A pair of UFC veterans will attempt to take another step forward in their respective championship pursuits Saturday night as former champion Frankie Edgar and heavyweight legend Alistair Overeem will bring almost 100 fights worth of experience into the Octagon.
Overeem (47-18) will face Alexander Volkov (32-8) in a five-round, heavyweight main event at UFC Fight Night in Las Vegas, while Edgar (24-8-1) will take on rising bantamweight Cory Sandhagen (13-2).
Overeem, 40, has discussed retirement recently, but he is focused on one more run after winning four of his last five. If not for a knockout loss to Jairzinho Rozenstruik with four seconds left in the fight, Overeem would be riding a five-fight win streak. Volkov is 4-1 as the betting favorite, which he’ll be against Overeem.
Edgar, 39, is looking for a title shot in his third different weight class. A former lightweight champ and featherweight contender, Edgar is 1-0 since moving to 135 pounds. It’s possible the winner of this fight will face the winner of the March 6 title fight between champion Petr Yan and Aljamain Sterling.
Marc Raimondi, Brett Okamoto and Jeff Wagenheim recap the action as it happens in Las Vegas. Watch UFC Fight Night now on ESPN+.
Fight in progress:
Light heavyweight: Mike Rodriguez (11-5 1 NC, 2-3 1 NC, -240) vs. Danilo Marques (10-2, 1-0 UFC, +200)
Results:
Catchweight (160 pounds): Devonte Smith (11-2, 3-1 UFC) defeats Justin Jaynes (16-7, 1-3 UFC) via second-round TKO (doctor’s stoppage)
Perfect counter by Osborne!
???#UFCVegas18— Herbert Burns (@HerbertBurnsMMA) February 6, 2021
Recap to come.
Women’s bantamweight: Karol Rosa (14-3, 3-0 UFC) defeats Joselyne Edwards (10-3, 1-1 UFC) by unanimous decision
Rosa did not look like a winner at the final horn, but looks can be deceptive. Her face was a bloody mess, but the 26-year-old from Brazil was in control the whole time in recording her fifth straight victory and remaining unbeaten in the UFC.
Rosa suffered a cut at the right corner of her mouth in the second round during a forward-moving flurry of punches from Edwards. But that was about all the offense that Edwards was able to deliver. Taken down in all three rounds, she spent the latter part of Round 2 and much of Round 3 being bled upon by Rosa and unable to get out from under her.
All three judges scored the bout 30-27 for Rosa.
Edwards, who is 25 and from Panama, saw a two-fight winning streak end.
— Wagenheim
Women’s flyweight: Lara Procopio (7-1, 1-1 UFC) defeats Molly McCann (10-4, 3-3 UFC) by unanimous decision
Brazilian flyweight prospect Lara Procopio picked up an upset victory over Molly McCann as she edged the Liverpudlian on the judges’ scorecards 30-27, 29-27 and 29-28.
Procopio, 25, was simply too much for McMann on the ground. She took her down seven times in the 15-minute contest and racked up nearly 12 minutes of control time, according to UFC Stats. McCann threatened with a surprising armbar attempt from the bottom in the second round, but was otherwise dominated on the mats. Procopio had no trouble taking down McCann with bodylocks and moved in and out of side mount and McCann’s half guard, working offense.
Before I get into it. I left the gloves in the cage for my dad. There’s still fight in this old dog yet. @dc_mma @DominickCruz
— Molly McCann (@MeatballMolly) February 7, 2021
Fighting out of Rio de Janeiro, Procopio is a talented grappler who suffered the first defeat of her professional career to Karol Rosa in her last outing. She picks up her first win in the UFC over McCann and does so as a betting underdog.
McCann, 30, drops to 3-3 in the UFC. She has lost her past two bouts now via unanimous decision, to Procopio and Talia Santos.
— Okamoto
Men’s featherweight: SeungWoo Choi (9-3, 2-2 UFC) vs. Youssef Zalal (10-4, 3-2 UFC) by unanimous decision
After losing his first two UFC fights, SeungWoo Choi has settled in as a legitimate prospect.
Choi defeated Youssef Zalal by unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 30-27) in a battle of up-and-coming featherweights. Choi looked the best he has so far in the UFC.
In the first round, Zalal looked to work his jab, but Choi’s hard combinations worked to nullify much of Zalal’s offense. Zalal resorted to trying to take things to the ground in the first and second rounds, though he was mostly unsuccessful. Choi kept the pressure on in the striking with Zalal constantly on his bike, trying to evade Choi’s hard punches. Zalal’s best round came in the third when he locked in a guillotine and then a triangle choke from the bottom. But Choi, a Muay Thai fighter, survived without getting into too much trouble.
“I did definitely work on my ground game and my takedowns,” Choi said through a translator in his postfight interview. “I put a lot of effort into this. I put everything I had into this fight.”
Choi, 28, has won two straight. The South Korea native is the former Top FC featherweight champion in his home country. Choi cashed as a +200 underdog. Zalal, a 24-year-old Morocco native who trains out of Colorado, has dropped two straight following a four-fight winning streak.
— Raimondi
Men’s featherweight: Timur Valiev (17-2 1NC, 1-0 1 NC UFC) vs. Martin Day (8-6, 0-4 UFC) by unanimous decision
Timur Valiev put on a methodical beatdown, getting takedowns in all three rounds and spending much of the fight’s 15 minutes in top position and never surrendering control. The decision win extended his unbeaten streak to eight straight fights.
For the 31-year-old from Dagestan, who fights out of Toms River, New Jersey, as a teammate of co-main event fighter Frankie Edgar, it was a redemption of sorts. His most recent fight, last August, is listed on his record as a no contest, but it originally was a TKO loss to Trevin Jones. The result was overturned after Jones tested positive for marijuana.
This one got Valiev fully back on track. He was in charge the whole way, delivering damage on the mat and never allowing Martin Day to get going in any way. That was reflected in the judges’ lopsided scoring: 30-25, 30-25 and 30-26.
It was the fourth straight UFC loss for Day, who is 32 and from Kailua, Hawai’i.
— Wagenheim
Men’s bantamweight: Ode’ Osbourne (9-3, 1-1 UFC) defeats Jerome Rivera (10-5, 0-3 UFC) by first-round KO
Ode Osbourne’s first UFC win came in style, as he knocked out Jerome Rivera in just 26 seconds with a piston of a left hand.
Osbourne hung in the pocket as Rivera attempted a head kick and countered with a left hand straight down the middle. The left hand dropped Rivera to the canvas and referee Chris Tognoni quickly moved in as Osbourne landed a handful of follow-up shots. It is Osbourne’s first knockout since 2018 and his first win in the UFC, after he dropped a first-round submission loss to Brian Kelleher in his promotional debut in January 2020.
Devonte Smith looked great tonight. Beautiful win for him. #UFCVegas18
— Cody Durden (@Cody_Durden) February 7, 2021
Osbourne, 29, earned a UFC contract as a contestant on Dana White’s Contender Series in 2019. The bantamweight was born in Jamaica, but now fights out of Wisconsin. He has recorded finishes in all but one of his professional wins.
“During our faceoff, I looked in his eyes and saw he was a little bit timid,” Osbourne said. “You can tell a lot about a person by looking in their eyes.
“I knew I just had to walk him down a bit and be patient. I had to wait for him to do something stupid. That kick, we were so close that he should have never thrown that kick. He wasn’t in kicking range. So I just rolled it, waited for the opportunity and capitalized on it.”
— Okamoto
Fight lineup:
Heavyweight: Alistair Overeem (47-18, 12-7 UFC, +170) vs. Alexander Volkov (32-8, 6-2 UFC, -200)
Men’s bantamweight: Cory Sandhagen (13-2, 6-1 UFC, -410) vs. Frankie Edgar (28-3-1, 18-8-1 UFC, +320)
Lightweight: Michael Johnson (20-16, 11-12 UFC, -220) vs. Clay Guida (35-17, 15-14 UFC, +180)
Men’s flyweight: Alexandre Pantoja (22-5, 6-3 UFC, -115) vs. Manel Kape (15-4, 0-0 UFC, -105)
Lightweight: Diego Ferreira (17-2, 8-2 UFC, -110) vs. Beneil Dariush (19-4-1, 13-4-1 UFC, -110)
