UFC 229 is the penultimate Las Vegas pay-per-view for the promotion this year. The third of four total PPV events at the T-Mobile Arena in 2018, UFC 229 is taking place on October 6th. Now that it’s a few months away, we’re taking a look at who could feature in the main event.
The final pay-per-view before the UFC returns to Madison Square Garden in November, UFC 229 might be in a tough spot. Following a summer full of title-fight-filled events, and what’s sure to be a stacked schedule for the end of the year, October’s PPV in Las Vegas might not have much left.
Luckily, the promotion likes to show their home-base the love. Even if it’s not quite UFC 226, we can expect a solid overall event. Given the busy summer and packed fourth quarter of 2018, the slim pickings for title-fights for October’s PPV make sense. Add a few injuries and some super-fights, and it’s almost a surprise they have any options at all. It’s as if there are too many… ah, never mind.
With a long list of unavailable fighters, who can we expect to headline UFC 229 in Las Vegas? We once again take a look at the possible headlining options for an upcoming pay-per-view from MMA’s biggest promotion.
Who’s Out
The best way to figure out which title-fights are potentially available for October is to rule out the long-list of those which are unavailable. First: the injured.
Middleweight title-holder Robert Whittaker is out until early-2019 at the soonest. Suffering more injuries in his rematch with Yoel Romero at UFC 225, Whittaker will once again be sidelined for the foreseeable future. When he returns, it looks like Kelvin Gastelum will be waiting for him.
Featherweight champ Max Holloway is also on the shelf for the time being. After being pulled from his bout with Brian Ortega at UFC 226, there’s no timetable for the Hawaiian’s return. October doesn’t seem like an impossible option, but there’s no telling what the immediate future holds for the Holloway-Ortega title-fight.
October also seems too soon for strawweight champion Rose Namajunas. Citing a collection of injures and a log-jam at the top of the 115-pound division, Namajunas plans on taking plenty of time off. We expect her to feature later in the year, with a return to Madison Square Garden sounding like a solid plan.
Apart from the injured champions, a couple of others are competing at UFC 227. Turning around two months later for another title fight isn’t out of the question, but we certainly wouldn’t expect it. That means the winner of the two title-bouts at August’s PPV probably won’t headline UFC 229. So, we can rule out bantamweight champ TJ Dillashaw (or Cody Garbrandt) and flyweight title-holder Demetrious Johnson (or Henry Cejudo… technically).
Nicco Montano will defend her women’s flyweight title for the first time at UFC 228 in September. She’ll be fighting former women’s bantamweight title-contender Valentina Shevchenko in what will likely end up as the co-main event of the night. The belt probably isn’t ready for the main event slot of a PPV yet anyway, but this ensures it’s lack of availability come October.
And then, there’s the women’s super-fight that we’ve been waiting for. Neither the women’s bantamweight division or the women’s featherweight “division” have worthwhile contenders ready to compete for a title. What the promotion does have though, is a couple of top-tier champions and an incredibly easy to sell super-fight.
It looks like they’re trying to do just that with women’s 145-pound champ Cris Cyborg and women’s 135-pound champion Amanda Nunes. Unfortunately for UFC 229, this fight is looking more like a December booking. As seems to be the case with Cyborg bouts, the match-up is taking a while to finalize. Should either back out, Holly Holm could be an option for both belts. But we’d much rather see Cyborg-Nunes for the featherweight title.
Who’s Available
Alright. We’re not getting our hopes up. BUT, there’s been plenty of chatter about the return of Conor McGregor coming at UFC 229. Of course, it would make more sense for it to headline UFC 230 at Madison Square Garden. Whether or not the promotion can wait that long might be another story. That return would come against lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov and would finally give MMA fans the bout we’ve been waiting for.
Anything involving McGregor goes into the “believe it when we see it” category. If he’s unavailable, and Nurmagomedov is determined to compete at before UFC 230 in November, the winner of Alvarez-Poirier 2 in Calgary could be an option. It’d be a pretty quick turnaround. But for a shot at the belt, I’m sure they could be convinced.
There’s also whatever the hell is going on at welterweight. Despite having one of the longest tenured champions in the promotion, things in the 170-pound title picture have managed to get murky.
Tyron Woodley seems to be nearing a return after a lengthy layoff. But the recently crowned interim champ, Colby Covington, says he’ll be ready to go by the end of the year. That might not be soon enough for the promotion, who are reportedly already considering stripping him of the interim title after they were planning on using the bout at UFC 228 in September. Instead, they’ve apparently looked at Darren Till as an option.
Whatever happens, UFC 229 seems to be in play. It’s a mess, but with a title-fight between Woodley and whichever challenger the promotion chooses, things will seemingly get cleared up by the end of the year.
Daniel Cormier has a couple of titles he could potentially defend. Returning to the Octagon three months after his heavyweight bout with Stipe Miocic would be a bit of a surprise. Especially now that we’ve learned he has a broken hand.
Given the current USADA-related issues with apparent heavyweight title contender and former UFC champion Brock Lesnar, a defense of the light heavyweight title would make sense for the Champ-Champ. Would it make sense at UFC 229? That might be a stretch. Not only because he recently fought and has an injury. But because of the lack of depth in the 205-pound title picture.
Both Alexander Gustafsson and Volkan Oezdemir, the two highest ranked light heavyweight contenders, were pulled from their UFC 227 bout against each other due to injuries. Cormier also made his feelings about fighting Gustafsson very clear, and it sounds like that matchup is dead.
Outside of that? Ilir Latifi is the next highest ranked fighter coming off of a win. The five-foot-ten Swede has won five of his last six bouts, and most recently submitted Ovince Saint Preux in the first round in February. Yoel Romero has talked about competing at 205-pounds. Considering he’s fought in three consecutive title-fights, getting a fourth off of a loss seems unlikely.
There aren’t a ton of options for the main event of UFC 229. But of the title-fights available, there are some very interesting match-ups. We’d take Nurmagomedov-McGregor at any point, and a potential Daniel Cormier return to light heavyweight for yet another title-defense would cement him even further as an all-time great.
We’re going to bet the promotion goes with Tyron Woodley’s return as the headlining fight of UFC 229. Whether that’s against Covington or Till is anyone’s guess. It’s unlikely Covington would let a shot against Woodley pass him by, and it’s clear the promotion is ready and willing to replace him with Till. Either way, we’re expecting a welterweight title bout at UFC 229.
Update: Well, we were wrong. Tyron Woodley will be defending the welterweight title against Darren Till (that’s right, not against the interim champ Colby Covington) at UFC 228. That takes him out of the running, and has us thinking Khabib Nurmagomedov will be defending his belt at UFC 229. Against who? Let’s hope for Conor McGregor, and bet on either Eddie Alvarez or Dustin Poirier.
Let us know who you think will be fighting in the main event of UFC 229 this fall! The promotion is short on options. But based on what’s available, the penultimate Las Vegas PPV should be in for a helluva headlining fight! Comment below, on Facebook, or reply on Twitter!
