UFC 277 Preview with Billy Ward

Here, The Action Network's and Fantasy Labs MMA writer Billy Ward and I preview UFC 277 taking place this Saturday night in Dallas. First, we talk about the main event, which is a rematch of one of the UFC's biggest shocks when Julianna Pena submitted Amanda Nunes at UFC 269 last December. Billy reminds me of George St. Pierre and Anderson Silva losing as massive favorites during their UFC reigns. Billy is intrigued with Amanda's odds, but he questions whether Nunes is motivated at this stage of this career. I respond whether Pena fought her perfect fight, or whether Nunes can still like motivated like her usual self. Unlike women's UFC fights, this fight is likely to end in a stoppage with two submission artists. Onto the co-main event, where Brandon Moreno and Kai Kara-France will be fighting for the UFC Interim Flyweight belt. With Kara-France from New Zealand, we discuss how many good UFC fighters have come from Australia and New Zealand the past few years. Despite Moreno as a betting favorite, Kara-France intrigues us with his knockout power and striking. We also look back at their 2019 fight where Moreno beat the Kiwi. Billy believes both fighters have matured and become better fighters since their first bout. Afterwards, Billy wanted to discuss the heavyweight tilt between Sergei Pavlovich and Derrick Lewis. If UFC fans are hoping for a quick fight, this heavyweight bout stands out as a great possibility for a fast stoppage. Pavlovich's first four UFC fights have all ended in first-round knockouts while each one of Lewis' last five fights has ended in a knockout. With two powerful strikers, this fight offers the chance of a quick stoppage, which would be great for GPP tournaments. We conclude this episode by talking how the UFC has kept going through the COVID-19 pandemic and our favorite Cash fighters for Saturday's card.