Jan Blachowicz with the UFC light heavyweight belt. (imago Images)
UFC 259 is poised to be one of the best fight nights in the history of the sport. Three UFC championships will be on the line on March 6 when UFC 259 takes place in the APEX in Las Vegas. The main event, a super fight between middleweight champion Israel Adesanya and Jan Blachowicz, headlines the attraction.
We haven’t seen three title fights on the same night since the summer of 2020. With so much hardware up for grabs, let’s take a look at the three megafights that will take place.
Adesanya is the overwhelming favorite among UFC picks for his perfect 20-0 MMA record. He won the interim title at middleweight and has since become the undisputed champion after defending the title on two occasions. He is going to have the largest test to date against a dangerous fighter in Blachowicz.
Blachowicz broke out of the shadows this past September by knocking out Dominick Reyes to capture the vacant 205-pound championship belt. Currently, his winning streak is stretched to four matches. Adesanya bulked up to move up to the 205-pound weight class. If Adesanya can win this bout, he will become the first champion in two weight divisions since Connor McGregor.
Taken from Pixabay
Headlining the co-main event, the greatest woman in MMA history will be looking to secure her legacy in the Octagon. Amanda Nunes will return to defend her featherweight belt against Megan Anderson. Nunes has been a co-champion of two weight divisions for over two years. Nunes won the featherweight title on December 29, 2018, over Cris Cyborg in UFC 232. This will be her second title defense.
Anderson has been on a winning streak since October 2019. She won a fight over Zarah Faim Dos Santos by submission. She followed that with a win over Norma Dumont Vian via knockout. She was scheduled to fight Nunes at UFC 256 but it was announced that Nunes pulled out of the fight due to an undisclosed injury.
The first of the three title fights will be between Petr Yan and Aljamain Sterling. The two will fight for the rights of the bantamweight title. This will be Yan’s first title defense since becoming champion. After Henry Cejudo retired, he vacated the belt. Yan took on Jose Aldo for the vacant belt on July 12, 2020, and won the fight via technical knockout in the fifth round.
In June 2020, president Dana White set up a fight between Sterling and Cory Sandhagen, which was confirmed to be a bantamweight title eliminator. He won the fight via submission in the first round. Sterling has only fought three times in the last two years. In June 2019, Sterling won over Pedro Munhoz via a unanimous decision. In February 2019, he defeated Jimmie Rivera by unanimous decision.