UFC 225: Burning Questions for the Fights in Chicago
Mercifully, the UFC is heading into a stretch that harks back to some of its more glorious runs of years past. Summer 2018 is set to deliver big fights between big names on big cards, and that gets going this weekend.
After a long winter and spring filled with events sold on one or two fights, UFC 225 hits Chicago with top-to-bottom excitement.
Robert Whittaker defends his middleweight title against Yoel Romero, Rafael Dos Anjos battles Colby Covington for the interim welterweight title, and Chicago's own punk Phil Brooks—otherwise known as CM Punk—gets a chance at redemption after an embarrassing MMA debut in 2016.
Holly Holm, Alistair Overeem, Joseph Benavidez and Rashad Evans are also among the big names competing on the card, easily the deepest of 2018.
So what are the burning questions heading into the event Saturday? We're glad you asked. Here are a few to consider.
Is This Rashad Evans' Last Stand?
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Former UFC champion Rashad Evans is both a legend and a faltering property. His present status in the promotion places him about as far from contention as possible, a fighter pushing 40 and sitting at 2-6 in the fights he's made since April 2012.
Daniel Kelly and Sam Alvey have recently beaten him. Anthony Smith will be across the cage at UFC 225; this for a man who bettered legends such as Chuck Liddell, Forrest Griffin, Quinton "Rampage" Jackson and Michael Bisping in his time.
It feels like the late-career resume of a man who has hung on too long. It also feels like this may be his last stand.
The last six years or so have negatively altered the perception of Evans' career—the past two, in particular, have been overly damaging. He was 17-1-1 in January 2012, he's 19-7-1 going into Saturday's bout.
The 38-year-old needs a win however you slice it. If he wants to keep competing, losing to Smith after the Kelly and Alvey losses is totally unacceptable; if he wants to retire respectfully, losing to Smith after dominating so many legends to get to this point will hurt that.
It will be interesting to see how Evans reacts—and what outcome he earns.
Can Claudia Gadelha Earn a Title Shot Once Again?
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Claudia Gadelha is a great women's strawweight and has been for a long time. There's a good case that she's been the second-best on the planet for that time, and two of her three of losses coming against strawweight great Joanna Jedrzejczyk bears that out.
With a new queen on the throne in Rose Namajunas—who vanquished Jedrzejczyk not once, but twice—the division has opened up for Gadelha again. Losing twice to a sitting champion is a death wish for one's title hopes, so the Brazilian was likely as happy as anyone to see Namajunas ascend.
She did drop a September bout to Jessica Andrade—another Jedrzejczyk victim who has more recently secured a win (one against top-level competition in Tecia Torres)—but a flashy or otherwise dominant win against Carla Esparza, the first 115-pound champion in UFC history, might allow her to get back to the top of the heap.
Can CM Punk Actually Win a Professional MMA Fight?
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Chicago's Phil "CM Punk" Brooks returns to the Octagon for the first time since 2016. That night, he made his professional debut against upstart Mickey Gall, who demolished him in 134 seconds.
The questions started almost immediately: Is Punk done? Was this experiment a disaster? Why did this even happen?
The answers: He was not. Probably. Money, mostly.
To his credit, though, Punk has continued training. As a 39-year-old MMA neophyte, he insisted on putting in his work, getting better and giving it one more try in the UFC. It happens Saturday in a booking against fellow 0-1 fighter Mike Jackson.
The fight is on the pay-per-view portion of the event, with the UFC gambling that the curiosity of Punk's odyssey is enough to grift $65 a pop from portions of the viewing public. He is polarizing, and he does have a bizarre charisma to him, so there is inexact evidence to say he can pay out for the promotion one more time.
But can he win a professional MMA fight in the world's biggest promotion? No one knows the answer to that, but he's got two more years of development and experience behind him so he's likely to give it a better shot this time out.
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Is There More to Tai Tuivasa Than Drinking Beer from a Shoe?
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People like beer. People like shoes. Filling a shoe with beer before drinking it is perhaps not the first thing one would think of, though.
In Australia, however, it is something that's on the menu, and the UFC's Tai Tuivasa popularized it in MMA by doing it on camera at UFC 221. After stopping Cyril Asker, the 7-0 prospect stopped by his cheering section to slam a "shoey" in celebration.
It even made a T-shirt.
Now, though, it's time to show there's more to him than on-camera antics.
UFC 225 will see Tuivasa tested more sternly than he's ever been, fighting former champion and stubbornly active veteran Andrei Arlovski—who fights in his adopted hometown for the first time.
If Tuivasa wins, he'll be the next big thing at heavyweight; if he doesn't, he'll be another forgotten prospect lost in the sea of faceless names on the UFC roster.
These are high stakes for the big Aussie. If he touches the weathered visage of Arlovski, 2-5 in his last seven bouts, with one of his heavy haymakers, you might expect he'll cash in on them.
Is Megan Anderson the One True Challenger to Cris Cyborg?
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Another Australian will hit the cage at UFC 225 when Megan Anderson makes her UFC debut against Holly Holm.
The rangy stand-up ace has been circling an appearance with the promotion for some time now, and many are so hotly anticipating her arrival because she's seen as the heir apparent to Cris Cyborg in the featherweight division.
After watching Cyborg destroy undersized foes for years, people are salivating at the prospect of Anderson earning a shot at her. Standing 6'0" and with the dense build of a proper featherweight, she appears to be the only one among the current selection in MMA who could have any shot at snatching the Brazilian's title.
Prior to coming to the UFC, Anderson was the Invicta women's featherweight champion—a worthy precursor to a UFC pedigree—and holds a record of 8-2 with six stoppages.
She has won four straight, and beating Holm, who has held UFC gold and challenged for it in two divisions (including a challenge of Cyborg), would prove to the world she's ready for a shot at the GOAT.
Will Rafael Dos Anjos Prove He's the Most Underrated Fighter in UFC History?
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For a long time, people have dismissed Rafael Dos Anjos.
Well, maybe not dismissed exactly—he's a former UFC lightweight champion who successfully defended his title once and has amassed a 17-7 record in the promotion overall—but they've definitely underrated him.
He rarely comes up in conversations about the greatest UFC fighters or even the best fighters of his own era. But if he wins at UFC 225, he'll hold a distinction that only guys in that stratosphere have held to this point: He'll become a champion in two different weight classes.
While it's not quite the rarity it was a decade ago, multi-weight champions in MMA are still rare. Only Georges St-Pierre, Conor McGregor, BJ Penn and Randy Couture have done it. Plenty of others have tried and failed, which only further cements it as an achievement of the truly excellent.
If Dos Anjos can put his name on a list with such excellence, he should be underrated no more.
Is Yoel Romero Among the Best Middleweights Ever?
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Speaking of underrated, how about this statement: Yoel Romero is one of the best middleweights ever.
On its face that might seem a bold claim, maybe even borderline irresponsible. Romero has never held a major MMA title, and his remarkable Olympic wrestling pedigree doesn't count for much in terms of defining his UFC career.
But look at his resume and you see an all-time great.
Entering his title fight on Saturday, Romero is 13-2 and has beaten a who's who of his generation. Luke Rockhold, Chris Weidman, Ronaldo Souza, Lyoto Machida—highly talented former champions of the UFC or Strikeforce, and Romero has roasted them all.
In fact, that list accounts for Romero's last four wins, and only Souza survived to a decision.
If only he'd gotten his hands on Anderson Silva somewhere in there and been successful, the conversation on his relationship to all-time middleweight greatness would have more momentum.
As it stands, though, he's got a shot to kick-start the conversation at UFC 225. If he beats Whittaker, something he couldn't do when they first met a year ago, he'll be the undisputed middleweight champion, which will represent the cherry on top of his impressive career to date.
Consider that such a cherry might just make him one of the best to ever do it, as well.
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