The Ultimate Fighting Championship will see four title fights within the course of four weeks. Starting with this past weekend’s UFC 181, the promotion will see its lightweight, welterweight and light heavyweight titles defended, as well as the inaugural women’s strawweight title. It all began last weekend with a pair of title fights in a single night, starting with Anthony “Showtime” Pettis’ successful UFC Lightweight Title defense against former Strikeforce 155 pound title holder Gilbert “El Nino” Melendez. Melendez got off to a good start, putting pressure on Pettis, but he couldn’t keep the pace up and was teed off on before Pettis eventually submitted him with a guillotine choke in the second round. The main event last weekend saw another champion defend his title for the first time, as the UFC’s 170 pound title holder Johny “Bigg Rigg” Hendricks had his rematch against the veteran “Ruthless” Robbie Lawler. It was a very close and slightly controversial fight, but Lawler hung in there and came on strong late to pull off a split decision victory and become the UFC’s welterweight champion. This week’s The Ultimate Fighter (TUF) Season 20 Finale will see the promotion’s first women’s strawweight champion crowned and the four ladies currently left in the competition on the reality series currently are Rose Namajunas, Randa Markos, Carla Esparza and Jessica Penne. Regardless of who ends up competing for the title, I think any of the four pairings would make for a solid match-up, and all four of these ladies undoubtedly have what champions are made of. Another title fight follows at UFC 182, where in the main event of the UFC 182, we will see the promotion’s light heavyweight champion Jon Jones defend his 205 pound strap against the undefeated former Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix champion Daniel Cormier. Out of all the upcoming title fights, this one is the toughest to predict, as it is between two elite fighters who have never really suffered a loss in their professional fighting careers. Unless you’re a huge Cormier fan, you’re not going to be too happy taking the +150 line against Jon Jones. One new division will see its first champion crowned, while we’ve already seen one title exchange hands. We often get a couple months of fights that don’t have any titles on the line, so it’s a real treat to get five of them within four weeks. There have been two fights already that you didn’t want to miss, and it all continues with the TUF 20 Finale: A Champion will be Crowned this Friday night.
