The UFC 163: Aldo vs. Korean Zombie event is set to take place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on Saturday night and will take place at the HSBC Arena. Jose Aldo will look to defend his UFC featherweight title against the Korean Zombie in the main event.
The UFC 163 event will get underway on the Facebook at 5:30 p.m. ET, and the preliminary fights will transition to the FX channel at 8 p.m. ET. The PPV portion of the card will air in the usual time slot of 10 p.m. ET.
Let’s take a look at the top five questions heading into the UFC 163 event:
Will the UFC 163 event top the 200,000 PPV buyrate?
Jose Aldo isn’t a huge PPV draw averaging around 280,ooo PPV between his two headlining fights at UFC 142 and UFC 156. The latter was a high profile fight against former UFC lightweight champion Frankie Edgar. The UFC 163 event has been plagued with injuries and is relatively weak on paper. The co-main event doesn’t feature any big names with former champion Lyoto Machida and Phil Davis. So if the event can surpass the 200K threshold, it would have to be considered a success.
Will Phil Davis progress up the UFC light heavyweight ladder with a win over Lyoto Machida?
Davis is a sizable underdog according to oddsmakers at +275. A win over Machida would certainly boost his stock and probably get him within one or two fights of getting a title shot. He showed excellent improvement in his striking in his last bout against Vinny Magalhaes. However, he’ll need to go to his bread and butter wrestling for his best chance at defeating Machida. The division is in dire need of new contenders since Jon Jones has pretty much cleaned out the division(he has already beaten Machida).
Can John Lineker establish himself as a legit contender in the UFC flyweight division with a win over Jose Tome?
The UFC flyweight division is similar to the light heavyweight division in that the champion has ran through most of the contenders. Demetrious Johnson defeated a few of the contenders prior to becoming champion and has already defended the title twice in the past seven months. Lineker is (2-1) in the UFC and has won 15 of his last 16 bouts after going 6-5 in his first 11 fights. Tome (33-3) has rattled off 16 wins since his last loss in 2008, and will be making his UFC debut on Saturday night in his native Brazil. Tome isn’t known by casual fans, but a win here would be huge for Lineker as he looks to move up the division.
Will the women’s MMA fight between Amanda Nunes and Sheila Gaff steal the show on Saturday night?
Nunes will be making her UFC debut on Saturday night. Nunes has won six of her seven fights via TKO/KO, and Gaff has finished all 10 of her opponents in her 10 career wins. Gaff made her UFC debut at UFC 159, taking on Sara McMann and losing via first round TKO. Both fighters are coming off losses and will be lookign to put themselves on the map in the women’s bantamweight division.
Can Ian McCall finally get a win in the UFC after going (0-2-1) in his last three fights?
McCall is one of the best flyweights in the world, but you wouldn’t know it just by looking at his record, in fact, he’s yet to officially win a fight in the UFC after debuting in March 2012. However, McCall’s three fights are against the current champion Demetrious Johnson(twice), and former number one contender Joesph Benavidez. He’ll be taking on the relatively unknown Ilarde Santos who has a career record of (27-7-1). Santos lost his UFC debut against Yuri Alcantara at the UFC on FX 8 event. It’s a very important fight for both fighters, but it’s probably a must win bout for McCall.
Be sure to stay tuned to ProMMAnow.com for more UFC 163 news and coverage this week.
I will watch the games on the internet