#ufc236

Max Holloway vs Brian Ortega

UFC featherweight champion Max Holloway (20-3) is finally healthy. After spending most of 2018 suffering from several different types of injuries and sicknesses (and poisoning?), Blessed appeared to be as close to 100% as a fighter can be expected to be when he put on an all time great title defense against Brian Ortega in December.

Now, with Khabib suspended and Tony Ferguson suffering from personal issues, Holloway finds himself looking to become the #1 contender at lightweight. To do so he will have to go through the man who beat him in his UFC debut, Dustin Poirier (24-5). The two will face off in the main event of UFC 236 for the interim UFC Lightweight title this Saturday (April 13).

Israel Adesanya vs Anderson Silva

Strangely, there were a lot of people down on Israel Adesanya (16-0) following his performance against Anderson Silva. From what I can parse, a lot of folks thought Adesanya was going to run through Silva inside of a round like Al Iaquinta-Diego Sanchez. And while I think coming out the guy who landed at a 2:1 clip in significant strikes in a fight between two non-volume throwing strikers is pretty dominant, I understand their frustrations with his performance. Thing is though, Adesanya is a kickboxer (I don’t just mean his pedigree). He fights at a really relaxed pace, very give and take. It’s a type of pace you’re familiar with if you watch a lot of kickboxing (particularly Glory’s middleweight division). Unless you pull a Derek Brunson, he’s probably not going to destroy your life. He prefers to snipe.