Stand and Deliver: UFC Fight Night 235

Every fight matters, but some matter just a little more.

Yes, a win is a win, and a loss is a loss, but some undeniably feel bigger than others for a variety of reasons. In some cases, the stakes are easy to define. Picture the fighter on a losing streak who knows he or she is likely fighting for their job, or conversely, any title fight in a top regional organization, where the combatants know the big leagues are almost certainly scouting them. At other times, a fight feels especially important for reasons that are harder to quantify but no less real. Whether it’s the unspoken weight of being a pioneer in MMA from one’s native country or the simple added spice of two fighters who genuinely hate each other’s guts, that fight means just a little more.

On Saturday, the Ultimate Fighting Championship returns from a week off and settles back into the familiar environs of the Apex, where UFC Fight Night 235 is slated to take place. With 13 fights on the bill, headlined by a middleweight contenders’ match between Roman Dolidze and Nassourdine Imavov, “UFC Vegas 85” offers the kind of divisional relevance fans expect from a fight night card, even if it is a little short on casual-fan name value.

Amid the rising contenders, well-traveled veterans and unproven prospects who will make the walk to the Octagon on Saturday, some may be feeling a bit more under the gun than you might expect. Here are two fighters who need to stand and deliver at “UFC Vegas 85.”

Molly McCann, Is There a Cricket Equivalent to “Softball?”

“Meatball” was one of the UFC’s best stories of 2022, a former middle-of-the-road flyweight who broke through to become one of the promotion’s biggest stars. This was due to two factors: One, despite having shown no particular one-shot power for most of her career, she rattled off highlight-reel KOs with spinning strikes in back-to-back fights against Luana Carolina and Hannah Goldy. Second, and just as important, she knocked both women out in front of capacity crowds at the O2 Arena in London. The sight of McCann and fellow Liverpudlian Paddy Pimblett carrying one another around the cage, smashing plastic cups of beer together and generally reveling in the moment as the place came unglued was something special.

At that point, a sensible promotion might have looked at McCann, a solid but limited fighter who was probably never going to contend for a title but had burgeoning star power, and decided to book her in winnable fights for the foreseeable future—preferably matchups that favored a standup war, and preferably in her native UK. Instead, the UFC booked her against grappling specialists in her next two fights, one of them within a reasonable Uber of her opponent’s New Jersey home. The result—two straight first-round submission losses—was predictable yet still mystifying in a “how did we get here again?” sense.

McCann’s reaction to the losing skid was to drop from 125 pounds to 115, where she will test the waters for the first time this weekend. The UFC’s obliged by matching her up against fellow flyweight convert Diana Belbita, a former kickboxer with known deficiencies on the ground. There is also the matter of these two already having fought, with McCann absolutely beating the brakes off of “The Warrior Princess” four years ago to the tune of unanimous 30-26 scorecards. It is a fairly obvious bounce-back fight for McCann, and it is the kind of matchup the UFC should have put her into right out of the Carolina and Goldy fights, though it would, of course, still be better in England. However, McCann still needs to step in there and get her hand raised because, entertaining or not, losing three straight bouts across two weight divisions would leave the promotion with few alternatives to keep the fun going.

Stay Focused, Randy Brown

Brown’s matchup with Muslim Salikhov on the “UFC Vegas 85” main card is a perfect example of how the same fight can have different stakes, depending on where you stand. For us fans, of course, it is a win-win: yet another pairing from the seemingly endless well of welterweight action fighters, with the added spice that both men are borderline Top 15 fighters. For the participants, things are a little murkier. Salikhov has been a fun addition to the UFC. Arriving in 2017 as a 33-year-old rookie who called himself the “King of Kung Fu” only to get choked out by Alex Garcia in his debut, he overcame that inauspicious start to make himself into a reliably entertaining fighter and fringe contender. However, with his 40th birthday looming in June, Salikhov seems to be slowing just a tick, and even if he weren't, the climb to a title shot in the UFC 170-pound division is simply too long to be feasible. Realistic goals for the Dagestani dervish at this point are to win enough fights to stick around for a couple more years, rack up some more bonus checks, and play the role of spoiler whenever possible.

On that last point, Brown has come a long way from the days when he was one of the most spoiler-susceptible fighters in the division. Since his shocking and frankly ridiculous-looking KO loss to Niko Price in 2018, he has gone 7-2 and has lost only to Top 10 fighters Vicente Luque and Jack Della Maddalena. In other words, fighters who could beat Brown, rather than wait for him to find a way to lose.

As 2024 dawns, the lanky Jamaican is fighting better than ever before, reining in the worst of his reckless tendencies while remaining unafraid to take advantage of his stupendous physical tools, and despite being 33 himself, he still gives the impression of being a work in progress. “Rude Boy” remains a potential future title contender at 170 if he continues to improve, and putting in a measured performance against the dangerous Salikhov would be an excellent next step. On the other hand, a loss would push him far enough down the ladder that we might one day be talking about him the way we are today about his opponent.