UFC Fight Night 98 scheduled for this Saturday, November 5, 2016, at the Arena Ciudad de Mexico in Mexico City will pit former lightweight king Rafael dos Anjos with currently ranked #3 Tony "El Cucuy" Ferguson.
"Focused" Time To Shine On Nov 5 • @FS1 @UFCNetwork @UFCEspanol @ufc #UFCMexico #TeamElCucuy Snap Down City pic.twitter.com/IeFE00Okip
— Tony Ferguson (@TonyFergusonXT) October 29, 2016
The outcome of this fight may determine who gets a shot at lightweight gold next. The current UFC lightweight top dog is Eddie Alvarez who beat dos Anjos in a spectacular knockout that came out of nowhere last July 7, 2016, when the two squared-off for the title.
The Ferguson fight may well be the path dos Anjos is looking for to start a comeback trail and regain the belt he lost to the current lightweight champion.
Currently ranked #2 in the UFC's lightweight division, Brazil's dos Anjos scored five straight wins over the likes of Nate Diaz, Donald Cerrone, Anthony Pettis, and Benson Henderson, all formidable foes, before losing to Eddie Alvarez.
California's "El Cucuy" on the other hand is on an eight-fight winning streak including wins over Edson Barboza, Josh Thomson, and Abel Trujillo, in themselves dangerous opponents and could be anywhere in the top ten of the division.
Dos Anjos' style of pressuring his opponents and putting their backs to the cage before unleashing a fury of strikes coupled with very powerful grappling has always given his opponents fits with most of them just succumbing to the onslaught.
Ferguson however is as durable as they come and like dos Anjos is also aggressive. In his last outings, Ferguson has shown that he can dish out wins whether standing or grappling. He is also not gun shy when standing toe-to-toe with whoever is in front of him. Ferguson does however take more hits just to be able to return the favor with interest.
The dos Anjos Ferguson match, a battle of similar styles, may very well give fans a fight worthy of "fight of the year" status. Come Saturday, fans just have to sit down in front of the TV and watch the sparks fly.
The 155-pound showdown of Rafael dos Anjos and Tony Ferguson headlines the UFC's fourth event held in Mexico and also features the finals of The Ultimate Fighter Latin America 3.
