UFC returns to Canada for the first time in four years with a championship headliner and a potential Fight of the Year contender on the UFC 289 marquee. Amanda Nunes defends her women’s bantamweight championship against Irene Aldana while Charles Oliveira vs. Beneil Dariush should produce the next lightweight title challenger. It all goes down at Rogers Arena in Vancouver on Saturday.
Nunes was originally preparing for a third consecutive fight against rival Julianna Pena, but a broken rib forced Pena off the card. Enter Irene Aldana, the latest in a wave of Mexican fighters primed to take over the UFC. Aldana, flanked by newly crowned UFC women’s flyweight champion Alexa Grasso, looks to dethrone an all-time great in Nunes much like Grasso did against Valentina Shevchenko.
“(This run) has given us a lot of strength, at least just speaking from my point of view, and I’m sure that’s how it’s been for the rest of them,” Aldana said in an interview with MMAJunkie this week. “It’s given us strength. This has motivated and inspired me a lot. I got a lot of strength from watching Brandon win and from there then watch Yair and Alexa.”
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