The month that MMA fans have been waiting for is finally upon us. In less than 24 hours, the clock will strike midnight, the calendar will change to January 2015, and MMA fans will begin their final build of anticipation towards four major events scheduled across the next 31 days.
First up is this Saturday’s highly-anticipated event, UFC 182: Jones vs. Cormier. After that we’ve got UFC Fight Night 59 with Conor McGregor vs. Dennis Siver on January 18th, UFC On FOX 14 with Alexander Gustafsson vs. Anthony Johnson on January 24th and UFC 183 with Anderson Silva vs. Nick Diaz on January 31st.
Four massive events, all in one month’s time.
It’s once again great to be an MMA fan!
After a horrendous 2014 year that saw many of the biggest events either cancelled altogether, or simply losing out on one or more key fights, generally the title fights and main events, it’s good to know that we’ve got a lot on the horizon.
Unless something crazy happens, we’ve got Jones vs. Cormier, arguably the biggest fight on the upcoming calendar, safe and in tact.
From there, your guess is as good as mine.
In the first bad sign of the new year, Dominick Cruz went down with another ACL injury, forcing him to sit on the sidelines for what will likely be the entire year of 2015.
As a result, the first major fight, and title fight, is scrapped. Cruz vs. TJ Dillashaw was expected in a showdown of the former UFC Bantamweight Champion who never lost his title, taking on the current champ.
Will that be the only fight we lose this year? Obviously not. Injuries are a part of the game. They are unavoidable. All we can hope is that the top-tier, marquee matches remain on the schedule and play out when and where they are supposed to.
As a fan, it’s the most exciting 31-day stretch in recent memory. Just take a look at some of the fights we’ve got coming in the next month alone…
UFC 182:
– Jon Jones vs. Daniel Cormier
– Donald Cerrone vs. Myles Jury
– Hector Lombard vs. Josh Burkman
UFC Fight Night 59:
– Conor McGregor vs. Dennis Siver
– Benson Henderson vs. Eddie Alvarez
UFC On FOX 14:
– Alexander Gustafsson vs. Anthony Johnson
– Dan Henderson vs. Gegard Mousasi
– Phil Davis vs. Ryan Bader
UFC 183:
– Anderson Silva vs. Nick Diaz
– Tyron Woodley vs. Kelvin Gastelum
– Miesha Tate vs. Sara McMann
That’s all coming down the pike in January alone. Let’s hope we don’t see any “breaking news” alerts regarding injuries anytime in the near future, as if the rest of 2015 is anything like the upcoming month of January that we’ve got in store, it’s going to be a very happy new year to say the least!
Make sure to check out MMANews.com this Saturday for coverage of the UFC 182 pay-per-view!
Talk about this on our official FACEBOOK page, or on our official TWITTER page. You can also talk about it in our popular FORUMS.
