UFC London kicks off today and is set to be a explosive night of fights! The undercard is slated to begin at 5pm GMT (1pm ET), followed by the main card at 8pm GMT (4pm ET). Seeing as it’s in our backyard Fight Quality have been following proceedings – the other day we went along to the open workouts and got some self defence tips from Jorge Masvidal.
Last night the O2 arena, the same venue as the fights themselves, was the setting for the weigh ins, which all went off pretty smoothly. The only drama came when Ben Askren, who’s in attendance to hype a potential fight with the main event winner (and has been firing shots and basically everyone on social media), called out Darren Till, who stormed from backstage to confront Askren, with both middle fingers raised.
When it came to the scales, despite a lot of prediction (ours included, sorry) Darren Till made weight – with another two finger salute for everyone who thought he’d come in heavy. The only fighter not to make weight was Jack Marshman, the Welshman failed to hit the 185lb limit. The full list of weights, and our predictions, are below:
Preliminary Card
Mike Grundy (145) vs. Nad Narimani (145.5)
Priscila Cachoeira (125) vs. Molly McCann (126)
Danny Henry (146) vs. Dan Ige (146)
Tom Breese (186) vs. Ian Heinisch (186)
Nicolae Negumereanu (204) vs. Saparbeg Safarov (205)
Marc Diakiese (155) vs. Joe Duffy (155)
Arnold Allen (145) vs. Jordan Rinaldi (145)
Main Card
Jack Marshman (188)* vs. John Phillips (185) – both these Welshmen are in need of a win, and both are KO artists, so expect fireworks. Could go either way, but we’d back Marshman based off the stats, plus the advantage that comes from missing weight.
Danny Roberts (170) vs. Claudio Silva (170) – Also undefeated in the UFC we back BJJ black belt Silva to get the nod in this one.
Jose Quinonez (135.5) vs. Nathaniel Wood (135.5) – The Prospect has been on an absolute tear recently, and we think he extends his current 6 fight (3 UFC) win streak tonight.
Volkan Oezdemir (205) vs. Dominick Reyes (206) – Tough call, but reckon the undefeated Reyes keeps his 0 in this one.
Leon Edwards (170) vs. Gunnar Nelson (170.5) – Edwards looked sharp and hungry at the weigh ins, and while you can never rule Nelson out we think the Brit gets it done.
Darren Till (171) vs. Jorge Masvidal (171) – Home advantage and the size advantage makes us lean towards Till on this one.
Think we’ve got it wrong? Excited for one particular fight? Let us know in the comments section