFC 205 main card is equipped to deliver an epic, historic night for its MSG debut. Three titles will be on the line in addition to three other intriguing bouts. Be sure to look into the stacked prelims that are also taking place. Here is a brief look at the UFC 205 main card outside of the title fights which I’ll preview seperately. Stay tuned for a seperate breakdown of the UFC 205 title fights!
UFC 205 Main Card
Miesha Tate vs Raquel Pennington
Starting off the UFC 205 main card is former bantamweight champion Miesha Tate. She’s looking for a win coming off her disappointing UFC 200 loss to Amanda Nunes. Tate won the belt by submitting Holly Holm in the fifth round of their epic bout at UFC 196. Tate comes in as a heavy favorite, but her opponent “Rocky” Pennington is in place to pull the upset. Pennington is on a three-fight win streak with her two UFC losses being close split decisions; she is two judge’s away from being 7-0 in the UFC.
Tate has fought superior competition and has superior experience, but she has a similar style to Pennington. She’s patient on the feet, and will look for the opportune time to close the distance. Tate’s wrestling is stellar, and once she gets on top you can bank on her doing some damage. Pennington will likely oblige any grappling as she’s quite opportunistic, often willing to jump on chokes with tenacity. This fight has all the makings to be a real back-and-forth dog fight. We may see some good striking exchanges, but expect a lot of this fight to be grappling transitions.
Donald Cerrone vs Kelvin Gastelum
Next up is a welterweight clash between two rising contenders. Donald Cerrone has been making big waves at 170 lbs since moving up from lightweight. He’s 3-0 at the division with three stoppages, but will be taking on his toughest challenge in Gastelum. Gastelum is fresh off the biggest win of his career when he defeated former champion Johny Hendricks at UFC 200. The winner of this bout (especially if it’s Cerrone) should slide in to the top 5.
Cerrone’s bread-and-butter is his muay thai striking. While he used his striking to impressively dismantle Rick Story, it’s Cerrone’s underrated grappling abilities that helped open that up. I’m not sure what it is about 170 lbs that has made Cerrone much more aggressive, but so far nobody has been able to survive his offensive output. Gastelum is as tough as they come though, and if anybody can survive standing with Cerrone it’ll probably be Gastelum. While his boxing is pretty slick, Gastelum’s frame is built for grinding opponents down and smasing them with punches. Early in his UFC tenure, Gastelum adopted the nickname “Mini-Cain” for his resemblance to Cain Velasquez’s fighting style. He has abandoned that a bit and relied more on his boxing, but he’ll need a well-rounded game plan if he wants to beat Cerrone. This is guaranteed violence, don’t miss it.
Chris Weidman vs Yoel Romero
Former middleweight champion Chris Weidman will be returning to action for the first time since losing his middleweight belt to Luke Rockhold. If you remember, Weidman and Rockhold have having nice back-and-forth striking exchanges before Weidman attempted a spinning wheel kick, allowed Rockhold to take him down, and continue to cave his face in. It was one slip up that caused him to lose the fight. They were scheduled to rematch, but Weidman suffered a neck injury and had to pull out; he’s been recovering ever since. Fortunately for him, his opponent has also been unable to compete. Weidman brings a meat-and-potatoes, high pressuring style in to the Octagon. He has strong fundamentals on the feet, but is extremely skillful on the mat. Part of me thinks Weidman will look to stand with Romero, but such a big part of Weidman’s game is his threatening grappling.
Romero is a freestyle wrestling silver medalist, and has some of the best pure wrestling in the sport. He combines that with explosive manuevers, unorthodox movement, and a whole lot of horsepower. Romero is awkard in his striking, but extremely deadly due to how much he explodes into everything. In his last outting, Romero snuck a split decision by Jacare Souza at UFC 194. It was a rather lackluster performance by both men, but Romero did show his cardio can be exploited. He has been out of competition since then due to testing positive for tainted supplements.
I honestly have no idea how this fight is going to go down as it’s such an interesting clash of styles. Weidman is rather straight-forward; he’s going to mind his Ps and Qs, and try to sap the gas tank of Romero. However, Romero has the power to end anybody in a second, but must be careful about how he uses his energy. Don’t blink in this fight!
