The long, grueling, arduous wait is finally over — as the UFC returns to action Saturday night, kicking off its 2023 with a Fight Night card at the Apex in Las Vegas.
Sure, maybe three weeks without a UFC event wasn’t that bad, and yes, there was the historic Bellator MMA vs. RIZIN card to tide fight fans over. But three weeks with just one major event is an awfully long time for the MMA faithful, making it a relief to finally get the new year started.
New year, new beginnings. The slate has been wiped clean, in terms of picks that is, and our staff writers are all starting fresh with 0-0 records and ready to go on a tear! For UFC Vegas 67, we have five main card fights to cover — here’s how we see the card playing out!
| Writer | Nurmagomedov vs. Barcelos | Vieira vs. Pennington | Soriano vs. Kopylov | Ige vs. Jackson | Strickland vs. Imavov |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jay Anderson |  |  |  |  |  |
| Mike McClory | |  |  |  |  |
| Eddie Law | | | | | |
| Val Dewar | | | | | |
| Jamie Theodosi | | | | | |
| Chris Prawdzik | | | | | |
| Dylan Rush | | | | | |
| Alex Behunin | | | | | |
Despite France’s Nassourdine Imavov being on a solid run of late, short-notice replacement Sean Strickland is the favorite with our crew to claim victory in the UFC Vegas 67 main event. Strickland, stepping in on just a few days notice, replaces Kelvin Gastelum — and since he took the fight on under a week’s notice, the middleweight duo are fighting at 205lbs.
Interestingly enough, Imavov hit the scales at 194lbs, a full ten pounds lighter than Strickland.
Dan Ige was a popular pick in the co-main event, with only two of our writers siding with Damon “The Leech” Jackson in the featherweight affair.
The biggest favorite at UFC Vegas 67 was found in the main card opener, as Umar Nurmagomedov, undefeated through 15 fights, was a unanimous choice among our staff.
In the remaining main card bouts, Punahele Soriano and Raquel Pennington both took the bulk of the votes.
