UFC 269 Preview

UFC 269 is approaching fast and it’s sure to be a great night of fights. It will be the UFC’s last big card of the year and let’s just say this card is full of nice holiday treats. The first fight will be between bantamweights Sean O’Malley and number 15 ranked Raulian Piava. It will be followed by another fight in the flyweight division between Cody Garbrandt and Kai Kara France. A bout between welterweights will follow between Geoff Neal and Santiago Ponzinibbio. The night will be capped off with two title fights, the first being between Amanda Nunes and Juliana Pena for the Women’s Bantamweight title. The second championship fight will be between Charles Oliveira and Dustin Poirier for the Lightweight strap.

Sean O’Malley is a fan favorite and will kick off the UFC 269 main card. He will be facing Raulian Piava. Piava has won his last three fights earning him being ranked in the Top 15 in the Division. Piava is Black belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu and fights out of Team Alpha Male an MMA gym run by UFC and WEC veteran, Urijah Faber. O’Malley has won his last two fights with his only loss coming against Marlon Vera by TKO at UFC 252 Miocic vs. Cormier 3. O’Malley is also a grappler with a Brown belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu under Augusto Mendes so it’ll be interesting to see how this matchup will play out.

 The Flyweight bout between Cody Garbrandt and Kai Kara France is the next fight of note. Garbrandt is a former UFC Bantamweight Champion and is moving down to Flyweight. Garbrandt has lost four of his last five including tough losses to tough opponents like T.J. Dillashaw and Massachusetts native Rob Font. France has won two of his last four fights and before that was on an eight fight win streak. France is fighting out of City Kickboxing, home of UFC Champions Alex Volkanovski and Israel Adesanya.  It’s sure to be a good fight between these 125 pounders.

The next fight of note is between MMA GWOAT, Amanda Nunes and Juliana Pena. The five round championship bout  which was originally scheduled for August 7th at UFC 265 had to be rescheduled after Nunes was unfortunately diagnosed with Covid-19. Nunes has been on an amazing 12 fight win streak, and is the only Woman to ever hold two belts as the reigning UFC Bantamweight and Featherweight champion. She is the only UFC fighter male or female to attempt to and successfully defend both their titles. During her run, Nunes has taken on and beaten a who’s who of the greatest women fighters of all time including multiple wins over Valentina Schevchenko, and victories over Cris Cyborg, Holly Holm, Miesha Tate, and Ronda Rousey.

The final fight of the night will be between reigning Lightweight Champion Charles Oliveira and Dustin Poirier. This will be Oliveira’s first title defense and he’s riding a nine fight win streak. Oliveira has a strong submission game and does everything right. He is a 3rd degree black belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu under Ericson Cardoso and Jorge “Macaco” Patino and will be a hard night at the office for Poirier. Poirier is on a streak himself winning his last three fights including back to back wins against former two division champion Conor McGregor.  Poiriers only loss in the last five years was to the greatest Lightweight of all time Khabib Nurmagomedov. This is sure to be an amazing fight. 

UFC 269 is available for purchase on the ESPN+ app.