UFC ON ESPN+ 91 Preview
The UFC will be returning to the Apex in Las Vegas, Nevada on Saturday, December 9th for UFC on ESPN+ 91. The main event will be in the bantamweight division between #7 Song Yadong and #14 Chris Gutierrez. The event was supposed to be the UFC’s second visit to Shanghai, China, but the event was moved in November for undisclosed reasons.
Yadong is coming off a fifth round TKO over Ricky Simon in April for one of the better fights in 2023. The win was a big rebound after losing a fourth round TKO to Corey Sandhagen in 2022. The 26-year-old is 4-2 in his last six fights and is one win away from once again entering the title conversation at 135 pounds.
The Chinese fighter is confident heading into this fight with Gutierrez. “My last fight actually was kind of easy,” Song said. “I have some parts I have to work on, some details to make me feel great. I have more five-round experience. That made me feel more confident for this one.”
Yadong believes the fight will be an interesting stylistic matchup. “I think Chris is in a similar situation to me,” he said. “I think he will get nervous in the first round. It will change his style in this fight, I think.”
He respects Gutierrez, but does not feel he has the skills to defeat him. “Chris, he's a nice guy. He doesn’t talk s**t, but his skill is nothing special,” Song said. “He just kicks. Not like me. I’m well-rounded.”
Yadong knows he needs to keep winning and succinctly stated, “(I want to) be the champion,” he said. “That’s it.”
Aside from Simon, Yadong has key victories over Marlon Moraes, Julio Arce, Casey Kenney, and Marlon Vera. The fight with Sandhagen was definitely a title contender showcase, so Yadong will need to keep winning to remind everyone why he was ever mentioned in that conversation.
Gutierrez is also coming off a win to rebound from a loss. He most recently defeated Alateng Heili by unanimous decision in October. The 32-year-old is 8-1-1 in his last 10 fights with the only loss coming to long-time title contender Pedro Munhoz in April.
The Texas native is competing in his third fight in 2023 and is fighting in the first main evet of his career. How does he feel heading into his first headliner? "It's unchartered territory, for sure, because not many people get to do this," he said.
"It's a scary feeling almost in a way, but I know I'm here for a reason."
He continued with a realistic outlook on this opportunity. "I've seen people come and go in this fight game. And this fight game in general is so short. Within that time frame you've got to do as much as you can.
"One day you're here, the next you're not. One day you're fighting, the next you're not.
"I don't take it for granted. For me to be here as long as I have is a blessing.
"I try to be present where my feet are every day, and enjoy."
Gutierrez has a win over UFC legend Frankie Edgar, but Yadong represents the biggest win of his career and his arrival as a title contender at bantamweight. He is not a guy known for a calling out fighters, but with a victory he will be asked who he wants to fight in the top 5 of the rankings.
The co-main event of the night will be in the light heavyweight division between former title challenger #8 Anthony Smith and #11 Khalil Rountree Jr.
Smith is coming off a split decision victory over Ryan Spann in August, putting an end to his two-fight skid. Since fighting for the title in 2019, Smith is 5-4. The 35-year-old has been one of the busiest fighters in the UFC over the last five years and he has taken another fight on short notice inn facing Rountree.
He commented on competing in another short notice fight. “They wanted me to fight him in Austin, but there were like six days or something like that,” Smith said. “It was really short notice. I said I would take the fight but I couldn’t make 205 that fast. So I asked for a catchweight.
“Everyone was good with the catchweight, but Dana (White) isn’t a huge fan of catchweights. So he asked if I would make 205 this weekend, so he gave me an extra weekend to make the weight class. I said yeah.”
Does Smith think this fight is higher risk than reward once again fighting someone lower than him in the rankings? “The rankings are for people on Twitter and you guys,” Smith said. “We don’t really pay attention to that too much. To be honest, the UFC doesn’t really pay that much attention to it either. Rankings are like a marketing machine. It’s really easy to make people care about something more when there are numbers next to their names.
“The UFC understands how tough of a position I put myself in and how hard it is to come in on short notice and beat a guy like Khalil. And it’s even harder to look good doing it. So if you come in and you put yourself in these precarious positions and do hard things, I think you get rewarded for that.”
Smith made it clear why he wanted this fight. “I like doing crazy sh*t,” Smith said. “Taking a fight with Khalil Rountree on like 10 days’ notice is pretty crazy.”
Rountree has won four straight fights and most recently defeated former heavyweight title contender Chris Daukaus in August by first round TKO. The 33-year-old has been fighting in the UFC since 2016 and will be fighting his biggest fight on Saturday. With a win, he can solidify his place as a title contender in the light heavyweight division.
The former Ultimate Fighter finalist has a positive approach heading into the most important fight of his UFC career. “No matter what I did yesterday, I’m alive today and it’s just another day for me to just be better,” said Rountree Jr., explaining his approach to things as he readies for Saturday’s co-main event clash with Anthony Smith. “I can’t get hung up on what I did yesterday or last week or last month —it’s gone; it’s in the past.”
He continued, “This year has been a big year of growth for me,” following his fourth straight victory. “I changed my lifestyle. I moved back to Vegas, I made this a full-time thing, and with that adjustment and embracing this new lifestyle and mindset, I started to realize s*** happens and a lot of s*** happens that is out of my control.”
“Nothing is ever going to be perfect and lined up how I want it to look, and the only thing I can do is work hard,” he continued, laughing at the simple truth that is often difficult to accept. “Going through points where it’s like, ‘All right, I’m working hard’ only to get humbled by my coach where he’s like, ‘Sure, you worked hard yesterday, but today is still a brand new day.’
“I haven’t been able to sit down and be comfortable at all. This whole year has been non-stop work.”
Rountree was unphased by a location and opponent change for this fight. “(The people in my circle) say things to put it into perspective — ‘you’re fighting up, co-main, you don’t have to travel’ — and I’m like, ‘yeah, it’s all good,’ but it’s just another week of training and I know what that looks like — it’s f****** hard.
"I’m gonna do the same thing — show up, do my best, put on my best performance — but after that, there is still no break because I know something is going to come right after that, because that’s how things have been.”
The Rest of the Main Card:
Bantamweight - Tim Elliott vs. Su Mudaerji
Lightweight - Nasrat Haqparast vs. Jamie Mullarkey
Middleweight - Park Jun-yong vs. André Muniz
Welterweight - Song Kenan vs. Kevin Jousset
Prelims on ESPN+:
Flyweight - Park Hyun-sung vs. Shannon Ross
Lightweight - Steve Garcia vs. Melquizael Costa
Women's Bantamweight - Luana Santos vs. Stephanie Egger
Flyweight - Tatsuro Taira vs. Carlos Hernandez
Women's Strawweight - Rayanne dos Santos vs. Talita Alencar
