With just over two months left in the calendar year for 2014, the Ultimate Fighting Championship has only eight cards left to round up the remainder of the year. Out of the eight that remain, these are the three UFC fight cards I personally look forward to most… 3) UFC Fight Night 57 UFC Fight Night 57 will be live November 22nd from the Frank Erwin Center in Austin, TX. The event will feature a six fight main card that will be live on FOX Sports 1, and it will be headlined by a five round featherweight match-up between former UFC lightweight champion Frankie Edgar and Cub Swanson. A lot is at stake in the evening’s main event, as the winner will earn a rematch against Jose Aldo in a second bid for the champion’s featherweight gold. Edgar and Swanson are amongst the elite in the 145-pound division in all of mixed martial arts, so I am incredibly excited about this scrap, and am very much looking forward to it. I think it could very well be a fight that ends up being one of everybody’s all-time favorites. These two deliver every time they step inside the Octagon, and I will be expecting no different on Saturday, November 22nd in Austin. The co-main event of the evening is incredibly exciting in its own right, with two of my favorite strikers in the UFC’s lightweight division pegged to square off against each other. I have no doubt there will be fireworks when New Jersey-based Brazilian and Muay Thai specialist Edson Barboza takes on the ever-improving veteran Bobby Green. Both of these guys have a huge following, and I believe they will deliver in this co-main event slot. A win over Barboza would be big for Green, as it would make it nine in a row for him and put him right into title talks. For the Brazilian, a win over Green would shoot him up the rankings, though he will still be a couple victories short of smelling gold. There are many others fights I look forward to on this UFC Fight Night 57 fight card, including the return of Matt Wiman, as he takes on Jackson-Winklejohn MMA’s Isaac Vallie-Flagg in a lightweight contest that could very well be a sleeper for the evening’s ‘Fight of the Night’ bonus. Another scrap I look forward to on this card is a flyweight contest between Joseph Benavidez and Dustin Ortiz. A win in this match-up will be a huge deal for either party, as it would put them right into the UFC flyweight title picture. 2) UFC on FOX 13 UFC on FOX 13 will be live December 13th from the United Airways Center in Phoenix, AZ, and the 12-fight card is stacked with potentially entertaining bouts from top to bottom. Headlining the event on FOX will be a heavyweight contest between former UFC heavyweight champion Junior dos Santos and surging heavyweight prospect Stipe Miocic. This is a big fight that fans are finally happy to see arrive, and it certainly is an important one in the heavyweight division. A win over Miocic would be big for dos Santos, but a win over the Brazilian would be even bigger for Miocic, as I believe it would put him next in line for a title shot if Cain Velasquez is not ready in time take on the winner of Hunt vs Werdum. The co-main event of the evening will see the return of Nate Diaz, as he takes on top lightweight Rafael dos Anjos in a fight that will likely put the winner’s name in title talks. The main card will also feature a highly anticipated heavyweight contest between a pair of Dutchmen in Alistair Overeem and Stefan Struve, and that one is definitely not expected to go the distance. There are many other fights to look forward to on this UFC on FOX 13 fight card, including another sure to be entertaining heavyweight scrap in the form of Matt Mitrione vs Gabriel Gonzaga. That is another one that is not expected to go the three round distance. In what is expected to be a fun fight in the UFC’s middleweight division, The Ultimate Fighter season three veteran Ed Herman will take on Strikeforce import Derek Brunson. A scrap I very much look forward to comes in the flyweight division, where Brazilian Jussier Formiga takes on Arizona’s own John Moraga. That is a match-up I have predicted and hoped for in two of my previous “Matchmaking Predictions” articles, and am glad to finally be getting it. UFC on FOX 13 will also see the promotional debuts of bantamweights Anthony Birchak and Henry Cejudo, as well as lightweight Bryan Barbarena and the return of veteran welterweight Joe Riggs, who will be taking on Ben Saunders, a fellow UFC veteran who recently made his return to the Octagon. 1) UFC 181 The card I look forward to most for the year is UFC 181, which will be live on Pay Per View from Las Vegas on December 6th. Headlining the card will be a five round title rematch between challenger Robbie Lawler and defending champion Johny Hendricks. That is one rematch every fight fan on the planet is counting the days down to. The co-main event of the evening will be another title fight, and one that is arguably just as highly anticipated as the main event. The UFC lightweight title will be up for grabs, as challenger Gilbert Melendez makes his second bid for the gold, this time against defending champion Anthony Pettis. Fans will be on the edge of their seats during this one, as it will likely end up resulting in an instant classic. This card is stacked, stacked, stacked! Two fights I very much look forward to are between heavyweights Travis Browne and Brendan Schaub and lightweights Tony Ferguson and Abel Trujillo. Both fights are expected to produce fireworks, and while the 155-pounders will be looking to extend their Octagon winning streaks, the big boys will be looking to return back to the win column. Kicking off the Pay Per View main card will be a match-up in the women’s bantamweight division that sees the highly anticipated promotional debut of Holly Holm, as she takes on The Ultimate Fighter season 18’s Raquel Pennington. The preliminary card on FOX Sports 1 is arguably the best preliminary card of the year, as it sees Team Alpha Male’s Urijah Faber take on Francisco Rivera in the headliner, with middleweights Eddie Gordon and Josh Samman taking center stage right before it. Getting the action started for the televised preliminary card will be a heavyweight contest that sees the highly anticipated return of Todd Duffee, as he takes on Anthony Hamilton, with both big men looking to extend their Octagon winning streaks to two in a row. Following that heavyweight scrap will be a light heavyweight contest between The Ultimate Fighter season 19 winner Corey Anderson and Long Island’s Gian Villante. From top to bottom, this card is full of fights I really look forward to seeing, which makes it my most anticipated UFC card for the remainder of the 2014 calendar year.
