UFC Fight Night 67: 5 Reasons to Watch Condit vs. Alves Fight Card
Whether you've recovered from UFC 187's blistering lineup of high-profile scraps, the UFC is tossing another hard-hitting event your way Saturday with UFC Fight Night 67.
Featuring a main event welterweight showdown between Carlos "The Natural Born Killer" Condit and Thiago "Pitbull" Alves, UFC Fight Night 67 promises a stand-up battle for the ages at the top of the card.
This main event all but guarantees fireworks, but what about the rest of the card?
Let's break down this event and highlight the reasons why you need to tune your TV to Fox Sports 1 on Saturday evening.
Guess Who's Back (Back Back)?
1 of 5
Carlos Condit is back.
After injuring his knee at UFC 171 in March 2014, The Natural Born Killer makes his return to the Octagon.
Despite being out of action for over a year, Condit is still ranked No. 4 in the UFC's 170-pound division, a position earned through his years of excellence under the Zuffa banner.
Condit previously held and defended the WEC welterweight championship thrice before transferring to the UFC in September 2009. Once there, Condit continued his winning ways, eventually capturing the interim welterweight title at UFC 143 in February 2012.
While he would come up short in his attempt to unify his interim title against Georges St-Pierre at UFC 154, Condit remains unquestionably one of the finest and most exciting competitors in the sport today.
A four-time Fight of the Night winner and two-time Knockout of the Night recipient, Condit is a guy you just have to watch any time he graces the cage.
His matchup against Alves is juicy and all sorts of enticing from a stylistic standpoint, but you don't want to miss a Condit fight regardless of his opponent.
Settling the Score (Finally)
2 of 5
The Nik Lentz vs. Charles Oliveira rematch is literally years in the making.
In 2011, the two current top-10 featherweights fought at UFC Live: Kongo vs. Barry in Pittsburgh, and drama ensued. Early in the second round, Oliveira crushed Lentz with a blatantly illegal knee that marked the beginning of the end.
After some follow-up shots, Oliveira took Lentz's back and promptly secured the fight-ending rear-naked choke. There was no referee warning or intervention, so Oliveira took home the victory.
Upon review by the Pennsylvania State Athletic Commission, however, it was ruled that Oliveira's knee was indeed illegal and instrumental to the finish, so the win was reversed and the bout was ruled a no-contest.
A rematch then makes sense, and the UFC tried to arrange it for UFC Fight Night 50, but Oliveira was forced out of the bout at the last minute due to a lingering viral infection.
Now, nearly four years after their original fight, we'll get the chance to see Lentz and Oliveira decide once and for all who deserved that win in Pittsburgh.
Either of You Guys Want to Fight Demetrious Johnson?
3 of 5
Flyweights Wilson Reis and Jussier Formiga will go to work on the preliminary portion of the UFC Fight Night 67 card, and this bout could establish one of them as a future title contender in the shallow 125-pound class.
Many pegged John Dodson as the obvious challenger on deck to flyweight champ Demetrious Johnson, but after a less-than-spectacular showing at UFC 187 against Zach Makovsky, it's unclear whether the Team Jackson-Winkeljohn product will receive a title shot. Even more importantly, it did little to convince the masses that he'd have a shot against Johnson in a rematch.
Formiga and Reis, ranked No. 4 and No. 12 in the division, respectively, have never fought the champ, so they could make a statement and establish themselves as legitimate contenders Saturday evening.
If either man wins in dominant fashion, we'd see the emergence of another potential challenger to Johnson's lengthy reign at the top.
With relative newcomers such as Henry Cejudo, the winner of Reis vs. Formiga and flyweight standbys such as Dodson and Joseph Benavidez, the flyweight division is slowly stacking up from top to bottom.
Whether any of them can actually defeat Mighty Mouse is another question entirely, but the first step on that journey begins for one man at UFC Fight Night 67. Which one will seize the opportunity and vault into the title conversation?
.jpg?w=256 "Colts Jaguars Football")
Who Likes Knockouts?!
4 of 5
Yeah, so, somebody is probably going down hard in this KJ Noons vs. Alex Oliveira tilt.
Noons, a former professional boxer and kickboxer, owns some of the crispest hands in the sport today, and he's currently heating up in the lightweight division, going undefeated in his past three outings.
Oliveira, meanwhile, lost his UFC debut at UFC Fight Night 62 against uber-prospect Gilbert Burns, but his stand-up was impressive throughout, and he controlled the bout on the feet before tapping to an armbar late in Round 3.
In 10 career wins, Oliveira has earned a knockout or technical knockout eight times, and Noons will likely be more than happy to stand and trade to see whose fists reign supreme.
For fans, this is great news. Keep your eyes peeled and expect a vicious finish in this one.
#JustBrazilStuff
5 of 5
For some reason, wacky stuff seems to happen when the UFC goes to Brazil.
Brazilian crowds are passionate and fervent, creating an atmosphere of pure energy and chaos—the perfect backdrop for a UFC event. The action usually mirrors their wild commotion.
At UFC Fight Night 62 in March, a bout between Leandro Silva and Drew Dober was stopped for no apparent reason. Seriously. Silva had Dober in a guillotine, Dober escaped, and the ref stopped the fight, declaring Silva the winner. This fight was later deemed a no-contest.
Before that, at UFC Fight Night 61 in February in Porto Alegre, TJ Waldburger passed out while cutting weight and was removed from the event. Then, as the event proceeded, 10 of 11 underdogs took home victories.
This is just a snapshot of the wackiness that gravitates toward Brazil. For one reason or another, these Brazil shows make headlines, and there's a high probability that something downright strange will go down at this event, too.
If none of the other slides has you convinced, tune in to UFC Fight Night 67 just because MMA's volatile and unpredictable nature tends to be cranked to 11 in Brazil.
.jpg?w=480 "Colts Jaguars Football")
