The Ultimate Fighter celebrated their silver anniversary by bringing back former contestants from previous seasons to fight in a ‘Redemption’ season, offering a $250,000 prize to the fighter who emerges victorious from the 16-man tournament.
The culmination of the tournament will see Dhiego Lima and Jesse Taylor clash in the co-main event at the T-Mobile Arena in the fighting capital of the world, Las Vegas. The card brings twelve fights on the eve of UFC 213 with Michael Johnson facing unbeaten promotional newcomer, Justin Gaethje.
Justin Gaethje holds a perfect record of seventeen victories with no defeats and moves to the UFC following a three-year stint as the lightweight champion of World Series of Fighting. He hasn’t been handed an easy path into the octagon, taking on perennial lightweight contender Michael Johnson, the runner-up of The Ultimate Fighter Season 12.
Dhiego Lima finished as a runner-up on The Ultimate Fighter Season 19 before three decision victories during the current season have paved the way to the final whilst Jesse Taylor won all four of his fights during Season 7 before being removed from the final of the competition for a drunken rampage in Las Vegas.
Taylor is vastly more experienced and has fought across the world for no less than a staggering 24 different promotions whilst Lima, seven years younger than his opponent will look to return to the promotion following his stint in Titan FC.
The card also features Congolese-born, Doncaster raised lightweight Marc Diakiese taking on Drakkar Klose. Both men are yet to taste defeat in their careers and Diakiese will be looking to make it a perfect thirteen straight victories. Keep your eyes peeled as Marc will look to showcase his extravagant, mesmerising striking as he demonstrated in March with his stunning knockout of Teemu Packalen at UFC London.
Jared Cannonier will face Nick Roehrick, who steps up to the octagon on short notice after the withdrawal of Steve Bossé due to injury while Brad Tavares and Elias Theodorou collide in the middleweight division.
Jordan Johnson joins the list of unbeaten fighters on the card, taking it to a total of six as he opens the main card against Marcel Fortuna, a true battle of two submission experts.
The preliminary portion of the card will feature the ever-entertaining Angela Hill taking on Ashley Yoder in what could be a potential fight of the night. Hill’s clash with Jessica Andrade in February was the greatest fight of 2017 so far and this could be a similarly entertaining battle at strawweight.
James Krause and Tom Gallicchio meet as the two defeated semi-finalists from The Ultimate Fighter look to cement their future in the promotion. Krause is already contracted to the UFC and has competed seven times despite losing his opening bout back in Season 15.
The third light-heavyweight bout of the evening sees Ed Herman take on Season 7 finalist, C.B. Dolloway after Jessica Eye looks to avoid a five-fight losing streak against unbeaten octagon newcomer, Aspen Ladd.
The early prelims see veteran Gray Maynard look to return to winning ways against Japan’s Teruto Ishihara whilst highly ranked strawweight Tecia Torres faces Brazilian Juliana Lima open proceedings in Las Vegas.
The event begins at 11PM on Friday night on UFC Fight Pass before moving over to BT Sport at midnight, with the main card commencing at the eye-watering time of 2AM.
