5 Reasons to Watch Saturday’s UFC Fight Night Doubleheader

Fresh of Saturday’s return to action, the UFC rolls out another doubleheader this weekend, kicking off Saturday with 10 fights from Macao, China available exclusively on UFC Fight Pass, followed in the evening by a solid 11-fight show from Tulsa, Oklahoma headlined by a matchup between Top 5 lightweights “Smooth” Benson Henderson and Rafael dos Anjos.

While there are plenty of people that are usually down on these twin bills—especially when the front end of the festivities kicks off at 3:30am PT and is short on names outside of the final two fights—but starting and ending the day with violent entertainment under the UFC banner sounds like a pretty nice little Saturday to me.

And with the break between shows, you can still squeeze in a little trip to Home Depot, maybe even Bed, Bath & Beyond, if you have time.

If you need more convincing, here are 5 Reasons to Watch UFC Fight Night: Bisping vs. Le and UFC Fight Night: Henderson vs. dos Anjos.

“Stun Gun” gets a step up in competition

Dong Hyun Kim has rattled off four straight wins since his quick and curious loss to Demian Maia at UFC 148. Over his last two outings, the once methodical grappler has morphed into an aggressive, swing for the fences striker, resulting in a pair of “Did You See That!?” knockouts against Erick Silva and John Hathaway.

Kim’s run of success has carried him into the Top 10 in the welterweight division and into a co-main event showdown with Tyron Woodley on Saturday.

Originally scheduled to face Hector Lombard, the South Korean “Stun Gun” gets his American Top Team teammate instead, as Lombard was forced to withdraw and Woodley was more than happy to get an opportunity to get back in the win column after turning in a clunker against Rory MacDonald in June at UFC 174.

While it is certainly a big fight for Woodley, who lobbied for a title shot prior to his loss to MacDonald in Vancouver, it’s a bigger matchup for Kim. Beating Woodley moves him up the ladder in the competitive welterweight ranks and gives him the biggest win of his career. It would also validate his sudden shift in approach. As much as garnering attention thanks to a couple crazy finishes can be, it doesn’t mean anything if you can’t continue to build off it. There are lots of knockout artists that have stalled once they’ve started facing stiffer competition, and this is Kim’s chance to prove he’s not one of those guys.

Given that Kim is 32—he’ll be 33 in November—this feels like his opportunity to make some noise. He’s been rolling against good, not great competition as of late, but can he keep it going against “The Chosen One?” We’ll find out bright and early Saturday morning.

Cung Le is fighting

Regardless of his age (42) or relative lack of activity over the last couple years (his last fight was November 10, 2012), the reality is that each and every Cung Le fight is exciting and this weekend’s headlining assignment opposite Michael Bisping shouldn’t be any different.

The former Strikeforce middleweight champion throws kicks by the dozen and, as you can see by the Instagram picture below, appears to be in absolutely ridiculous shape heading into this weekend.

He’s a big fight guy that seems to have a way to rise to the occasion and after nearly two years since his last appearance, you can be certain that he’ll be looking to add another devastating knockout to his personal sizzle reel against Bisping.

And here’s the thing: he could do it too, especially early on.

Bisping is far from incapable of being hit and while he has the superior gas tank of the two, he’s also been known to get a little too sure of his skills and advantages at times, and as Le showed against Rich Franklin last time he stepped into the Octagon, all he needs to do is land one clean shot to bring the night to a climactic crescendo.

Love him or hate him, you want to see Michael Bisping fight

Let’s say you decided to only get up for the main event on Saturday, which means you’re rolling out of bed—or at least firing up the laptop, Roku or iPad whilst still in bed—around 7:30am PT to watch what should be a pretty entertaining and active fight between Bisping and Le.

That doesn’t sound all that bad, does it?

Bisping is one of those guys that you always want to see fight for one of two reasons:

(1) You can’t stand him and hope that this fight is going to be the fight where his opponent replicates Dan Henderson’s iconic UFC 100 knockout of “The Count,” or
(2) You’re a Bisping fan and you revel in watching the Manchester native annoy the hell out of everyone on Twitter that falls into category one by executing a sound stick-and-move attack.

Regardless of which of those two camps you fall in, chances are you’re rousting yourself from your slumber to catch this fight and you should because it should be pretty fun while it lasts…

via 5 Reasons to Watch Saturday’s UFC Fight Night Doubleheader | The Province.