Smartest Guy at the Bar: UFC 187 Edition

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Memorial Day weekend is the time to make memories, and the mix of a title fight doubleheader, multiple No. 1 contender bouts and a couple of “Ultimate Fighter” finalists at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas seems like a winning recipe for success. Week three in the Ultimate Fighting Championship’s planned eight-weekend melee of events is the best one in the series. The UFC 187 lineup on Saturday is so deep that there is only one fighter who lacks his or her own Wikipedia page. Sorry, Leo Kuntz.

HOW WE GOT HERE: UFC 187 is so ripe with talent that it lost the best light heavyweight and the best lightweight in the world and remains one of the best cards of the year. With his nine-fight winning streak, including three victories in the UFC, Anthony Johnson punched his ticket to a title shot against Jon Jones -- until Jones’ life fell apart. Daniel Cormier, the most recent title challenger at 205 pounds, volunteered to fill in against Johnson and was yanked from his previously scheduled UFC Fight Night main event with Ryan Bader on June 6 in New Orleans ... The Cold War between middleweight champion Chris Weidman and Vitor Belfort finally grows hot in the co-main event. Belfort earned a title shot after stringing together three straight knockout wins in 2013. The pair circled each other in fight bookings and in the media for the last year. They were scheduled to clash at UFC 173, UFC 181 and UFC 184. However, injuries to Weidman and commission issues with Belfort’s use of testosterone replacement therapy limited their interactions to sound bites ... A previously scheduled No. 1 contender bout fell through three weeks ago. After ripping through seven consecutive opponents in just 18 months, Donald Cerrone finds himself just one win away from earning a shot at revenge against reigning 155-pound champion Rafael dos Anjos -- the man who handed “Cowboy” his last loss. Undefeated wrestler Khabib Nurmagmedov was coming off knee surgery and was expected to make up the other half of the match. Unfortunately, another knee injury derailed the Dagestani, so Canadian kickboxer John Makdessi took the fight fresh off a knockout win at UFC 186 in April.

Related » UFC 187 Fight-by-Fight Preview

WHAT’S IN A BELT: Ever since Zuffa acquired the talent pools of Pride Fighting Championships, World Extreme Cagefighting and Strikeforce, whoever held the UFC title was unanimously considered the very best in a given weight class. While Bellator MMA, World Series of Fighting and One Championship boast their own varying levels of quality, no other organization can consistently put their fighters through more top-level competition than the UFC; that is why the current states of the 205-, 155- and women’s 115-pound champions are so unusual. At 115 pounds, Joanna Jedrzejczyk defeated Carla Esparza to claim the strawweight title. However, current free agent and former WSOF champion Jessica Aguilar has arguably a better resume of wins, including a victory over Esparza and a pair of decisions over longtime women’s MMA queen Megumi Fujii. Plus, Jedrzejczyk’s controversial win over Claudia Gadelha leaves minor holes in her claim. At 155, Nurmagomedov is undefeated and holds a lopsided win over reigning champion dos Anjos. You tell me who deserves to be called the best lightweight in the world. At 205, Johnson-Cormier is a thoroughly enjoyable, high-level mixed martial arts contest between top-level athletes in or near their primes. However, there is a 6-foot-4 shadow looming over that main event. Jones may be “indefinitely suspended” by the organization, but enough signs point towards an eventual return by the 27-year-old. A belt is only as good as the fighter holding it, but for now, at least in a few select weight classes, UFC titleholders should not be unanimously considered the sport’s best.

SAY WHAT: Nurmagomedov with a fight booked and Nurmagomedov without a fight booked emit slightly altered tones. The 26-year-old had plenty to say about Cerrone prior to his latest brush with injury. With promotional work now unnecessary, the American Kickboxing Academy standout has a pretty level-headed opinion on the state of the division. On a recent installment of the “MMA Hour,” Nurmagomedov stated that he believes he will remain the number one contender if “Cowboy” loses. “I think if ‘Cowboy’ wins, he [will] have [an] eight-fight win streak, and this is awesome. He deserves [it].”

THE NEW-OLD BELFORT: Belfort’s incredible 2013 run seems, well, like two years ago. In a sport where half a dozen channels air MMA fights every weekend, it might as well be a lifetime ago. In that time, a lot has changed around Belfort. TRT is no longer a loophole: The UFC announced a new, more stringent drug testing policy and the Nevada Athletic Commission plans on a new set of much stricter penalties for drug cheats. That is a rough combination for a fighter who has struggled to keep his body chemistry near human levels. The time is now to see if the 2015 version of Belfort is the same as the version that crushed Michael Bisping, Luke Rockhold and Dan Henderson in 2013 or the mid-2000s version that consistently withered against wrestlers in the later rounds. Weidman is the perfect gauge.

PARLAY ANYONE: The UFC 187 headliner is a competitive, high-stakes affair on paper. Every other bout? Not so much, according to Las Vegas bookmakers. Outside of Johnson-Cormier, the next smallest favorite is Colby Covington at around -270. The average favorite on the card comes in at roughly -375. Remember UFC Fight Night “Bigfoot vs. Mir” in February, when every underdog won and a genius fan took home more than $48,000 on a $1 bet. I don’t want to say I encourage gambling, but you at least have to consider the possibilities.

USELESS FACT: With the completion of UFC 187, the MGM Grand Garden Arena will have hosted nine consecutive Memorial Day weekend events for the Ultimate Fighting Championship.

AWARDS WATCH: There is a lot of competition for post-fight bonuses considering the matchups lined up and the slew of names involved. John Dodson can seal his claim to a rematch with flyweight kingpin Demetrious Johnson with a win against Zach Makovsky. He needs to make a statement and show that he has completely recovered from the knee surgery that sidelined him for almost a year. His blitzing striking will do the job, and he will score an extra $50,000 … Cerrone is an awards machine, and he is taking on a short-notice opponent who has never faced a top-15 fighter. Makdessi is a talented striker but is in over his head. Cerrone feeds dozens of hobbies with paychecks made off the scalps of hapless victims; and wakeboarding season is closing in … Johnson-Cormier may not crown the best light heavyweight in the world, but it should be fun, with swings in momentum, close calls and violence. Rich in technique and striking, expect it to be less so in tactics and finesse. This is just the kind of fight UFC President Dana White loves. “Fight of the Night” will go to the only bout on the card that is close in terms of Vegas odds.