Storylines to Watch at UFC on ESPN 52

Beneil Dariush and Arman Tsaruykan find themselves in pursuit of the same brass ring.

Something will have to give when the two high-caliber Ultimate Fighting Championship lightweights collide in the UFC on ESPN 52 main event this Saturday at the Moody Center in Austin, Texas. Neither man wants to take a step back at 155 pounds, where Islam Makhachev leads the pack by what feels like a considerable margin.

Dariush, 34, enters the cage with wins in eight of his past nine outings. The Kings MMA rep last competed at UFC 289, where he succumbed to punches from Charles Oliveira in the first round of their de facto title eliminator on June 10. Dariush owns a stellar 16-5-1 record inside the Octagon. Tsaruykan, meanwhile, steps back into the spotlight on the strength of a two-fight winning streak. The 27-year-old American Top Team export last fought on June 17, when he put away Joaquim Silva with punches in the third round of their UFC on ESPN 47 pairing. Tsarukyan has compiled a 7-2 mark across his nine UFC assignments, losing only to the aforementioned Makhachev and Mateus Gamrot. Will a true championship contender emerge from their five-round scrap?

The Dariush-Tsarukyan showdown and its resulting fallout in the lightweight division is but one storyline to watch at UFC on ESPN 52. Here are four more:

Ambitious Arachnid

Jalin Turner stands 6-foot-3 and wields 77 inches of reach—measurables almost unheard-of for a lightweight. The physical tools alone make him a person of interest in the lightweight division, as he subs in for Dan Hooker on late notice to confront former King of the Cage champion Bobby Green in the co-main event. Turner marches into his latest appearance on the heels of frustrating back-to-back losses, both of the split-scorecard variety. Those setbacks have done little diminish the overwhelming sense of possibility surrounding “The Tarantula,” who vaulted into the Top 15 with five straight victories between Feb. 23, 2020 and July 2, 2022, his run highlighted by a 45-second guillotine choke submission of Brad Riddell at UFC 276. Green hits the Octagon with a decided experience advantage and some momentum to burn following consecutive finishes against Grant Dawson and Tony Ferguson. Can Turner use the 47-fight veteran as a steppingstone at 155 pounds?

A Fresh Start

No one can blame Deiveson Figueiredo for seeking out riches elsewhere, as the former flyweight champion appeared to exhaust all his options at 125 pounds in a four-fight series with archrival Brandon Moreno. The Brazilian now moves to the bantamweight division, where a showcase affair with New England Cartel cornerstone Rob Font awaits. Figueiredo went 1-2-1 against Moreno and closed the book on his tetralogy with “The Baby Assassin” in January, when he wound up on the wrong side of a doctor stoppage at UFC 283. Font figures to be a difficult first test at 135 pounds. The onetime CES MMA featherweight titleholder has fallen on hard times of late, having lost three of his past four bouts. Jose Aldo, Marlon Vera and Cory Sandhagen were the perpetrators, all in five-round unanimous decisions. Does Figueiredo make a successful transition to a new weight class at the expense of one of its proven commodities?

Breaking Old Ground

Kelvin Gastelum’s time in the UFC can best be described as enigmatic. A toolsy tweener—his optimum weight likely falls somewhere between 170 and 185 pounds—when he arrived in the promotion and won Season 17 of “The Ultimate Fighter” more than a decade ago, he has looked like a million bucks in some appearances and come across as a major disappointment in others. At 32, Gastelum still has time to alter his narrative. Perhaps it begins with a return to the welterweight division, as he faces former Cage Fury Fighting Championships titleholder Sean Brady in a featured attraction at 170 pounds. Gastelum has not competed as an actual welterweight since 2015, and his time there was marred by several misses on the scale, including an infamous nine-pound botch against Tyron Woodley at UFC 183 that resulted in his being hospitalized. He can ill afford any such issues against Brady, a Daniel Gracie-trained Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt hoping to rebound from his first professional defeat. Will Gastelum finally master the weight cut and maximize his potential?

Benefit of the Doubt

A lack of depth, key departures and name recognition have kept Miesha Tate viable in a UFC women’s bantamweight division starved for star power in the absence of Ronda Rousey and Amanda Nunes. The former 135-pound champion will seek to rebound from back-to-back losses to Ketlen Vieira and Lauren Murphy when she toes the line against Julia Avila in the featured prelim. With Tate well past her prime—she has posted just one victory since she upset Holly Holm to claim the undisputed women’s bantamweight crown in March 2016—and one lengthy retirement already in her rearview mirror, the jury remains out on exactly what the 37-year-old mother of two has to offer the division she once ruled. On the other side of the equation, injuries and pregnancy have kept Avila on the sidelines for more than two years, leaving the “Raging Panda” with her own set of questions to answer. Can Tate turn back the clock one more time?