The main event features featherweight champion Conor McGregor moving up to welterweight to battle former lightweight title challenger Nate Diaz. The co-main event features Holly Holm coming off her knockout win over Ronda Rousey at UFC 193. Holm will make her first defense of the women’s bantamweight championship when she faces former Strikeforce champion and UFC title challenger Miesha Tate.
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McGregor was scheduled to battle lightweight champion Rafael dos Anjos. But dos Anjos dropped out 10 days ago because of a broken foot.
UFC officials asked several fighters to step in but went with Diaz, who is coming off a dominating performance over top-ranked lightweight Michael Johnson in December.
Also: No. 12-ranked light heavyweight Corey Anderson will face Tom Lawler; and in a battle of top-10 women’s bantamweights, No. 4 Amanda Nunes faces No. 10 Valentina Shevchenko.
TV coverage begins on UFC Fight Pass at 6:30 ET and then switches to Fox Sports 1 at 8 p.m. ET. The main card begins on pay-per-view at 10 p.m. ET.
Here are the five biggest reasons to watch UFC 196.
- Mystic Mac returns. Ireland’s McGregor keeps doing things other high-profile fighters are reluctant to do. Who keeps taking short-notice fights knowing the risks?
McGregor knows one way — forward. He is something we have never seen before. He knows how to sell a fight, doesn’t care what the public thinks and at the end of the day, goes out to the Octagon and takes care of business. Can he do it one more time?
The Stockton bad boy gets the fight he wants. Diaz, younger of two MMA brothers, has been telling the world he wants big fights. He gets the sports’ hottest attraction. Diaz had one of the best fights in his career against Johnson. He called out McGregor after that fight, and now he will get what he believes he deserves.
The Rousey destroyer returns. After Holm knocked out Ronda Rousey, UFC president Dana White said he should lose his promoters license if he didn’t book a rematch. But Rousey said recently she wouldn’t fight again until year’s end.
Holm said she didn’t want to wait that long to fight and so Tate was put in. Now Holm faces a fighter who is more well-rounded than Rousey. Tate has better wrestling skills, and her striking is much improved.
We should get a better fight than what we saw in November. And the winner will most likely face Rousey next.
- Lawlor seeking respect. “Filthy” has a chip on his shoulder. He voiced his displeasure with not being in the new EA Sports UFC game even though he has been in the UFC more than seven years.
Lawlor faces Anderson in the second bout on the main card even though he knocked out Gian Villante in July. If he beats Anderson, Lawlor will demand better attention.
- Survivor. Diego Sanchez returns to headline the Fight Pass prelims against Jim Miller in a lightweight bout. Sanchez is the last UFC fighter from the first season of The Ultimate Fighter.
For his previous fight, Sanchez went to down to 145 pounds and got dominated by Ricardo Lamas in November. He’s back to 155 pounds and trying to make one more run at gold. If he loses on Saturday night, it could be the end of “The Dream.”
Steven Muehlhausen is an MMA and boxing writer and contributor for Sporting News. You can find his podcast, The Fight Club Chicago, and subscribe on iTunes, Soundcloud, Stitcher and You Tube. You can email him at [email protected] and can find him on Twitter @SMuehlhausenMMA.
