Manny King John
The story behind the main event tonight is an interesting one. Since Khabib Nurmagomedov sudden retirement announcement last year, the rest of the UFC world acknowledged Dustin Poirier as the best fighter left in the lightweight division. The question is, why doesn’t he have the title then?
Well, the UFC acknowledged Poirier’s position in the division earlier this year when they offered him a choice between a lightweight title fight and a lucrative trilogy match against Conor McGregor. As we now know, Poirier opted for the money fight and defeated McGregor in July.
UFC moved on with a title fight between Charles Oliveira and Michael Chandler. Oliveira won, and in impressive fashion. And with a winning streak of nine, he is the division’s champ, but Oliveria has never been seen as the best lightweight fighter; that would still be Dustin Poirier.
That all brings us up to Saturday when Dustin Poirier finally has the chance to become an undisputed UFC champion for the first time in his career. Most expect this to happen, but on the contrary, this is Oliveira opportunity to prove that he’s not just holding on to the title hardware just for keepsake and that he’s the best fighter left in the lightweight division.
Note that all this wouldn’t matter if the undefeated, undisputed champion Khabib Nurmagomedov decided to return to fighting.
Moving on to the co-main event title fight between Amanda Nunes and Julianna Peña, Nunes (21-4 MMA, 14-1 UFC) will be putting her Bantamweight title on the line against Peña (10-4 MMA, 6-2 UFC). It has been a lot of trash talk by Peña, which led up to an intense weight-in on Friday. These women do not like each other, and that is evident.
The prelims and main event cards make for an exciting night for fighting. UFC 269 takes place in Las Vegas at the T-Mobile Arena. Tune in tonight on ESPN2 & ESPN+ for the prelims and pay-per-view for the main event.
