UFC 216 preview: Ferguson, Lee enter Conor McGregor sweepstakes
Already saddled with the heaviness of this week's tragedy in Las Vegas, Tony Ferguson and Kevin Lee head into UFC 216 further blanketed by Conor McGregor's shadow.
Perhaps more significant than the gold at stake in Saturday's headlining interim lightweight title bout is the winning ticket in what can only be dubbed the McGregor sweepstakes. While interim champions are traditionally crowned for a unification fight opposite the undisputed king, the truth is the Irishman will remain attached to rival Nate Diaz until they meet in a rubber match and may very well be dangling the winner of Ferguson vs. Lee as a bargaining chip to lure his greatest rival off the couch.
Related: McGregor weighing Ferguson-Lee winner, other options for next move
The reigning lightweight champ's near-Machiavellian interest aside, UFC 216's main event is as intriguing a matchup as they come in the perpetually talent-rich division, as Ferguson and Lee head to T-Mobile Arena with lengthy win streaks and no shortage of genuine mutual disdain.
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The clash of Grand Valley State wrestling alumni practically booked itself. Ferguson and Lee got into it on live television moments after the latter's tapout victory over Michael Chiesa at UFC Fight Night 112 in June, and although "El Cucuy" repeatedly told the ever boisterous Lee he wasn't ready to meet the boogeyman, pen met paper for the culmination of a budding rivalry not two months later - a booking expedited by top contender Khabib Nurmagomedov's current state of limbo.
Related: Lee makes weight on 2nd attempt; title fight official for UFC 216
Ferguson, 33, fully expects to unify the title against McGregor should he pick up his 10th straight victory at Lee's expense, while the surging 25-year-old - a winner of five straight himself - has already belittled the reigning lightweight champ as the first challenger to a throne he aims to claim at T-Mobile Arena.
Related - Lee: UFC 216 bout vs. Ferguson is for 'the real lightweight championship'
Whatever fate awaits after Saturday, take comfort in the certainty of fireworks courtesy of two contenders looking to get theirs.
Will Saturday be the day?
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For five years, the flyweight song has been the same: line them up, and Demetrious Johnson will knock them down.
The 31-year-old has sung that ditty 10 times and will look to move into sole possession of the UFC's title defense record - one he shares with Anderson Silva - when he takes on Ray Borg in Saturday's co-main event.
Johnson's second chance at making history comes less than a month after Borg suffered an illness that scrapped their date at UFC 215 just a few days prior, and while fans and pundits alike have been quick to call for a return to bantamweight next, the indomitable champ appears content to further entrench himself in the flyweight history books, having already found his next challenger in the winner of a December bout between Sergio Pettis and Henry Cejudo.
Borg, of course, has other plans.
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Twenty months ago, the notion of a talented yet still developing Borg - who'd just lost to Justin Scoggins - sharing a cage with Johnson seemed as plausible as Steve Bartman making it through a ball game at Wrigley Field without incident (OK, maybe a little more plausible). By the time Johnson elbowed in on Silva's historical turf with his April tapout of Wilson Reis, though, the Jackson's MMA product had dispatched veritable wild man Louis Smolka and crafty divisional fixture Jussier Formiga, recording two straight sweeps of the scorecards at UFC 207 and UFC Fight Night 106, respectively.
Borg will now aim to strip the king of his air of infallibility and, in just his eighth walk to the Octagon, prove he's no flash in the pan. In fact, the 24-year-old all but guarantees he'll do so by third-round submission, Johnson's method of victory in his record-tying title defense against Reis.
Gone hunting
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Derrick Lewis isn't exactly easing his way out of retirement.
Not four months after announcing his fourth-round TKO loss to Mark Hunt would probably be his last fight, "the Black Beast" finds himself 24 hours away from arguably his greatest test yet in former heavyweight champion Fabricio Werdum.
Saturday's fight comes on the heels of some much-needed downtime from swangin' and bangin', as the defeat he suffered at Hunt's hands halted a six-fight win streak accrued over just 16 months, and Werdum isn't the dance partner one faces on a quick turnaround.
What he lacks in one-punch knockout power, the Brazilian makes up for in versatility, having made great strides in his striking over the second act of his career to complement a long-deadly ground game. The 40-year-old Werdum has alternated wins and losses over his last four, and will look to rebound from a razor-close majority decision loss in his rubber match with Alistair Overeem at UFC 213 - a fight he'd hoped would get him back into title contention.