UFC 273 Preview
The UFC will be returning to Jacksonville, Florida at the Vystar Veterans Memorial Arena on Saturday April 9th for UFC 273. The card will feature two title fights with the headliner being for the featherweight title between champion Alexander Volkanovski and #4 Chan Sung Jung.
Volkanovski is coming off a dominant unanimous decision victory over Brian Ortega at UFC 266 in September. The win was his second successful title defense, 10th straight in the UFC, and 20th straight victory overall. The 33-year-old has made his mark as one of the greatest welterweights of all time during his previous streak and has proven he is as tough as any fighter in the UFC. He was on the verge of being submitted to sleep twice by Ortega but showed great heart to escape and reverse the positions and finish the rounds strong.
Volkanovski was originally scheduled for a third fight at UFC 273 with former champion Max Holloway but the challenger was forced to withdraw due to injury. The champion defeated Holloway by unanimous decision and split decision in two straight fights to win in 2019 and defend the title in 2020. Several questions remained after both fights, and it is fair to assume that if Volkanovski wins on Saturday he will be scheduled with Holloway for a fourth time.
The Australian does not like to overlook any opponent and considers anyone in the division a threat to his title. “I like to put these guys I’m fighting on a pedestal. No matter who is in front of me, I’m going to give them that respect. To expect them to be on their A-game. Then if I’m studying them and preparing for the best version of them, I know I’m going to crumble them,” said Volkanovski.
The champion respects his latest challenger Jung who is better known at The Korean Zombie. “I can’t wait to hear him walking out to the song ‘Zombie’ – it’s iconic. His style is exciting and he has that nickname for a reason. He walks forward and looks for the counter shots. And he’s been improving, showing a heap of different skills. All of these guys are improving, but I am, too.”
Aside from Holloway and Ortega, Volkanovski has key victories in his career over Jose Aldo, Chad Mendes and Darren Elkins. His only loss came in 2013 and that was at welterweight, but he will be looking for his first finish since 2018 where he defeated Mendes by second round TKO in a fight of the night.
Jung is coming off his unanimous decision victory over Dan Ige in June which was a big rebound after losing to Ortega in October of 2020 in a title eliminator fight. The 35-year-old finds himself challenging for the featherweight title for the second time, this nine years after challenging Jose Aldo where he lost by fourth round TKO.
The South Korean is considered an all-time great of the sport and is trying to prove he has one last legendary performance in him. He has key victories over Frankie Edgar, Renato Moicano, Dennis Bermudez, Dustin Poirier, Mark Hominick and Leonard Garcia.
As for Volkanovksi, many people in the MMA community are saying if he wins on Saturday he will be the featherweight GOAT. He believes otherwise,
“I believe I’ve still got more work to do,” Volkanovski told MMA Junkie and other reporters at UFC 273 media day. “I give Aldo the respect. To be champion for as long as he was is incredible. No matter – the opposition that I’m facing with guys like himself and Max, I think I’m fighting absolute killers. It’s pretty clear. But at the same time, to be champion that long, there’s going to be days you don’t show up, injuries, bad weight cuts – we’ve all done it. It’s a nightmare to not be on a day you’ve got to defend your belt. And for him to be for so long, it’s saying something.”
The co-main event of the evening will be a rematch for the bantamweight title between champion Aljamain Sterling and former champion Petr Yan. The two fought at UFC 259 last March and Sterling won the belt after Yan was disqualified for an illegal knee. Prior to the knee many pundits believe Yan was easily winning the fight and those same pundits believed Sterling could have continued to battle but chose not to. After injurues, surgeries, and a back and forth on Twitter; The two fighters will finally get to settle the score on Saturday.
Sterling was on a five-fight winning streak heading into the championship bout with Yan having impressive victories over Corey Sandhagen, Pedro Munhoz, Jimmie Rivera and Cody Stamann. His chance to prove that he is the real champion has been delayed up to this point due to a frustrating recovery from neck surgery. Despite his frustrations he feels stronger than ever now heading into the rematch with Yan.
“I feel like a machine right now. I am a certified weapon right now and ready for battle,” Sterling said. “I can’t wait to go out there and unleash these tools and put a beatdown on this guy that he’s been deserving for well over a year,” said Sterling.
The 32-year-old went on to say, “When they lock that door he’s gonna get Will Smith’d and after that it’s gonna be a lot worse than that, it’s gonna be a beatdown,” Sterling added. “This guy, he’s tough, he’s good. You can look at the stats from the last fight and those are all to me fake news. He’s gonna feel pressure like he’s never felt before and this time when I take him down, he ain’t getting up.”
Sterling landed more significant strikes before the disqualification, but he was taken down seven times while being 1 of 17 on his own takedown attempts. Yan was able to dictate the pace and pushed Sterling around. The champion will need to find an effective counter to Yan’s pressure and control if he wants to hang on to the belt.
Yan is coming off of a unanimous decision win over Corey Sandhagen at UFC 267 in October, winning the interim bantamweight championship. Prior to the DQ loss to Sterling, Yan had won 10 straight and claimed the vacant bantamweight belt over Jose Aldo at UFC 251 in the process.
Yan is ready to put all of the trash talk behind him and once again be crowned the bantamweight champion. “Just imagine, he’s tired of thinking about me, and I didn’t even think about him at all, said the interim champion. “He had this long layoff; I had a different opponent. I fought, and now he’s my next target that I’m gonna beat up. After the fight Saturday night, everybody is gonna forget about him. That clown will be forgotten
Yan went on to say, “I think he [won’t] be able to do it; I think he wouldn’t be able to take me down. The stuff he said, it’s just gonna stay in his head, it’s gonna stay his dream. He’s a clown. Everything he has to do is just talk, and after the fight, if he comes to your show, all that’s gonna be left is for him to talk.”
As far as the disqualification, it is a distant memory to the former champion. “I want to make sure there won’t be no questions left after this and I will make sure there will be no questions left,” Yan said. “We’re gonna see his crying head on your TV again.”
Aside from Sandhagen and Aldo, Yan has keys wins over hall of famer Urijah Faber, Jimmie Rivera and John Dodson. The 29-year-old proved he could win a back and forth battle in his fight with Sandhagen and if he takes that same sort of fight to Sterling, we could once again see Yan crowned champion.
Also on the main card is a fight in the welterweight division with interesting title implications as #2 Gilbert Burns will face the UFC hype machine #11 Khamzat Chimaev.
Burns is coming off of his unanimous decision win over two-time title challenger Stephen Thompson. The win was a big rebound after he himself challenged for the title at UFC 258, losing by third round TKO to Kamaru Usman.
The Brazilian has won six of his last seven fights and with a win on Saturday could be at the head of the line of title challengers at welterweight. Usman is being targeted for a rematch with Leon Edwards in July, but if Burns wins on Saturday he could be next in line to face the winner of that fight.
Aside from Thompson, Burns has key victories in his career over former champion Tyron Woodley, former two-time title challenger Demian Maia, and Gunnar Nelson.
Chimaev is the most hyped fighter of the moment. The 27-year-old is 4-0 in the UFC and most recently defeated Li Jinliang at UFC 267 by first round submission in October. Chimaev took the MMA world by storm when he won his first two fights in the UFC in dominating fashion in just 10 days.
Burns will be a different level of competition for the Russian fighter but should he win, he could leapfrog the rest of the welterweight division and be next to face the winner of Usman and Edwards.
The rest of the main card:
Women's Strawweight - #5 Mackenzie Dern vs. #7 Tecia Torres
Lightweight - Vinc Pichel vs. Mark Madsen
ESPN + Prelims:
Welterweight - Ian Garry vs Darian Weeks
Heavyweight - #8 Jairzinho Rozenstruik vs #10 Marcin Tybura
Women’s Bantamweight - #4 Aspen Lass vs #7 Raquel Pennington
Welterweight - Mickey Gall vs Mike Mallet
ESPN+/ UFC Fight Pass Early Prelims:
Heavyweight - Alexey Oleynik vs Jared Vanderaa
Middleweight - Anthony Hernadez vs Josh Fremd
Women’s Strawweight - Piera Rodriguez vs Kay Hansen
Bantamweight - Julio Are vs Daniel Santos
