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10 reasons to watch UFC Fight Night 133, a sneaky good (and deep) Boise debut

(This story was originally published on July 13, 2018.)

The UFC heads to Idaho for the first time in the history of the promotion for tonight’s UFC Fight Night 133 fight card.

This event might not pack the in-your-face punch of the recent UFC 226 event, it does kind of sneak up on you and cuff you on the back of the head.

In the main event, ex-UFC heavyweight champ Junior Dos Santos looks to get back in the win column when he meets former WSOF heavyweight kingpin Blagoy Ivanov, who makes his UFC debut.

In the co-headliner, Sage Northcutt heads back up to welterweight in the hope of getting his first win at 170 pounds. He meets Zak Ottow.

The card also features a trio of crucial women’s matchups, one of which includes the anticipated debut of former Invicta FC flyweight champion Jennifer Maia.

Speaking of debuts, the cousin of UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov also makes his first UFC appearance on this card.

UFC Fight Night 133 takes place at CenturyLink Arena in Boise and airs on FS1 following early prelims on UFC Fight Pass.

Here are 10 reasons to watch the event.

1. It’s time for your audition, good sirs

The UFC’s heavyweight division entered a new stage when Daniel Cormier knocked out Stipe Miocic to become the division’s champion. OK, that’s not entirely true; things didn’t change until Cormier called out ex-champ Brock Lesnar after that fight. That’s when the holding pattern began for every heavyweight fighting under the UFC banner.

It’s almost guaranteed that Cormier’s first – and maybe only, after all, he does plan on retiring in March 2019, heavyweight title defense – won’t take place until January at the earliest. With that, all ranked heavyweight contenders found out that they are effectively fighting for a potential title fight in the spring or summer of 2019.

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The first two fighters to audition are ex-UFC champ Dos Santos (18-5 MMA, 12-4 UFC) and former WSOF kingpin Ivanov (16-1 MMA, 0-0 UFC). Dos Santos, who is currently No. 10 in the USA TODAY Sports/MMAjunkie MMA heavyweight rankings, is coming off a TKO loss to then-champ Miocic in May 2017. Dos Santos will be anxious to get his first win since he earned a decision win over Ben Rothwell in April 2016 as well as shake off the rust he accumulated during a six-month USADA suspension.

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Ivanov, who is ranked No. 13 in the division, makes his promotional debut. The man who famously defeated Fedor Emelianenko during the 2008 World Sambo Championships is on a five-fight winning streak. The only blemish on Ivanov’s record is a 2014 submission loss to Alexander Volkov, who is currently ranked No. 4 at heavyweight.

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2. Looking for a win

Northcutt has participated in two welterweight fights during his UFC career. Those bouts are the only two losses on his professional record. Both ended with Northcutt on the wrong end of a second-round submission.

Despite his struggles at 170 pounds and the fact that he is on a two-fight winning streak at lightweight, Northcutt (10-2 MMA, 5-2 UFC) fights Ottow (16-5 MMA, 3-2 UFC) at welterweight in Boise.

This would be a risky fight for Northcutt even if Ottow weren’t coming off the biggest win of his career, but he is. Ottow, who has nearly twice the experience of his opponent, knocked out Mike Pyle at UFC 222 in March. Ottow successfully employed a very aggressive style in earning his first knockout victory in more than three years.

The move to welterweight is a bit of a surprise for Northcutt. After his most recent fight, a decision win over Thibault Gouti in February, it sounded like he was going to stick with lightweight.

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“Going into 155 (pounds), the last few pounds are pretty tough for me, but I feel like I’m one of the bigger, stronger 155 (pounders),” he told MMAjunkie. “So that’s good. I feel like 155 is my weight class for now. In the future, if I grow three inches taller, if I do, and get a few more inches on my arm length and my leg length like my brother, for instance, then I can fight back up at 170.”

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3. Change of direction

It wasn’t that long ago that Dennis Bermudez was mapping his route to a featherweight title shot. After his UFC Fight Night 92 win over Rony Jason, Bermudez called out former lightweight champion Frankie Edgar.

“The reason why I’m here in the UFC is to be a champion,” Bermudez told MMAjunkie. “It’s not to make money, it’s not to be famous, and it’s to be the champion. A win over Frankie Edgar puts me right where I want to be for a title shot.”

Bermudez, who was the No. 12-ranked featherweight at that time, did not land that fight. Instead, the UFC booked him against Chan Sung Jung in the main event of UFC Fight Night 104. Jung knocked out Bermudez in the first round. Since then, Bermudez has dropped two close split decisions. Now unranked at 145 pounds, Bermudez (16-8 MMA, 9-6 UFC) faces Rick Glenn (20-5-1 MMA, 2-2 UFC) in what could be a fight for Bermudez’s UFC life.

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Glenn, the former WSOF featherweight champion, saw his two-fight winning streak end in December when he dropped a decision to Myles Jury.

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4. Three rounds? No thanks

Niko Price is 13 fights into a career where he’s gone the distance once. To hear Price (11-1 MMA, 3-1 UFC) tell it, he’s none too anxious to see his welterweight bout against Randy Brown (10-2 MMA, 4-2 UFC) go the full 15 minutes in Boise.

“One of us is going to sleep,” Price told MMAjunkie. “I’m going in there swinging, and I’m going to do it hard.”

Judging by Brown’s record, he’s also going to come out looking to wrap things up pretty quickly. He has five knockout wins on his resume.

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Where this fight might get interesting is if Price decides that striking is not working out for him. Price has two UFC victories via submission, including his most recent win, a second-round stoppage of George Sullivan. Brown’s most recent fight ended with a unanimous-decision victory over Mickey Gall.

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5. Back at it

Former two-time UFC featherweight title challenger Chad Mendes (17-4 MMA, 8-4 UFC) returns to action for the first time since December 2015. He faces Jury (17-4 MMA, 8-4 UFC) in Boise.

Mendes received a two-year suspension from USADA after he tested positive for GHRP-6 during an out-of-competition drug test in May 2016. At the time of his suspension, Mendes was ranked No. 5 in the 145-pound division. He no longer appears in the rankings due to two years of inactivity. Mendes is coming off knockout losses to Conor McGregor and Frankie Edgar in his two most recent fights.

Jury opened his career on a 15-0 run, but he dropped both of his matchups in 2015. After those losses, Jury did not fight again until April 2017, when he earned a TKO victory over Mike De La Torre. He followed that with a decision win over Glenn.

After his win over Glenn, Jury explained his outlook on fighting.

“Of course I want gold. I want the belt. I want the money. I want all that stuff,” Jury said. “But everybody wants that, and I can’t focus on that. That (expletive) is going to come as a byproduct of me training, taking fights, me serving the UFC, me serving the fans. When I serve the people in my company, that’s when money and everything comes back to me.”

Currently unranked, Jury has some work to do to get in the title picture. A win over Mendes won’t put him directly in line for a title shot, but a victory over a perennial contender, even one who has been out of the picture for a long time, will give him a lot of buzz.

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As for Mendes, this is an excellent test to see how the time away has treated the former title challenger who, at 33, still has plenty of time to get back in the title picture.

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Be sure to visit the MMA Junkie Instagram page and YouTube channel to discuss this and more content with fans of mixed martial arts.

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