The UFC returns to action and the first few cards of 2021 have some intriguing fights. Of course, next weekend brings the return of the incredible and incomparable “The Notorious” Conor McGregor at UFC 257. But the first event of the year is UFC on ABC: Holloway vs Kattar on Saturday, January 16.
This is the first time a UFC main card will be broadcast on ABC and the MMA world promotional leader has stacked this card with some intriguing fights. The first fight of note is Joaquin Buckley vs Alessio Di Chirico. Buckley is clearly the A-side here due to his spectacular spinning back kick knockout last October at UFC Fight Night: Moraes vs Sandhagen and the fact that Di Chirico has lost three straight. Keep an eye on Buckley. He is only 26 years old and to date has only fought lower tier competition, but he appears to be a beast and it will be interesting to see his MMA career progress as he should only get better with time.
The second most interesting fight on the card is Santiago “Gente Boa” Ponzinibbio vs Li Jingliang. Back in 2017-18, Gente Boa was on a tear and put on some spectacular performances including KO victories over Gunnar Nelson and Neil Magny. Ponzinibbio appeared to be on the cusp of a title shot, before health issues sidetracked the Argentinian striker. Most significantly, Ponzinibbio suffered medical complications after having a staph infection. In recent interviews he says he had to, at one point, fight for his life. So, it’s great to see the proud striker back in action and against a high level opponent in “The Leech” Li Jingliang. Li, with a background in Chinese wrestling (Shuai Jiao), and a China Top Team MMA member, lost his most recent fight to contender Neil Magny. But prior to that bout, Li had a “Fight of the Night” performance in securing a TKO victory over the impressive Elias Zaleski dos Santos. This fight has the potential to be a barnburner as both of these fighters like to move forward and bring the fight.
File the co-main event in the “fun fight” category as neither Carlos “The Natural Born Killer” Condit (great fight name!) nor Matt “the Immortal” Brown will likely return to the contender rankings at their respective advanced ages. But Brown was always an exciting fighter, ever seeming to come back and win fights after being badly hurt. And the former Welterweight Interim Champion Condit is a sight to behold when his Muay Thai is on point and he’s smashing opponents with knees and elbows.
The main event is an important fight for the Featherweight division. Max “Blessed” Holloway, the former Featherweight king, will forever be immortalized in the halls of MMA history for his consecutive victories over the great Jose Aldo Jr. and his TKO stoppage of the incredible Brian “T-City” Ortega. Talk about an incredible three-fight run. But his recent consecutive losses to current Featherweight champ Alexander Volkanovski put him in a tough spot. As difficult as it might be for him to get a third shot at the champ after those losses, a victory over Calvin “The Boston Finisher” Kattar, would go a long way towards his goal of another shot at the strap. Go watch a video of Kattar destroying Shane Burgos with one of the most beautiful combinations you’ll see in MMA to see what the man is capable of. While that TKO finish happened back in 2018, Kattar sports a 6-2 UFC record with his only losses coming to the highly touted Renato Moicano and Zabit Magomedsharipov. This fight promises to be a high level display of martial arts.
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