Main event for UFC 215 in Edmonton announced

UFC president Dana White revealed to TSN this past week that the main event of the organization’s first-ever card in Edmonton will feature a flyweight championship fight with Demetrious Johnson defending his title against third-ranked Ray Borg.

With a win, Johnson will break Anderson Silva’s record for the most consecutive title defences (11).

The co-main event, originally reported by Combate, is the rescheduled women’s bantamweight championship fight between Amanda Nunes and Valentina Shevchenko, which was originally the main event for UFC 213. The fight was scratched due to Nunes withdrawing on the day of the event due to an illness.

Nunes’ withdrawal was met with disappointment from White when it occurred, but the two appear to have since mended fences.

"[Nunes] and I talked, she was a little upset about the situation that I said she was medically cleared to fight," said White. "Her and I talked about it and I think we're in a good place now."

Despite Johnson and Borg headlining the card, the UFC had originally attempted to put together a championship matchup where Johnson would attempt to break the consecutive defences record against former bantamweight champion T.J. Dillashaw.

"It's unfortunate, I think [Johnson versus Dillashaw] would have been a great title fight," White told TSN.  "It would have been a fight that a lot of people would have wanted to see, but it is what it is."

Weidman ends three-fight skid

Many were ready to write off Chris Weidman after losing three straight, including dropping the middleweight championship against Luke Rockhold in 2015.

Those doubts were silenced on Saturday when he submitted Kelvin Gastelum in the third round of their main event fight at UFC Fight Night in Weidman’s hometown of Long Island, N.Y.

After the win, Weidman called out current champion Michael Bisping, but Weidman will likely have to win another fight or two before he is back in the title picture.

The loss was Gastelum’s first at middleweight and may prompt him to make yet another attempt to fight at welterweight, where he has missed weight on two occasions.

Weidman’s standing in the division will become clearer after Rockhold faces ninth-ranked David Branch in the main event of UFC Fight Night in Pittsburgh on Sept. 16.

Canadian Kennedy continues to impress

Canada has another promising prospect with the emergence of Surrey, B.C.’s Jeremy Kennedy, who won his third straight UFC fight on Saturday.

Kennedy’s wrestling has been absolutely prolific during this win streak, with the featherweight landing eight takedowns in his win over Kyle Bochniak en route to a unanimous decision.

The eight takedowns ties a UFC career-best and Kennedy is now averaging a staggering seven takedowns landed per fight.

With the victory, Kennedy remains undefeated with an 11-0 professional record.

Bonuses and Attendance

The UFC awarded Performance of the Night bonuses to Junior Albini and Alex Oliveira, who both scored knockouts over their respective opponents. Fight of the Night bonuses went to Lyman Good and Elizeu Zaleski dos Santos for their close three-round encounter.

Attendance for the event, which took place at the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum, was 11,198 netting a roughly $1.1 million gate.

The next UFC event is the organization’s best of the year, with three titles on the line at UFC 214 in Anaheim, headlined by the grudge match between light heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier and former champion Jon Jones, who defeated Cormier in 2015.

The co-main event features welterweight champion Tyron Woodley defending the title against Demian Maia, where the winner, according to UFC president White, will face Georges St-Pierre.

Additionally, Cris Cyborg looks to capture the vacant women’s featherweight title when she faces Invicta women’s bantamweight champion Tonya Evinger, who is making her promotional debut.

Lesnar return on the horizon?

Rumours have been swirling that former UFC heavyweight champion and current WWE universal champion Brock Lesnar could be making his return to the organization after over a year layoff.

The rumour was started by @TalkMMA on Twitter, who said that Lesnar had been re-entered into the USADA testing pool signalling his return.

UFC vice-president of athlete health and performance Jeff Novitzky denied that Lesnar had re-entered into the testing pool. Novitzky said that if he did re-enter, Lesnar would still have more than six months remaining on his suspension stemming from an anti-doping violation after his fight against Mark Hunt at UFC 200.

According to Bleacher Report’s Jeremy Botter, the UFC’s dream fight for 2018 is Lesnar against Jon Jones.