There will be plenty for UFC fans to get excited about over the coming weeks.

UFC enthusiasts will be eagerly anticipating UFC 269 next month where Charles Oliveira will put his lightweight title on the line former interim champion Dustin Poirier.

Speculation has mounted in recent weeks that Poirier may hang up his gloves and retire from the Octagon. However, that appears to be the furthest thought from his mind, and when quizzed whether he would consider walking away, Poirier was unequivocal with his answer.

He said: “Nah man – I’m a fighter. I’m fortunate enough now, with this year that I’ve had that I could walk away.

“It’s a great position to be in, but these guys need ass-whoopings, and I’m the guy to give it to them. And we can’t walk away like that.”

Poirier (28-6) will fancy his chances against Oliveira (31-8), and it will mark his second attempt at an undisputed UFC Championship after he lost via submission against Khabib Nurmagomedov over two years ago.

2021 has been a busy year for the UFC.  Year-to-date, the organization held eight numbered Pay-Per-View (PPV) events, with 12 title bouts. Of those, the reigning champions defended their titles six times, the belts changed hand four times, and a vacant or interim belt was crowned on two occasions. This is not to mention the almost weekly Fight Night events, totaling 28 shows for the year and bringing the all-time count to 575 (!) with last weekend’s UFC on ESPN 30.

Here’s a look at the five most interesting fights scheduled in the UFC for the remainder of the year. These fights are sure to be exciting, possibly even more so you partake in online betting on some of your favorite fighters. Three of these five are title bouts, three are rematches, one is a top contender bout and one fun nostalgic matchup to boot.

[#1 WW] Kamaru Usman vs [#2 WW] Colby Covington

This is the currently scheduled UFC matchup I am personally looking forward to the most. Kamaru Usman will be looking to defend his UFC (and lineal) Welterweight title for the fifth time, which will tie for second place with Matt Hughes for most title defenses in the division. Usman and Colby Covington previously met in the Octagon in 2019, with Usman stopping Covington with strikes in the fifth round in what was an absolute barn-burner of a fight.  Usman seems to have only improved since then, defeating Gilbert Burns as well as taking two wins over Jorge Masvidal. His most recent win over Masvidal was a thunderous knock out that shocked many fans. Covington in the meanwhile only fought once, dominating and stopping former champion Tyron Woodley. It remains to be seen how much has Colby improved his overall game and how he will deal with Usman’s ever evolving striking this time around. We will find out in November, close to two years since their first matchup.

When it comes to MMA pioneers, Mark ‘The Hammer’ Coleman is a name that may not be readily recognizable by younger fans.  Nonetheless, his impact on the sport is undeniable. The winner of UFC 10 and UFC 11 tournaments, and the first UFC Heavyweight champion, Coleman is also known as ‘The Godfather of Ground-and-Pound’ – a nickname which gives credit to his propensity of taking down his opponents and beating them up on the ground, a technique that you can see exhibited in virtually every MMA event today.

As an accomplished collegiate and amateur wrestler, Mark Coleman was also very influential in showing that wrestling is an excellent base for MMA, a statement which holds true to this day.  Coleman’s wrestling accomplishments include multiple NCCA and Pan-American championships, and placing seventh in the 1992 Summer Olympics. “I choked” – is how Mark Coleman describes his Olympic experience to Betway. Of course Coleman had inspirations of bringing home a gold medal, and he also tried out for the 1996 Olympics – but was defeated by Kurt Angle and did not qualify for Team USA.

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After Francis Ngannou’s stunning knockout over reigning heavyweight champion Stipe Miocic and Tyrone Woodley’s valiant and frenetic efforts in his submission loss to Vicente Luque at UFC 260, the next UFC events have some living up to do. UFC Fight Night on April 10th brings us a last-minute change in personnel, with American #10 Kevin Holland (21-6-0) taking on Italian #6 Marvin Vettori (16-4-1) in an enticing Middleweight contest to see who climbs up the ladder to eventually challenge champion Israel Adesanya.

Holland steps in as a late replacement with only 2 weeks’ notice for Brit Darren Till, who broke his collarbone. Fresh off a decision loss that snapped his 5 match winning streak only a couple of weeks ago at UFC Vegas 22, Holland will look for a quick turnaround in his fortunes.

Vettori, who has had 60% of his wins come via submission, is looking for his 5th straight win in his quest for a rematch against Adesanya, against whom he had his last loss – an extremely close split decision back in April 2018. He comes in as a very strong (-350) favourite in this fight.

Other Middleweight Contenders also fight later in the month

April 17th’s UFC Fight Night brings us #1 Middleweight contender Robert Whittaker taking on #8 Kelvin Gastelum in an intriguing Australia v USA matchup. Whittaker, a former Middleweight champion, who has only had 1 loss since 2014, has been a perennial stalwart of his division. Gastelum, with only 1 win out of his last 4, will have his work cut out for him, and will go into the fight as a +125 underdog.

Happy Easter! With a rare off-week for the UFC, it seems like a good time to take a look at the state of the lightweight Top 10 – a division where the title belt was recently vacated by Khabib Nurmagomedov, who is apparently retired for good despite Dana White’s best efforts to bring him back for one more fight. A matchup between Michael Chandler and Charles Oliveira has been scheduled for the vacant title, and a few other exciting matches are pending in the division. Let’s take a look at these upcoming fights, as well as a couple others that aren’t scheduled but make perfect sense in my opinion. And if you want to put a few bucks on your favorite lightweight, you can get a piece of the action at 22Bet.

[#1] Dustin Poirier vs [#13]  Conor McGregor 

Coming off a TKO win over McGregor, the #1 ranked Dustin Poirier should really be fighting for the vacant title. Alas – money talks, the UFC loves ‘rubber matches’, and with Poirier and McGregor both holding a stoppage win over the other, how could they resist a trilogy bout? I would have preferred to see these two in other bouts before a rematch, but the figurative ink on this bout agreement was dry before the official result of the second fight was announced.

The Pennsylvania betting scene would be shocked by Sean O’Malley saying he wants no one to bet on him as he looks to bounce back from his first ever career loss, but will be undoubtedly hyped for the main event of UFC 260, as Ngannou challenges Stipe Miocic once again for the heavyweight title.

Francis Ngannou is going to go up against Stipe Miocic for the second time in his career, hoping for a better result than the last time. That last time was in 2018, at UFC 220, where Ngannou was riding a six-match winning streak since joining the UFC. He was the favorite going onto the match and the stars looked aligned for the Cameroonian who looked primed to become the new heavyweight champion. Ultimately, he would fall short – short of impressing, short of his objective, and short of the title, in an unrecognizable performance that saw the champ clamp down and snuff out Ngannou.  Such a high-profile loss would floor anyone mentally, raise cause for doubt, especially when another loss follows it in a match that was supposed to show your ability to bounce back. Ngannou would again take to the octagon to but the title loss behind him, only to be stunned by Derrick Lewis. The predator still would not lose sight of his goal and is now back in the fray after four big wins on the trot and what he believes to be the best version of himself.

The UFC has 10 divisions which can all boast great MMA fighters. However, not all divisions offer the same quality and talent for spectators, though this changes each year as new challengers appear against reigning titleholders, powerful rivalries add some excitement and media attention shifts focus to fighters we may have overlooked.

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The most exciting weight classes to watch:

Heavyweight

The most exciting fights to watch are in the heavyweight division where violence and fabulous KO’s are almost guaranteed. Currently, there are several contenders for the title with Cyril Gane coming from being an unknown newcomer to a title contender after his big win against former UFC heavyweight champion Junior dos Santos.

Alexander Volkanovski has enjoyed an incredible run since his only defeat to Corey Nelson way back in 2013 in Melbourne. Fast forward eight years and he proudly sits at the top of the tree in the featherweight division. He only fought once in 2020, beating Max Holloway on a split decision at UFC 251. He’ll be looking to get at least two fights under his belt in 2021, but let’s take a look at his potential timeline.

1. Ortega at UFC 260

Brian Ortega goes for the belt on the back of a great performance against the Korean Zombie back in October on his return from injury. He really showed how much he’d improved since the Holloway defeat almost two years prior.

He’s priced as the underdog for his fight with the champion at odds of +163 (2.62) with leading betting sites like bet365 and Unibet. This price is a good indicator of just how good Volkanovski is. The Aussie is priced at -200 (1.50) and -188 (1.53) with top Australian betting sites like Unibet and bet365 respectively. They’re both very competitive prices, but bet365 offers slightly better value on the champ.

Volkanovski is clearly entering this fight full of confidence, and he doesn’t feel he’ll have any trouble getting his hand raised on the night:

“The guy’s always been a good fighter,” Volkanovski said in a recent interview. “I talk about his improvements as if he wasn’t good. He’s always been a great fighter and he’s always had a lot of good skills. But I believe he has evolved. This whole ‘Ortega 2.0,’ I believe it. I’ve seen a different fighter in there – even though he’s always been dangerous. He’s always been good at timing and picking the right shots, but right now all the in-betweens he’s just got down pat at the moment. There’s a lot of things that I’ve seen that was impressive, so I’m expecting a new challenge, a tough challenge and a different challenge.

Of the thousands of professional MMA fighters who have stepped into the UFC Octagon over the years, very few achieved any kind of longevity. Of course it’s the UFC and not the fighters who wield most of the power in the contracts, and the promotion isn’t hesitant to release those who don’t perform up to the management’s expectations. So it’s very impressive when a fighter sticks around for a decade or more, or reaches significant milestones like 5, 10, 20, or 25 bouts.

In this article we will focus on one of those milestones: 20 fights in the UFC. To date, only 73 fighters have lasted long enough to rack up 20 bouts with the promotion. Of course many have gone above and beyond – you can track their progress here: Fighters with Most Bouts in UFC. Or if you’re bored with MMA, you can play the best online roulette games instead.

Let’s take a closer look at ten names near the top of the list who are still actively competing in UFC:

Donald Cerrone – 36 bouts (23-10, 1 NC)

Not only is ‘Cowboy’ Cerrone the most active fighter in the UFC history, he is also the most winningest. Due to his propensity to fight often and take on all comers, it only took him less than 10 years to achieve these accomplishments.  Nowadays, Cerrone is at the tail end of his career, as evidenced by his abysmal performance against Conor McGregor. Yet Cerrone soldiers on, and is slated to take on Diego Sanchez – another veteran on our list. The end may be near for the Cowboy but he could pick up another few fights to top off his record before heading out to the pasture.

Jim Miller – 36 (21-14-0, 1 NC)

Tied with Cerrone for most UFC bouts, Jim Miller has been a UFC mainstay for more than a dozen years. He’s never had a title shot, despite at one point winning seven in a row.  However he can always be counted on for an exciting fight. Even as Miller was battling Lyme’s disease, he was still fighting other pro’s in the Octagon. Miller was supposed to face Bobby Green in a recent event; however Green had to drop out of the fight at the last minute due to medical issues, denying Miller the sole spot at the top of this list. Jim still fights on, taking on unheralded Joe Solecki in April. It will be interesting to see whether Miller or Cerrone (or someone else?) will ultimately end up with the record.