HOUSTON – The Ultimate Fighting Championship is bringing an exciting fight card to downtown Houston. The match up includes two of the top fighters in the world.
The headliners are Jon "Bones" Jones, the No. 1 ranked pound-for-pound men's fighter, facing Dominick Reyes, the undefeated light heavyweight, on the men's side.
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On the women's side, the standouts are No. 2 ranked pound-for-pound women's fighter Valentina "Bullet" Shevchenko, facing the top contender, Katlyn "Blonde Fighter" Chookagian.
Jones v. Reyes
Jones is arguably one of the greatest fighters of all-time. Since returning from a banned substance suspension, Jones has claimed back his light heavyweight belt and defended it twice.
This time, he faces a young, hungry and undefeated fighter in Dominick Reyes. Reyes has two impressive wins: one over Ovince Saint Preux and his most recent over former Middleweight titleholder Chris Weidman.
Jones took some shots at Reyes during his press conference, calling him out for using the Weidman win as a hype.
"When you say things like 'Weidman beat Anderson (Silva) and I beat Weidman, this is going to give me the magic that I need.' What are you freaking talking about?" said Jones.
Jones is a heavy favorite over Reyes, checking at -460 or betting $460 to win $100.
Shevchenko v. Chookagian
Shevchenko has risen to the top of the women's flyweight division and trails only Amanda Nunes in the pound-for-pound rankings.
Shevchenko has only lost to two fighters in her career, Nunes twice and Liz Carmouche. Shevchenko lost to Carmouche at the Bantamweight division in 2010 before defeating her in the Flyweight division in Aug. 2019.
Her opponent, Chookagian, is her top contender in the flyweight division and enters this battle on a two-fight winning streak.
Their recent common opponent, Jessica Eye, the No. 2 contender in the Flyweight division beat Chookagian but got knocked out by Shevchenko by a vicious head kick.
Shevchenko is also heavily favored, pulling in -950 odds or bet $950 to win $100.
Relive the picture perfect headkick Valentina Shevchenko (@BulletValentina) landed on Jessica Eye.
— Combat Overload (@CombatOverload) February 3, 2020
Shevchenko takes on Katlyn Chookagian this weekend at UFC 247#UFC #UFC247 #MMA #MMATwitterpic.twitter.com/s1adwVp5Ma
BEST OF THE UNDERCARD
Heavyweight Derrick "The Black Beast" Lewis was up for the heavyweight title as recently as Nov. 2018 but dropped to No. 6 in the division after back-to-back losses to Daniel Cormier and Junior dos Santos. Lewis now faces off against Swedish-Albanian fighter Ilir Latifi.
Lewis is a favorite at -290 or betting $290 to win $100.
Texas has a big presence in the women's flyweight division. No. 7 ranked flyweight Lauren Murphy, originally from Alaska but trains in Houston, takes on Andrea Lee from Atlanta, Texas.
Murphy is ranked higher than Lee in the division, but Lee is a heavy favorite at -360 or betting $360 to win $100.