One of the best cards of the year takes place tonight from Madison Square Garden as Jorge Masvidal and Nate Diaz battle it out at UFC 244.
| Staff Writers | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jason Payne (168-89) |  |  |  |  |  |
| Joe McDonagh (161-88) |  |  |  | |  |
| Ryan Fortune (121-72) | | | | | |
| Keith Shillan (124-74) | | | | | |
| Heath Harshman (157-100) | | | | | |
| Jay Anderson (155-102) | | | | | |
| Gabriel Gonzalez (154-103) | | | | | |
| Josh Evanoff (150-102) | | | | | |
| Mike McClory (107-77) | | | |  | |
| Dan Doherty (149-108) | | | | | |
| Paarth Pande (107-79) | | | | | |
| Eddie Law (93-85) | | | | | |
| Marcus Rebelo (15-16) | | | | | |
The BMF title has been officially unveiled and it will be fought for by Jorge Masvidal and Nate Diaz in the main event of UFC 244. Diaz returned to the cage for the first time since 2016 in August and beat Anthony Pettis, then called out Masvidal. Masvidal has racked up two huge KO wins over Darren Till and Ben Askren to put him on the doorstep of a title shot. Cageside Press is split at seven picks apiece.
Darren Till heads up to middleweight to take on former welterweight Kelvin Gastelum. Till is moving up to get back to his winning ways after losing in a title shot against Tyron Woodley and losing by KO to Jorge Masvidal. Gastelum is coming off a fight of the year candidate, losing to current champion Israel Adesanya in a five-round war. All but two writers picked Gastelum.
Vicente Luque gets an overdue step-up in competition against Stephen Thompson. Luque has won 10 of his last 11 fights with nine finishes. Thompson has just one win in his last five fights, but dominated Jorge Masvidal in the one win. Luque was slightly favored with eight picks to Thompson’s six.
Derrick Lewis takes on Blagoy Ivanov in a main card heavyweight clash. Ivanov has defeated Tai Tuivasa and Ben Rothwell since losing to Junior dos Santos in his UFC debut. Lewis has lost two straight to former champions Daniel Cormier and the aforementioned dos Santos. Ivanov got the nod with eight picks to Lewis’ six.
Opening up the UFC 244 main card is a clash of wrestlers in Gregor Gillespie and Kevin Lee. Gillespie is 13-0, with six wins coming in the UFC. He has finished his last five opponents. Lee is heading back down to lightweight after a brief welterweight stint, and has lost three of four. All but two writers picked Gillespie.
