More reasons to watch UFC Ottawa

The UFC returns to the Great White North this Saturday with UFC Ottawa. Both Donald Cerrone and Al Iaquinta, who meet in the main event, are fan friendly fighters that always put on a show. Adding to the intrigue, these two men could potentially be going to war with each other for five rounds.

The ninth ESPN+ offering will boast its fair share of Canadian fighters as well as some promising American talent.

Let’s take a look at some more reasons to watch UFC Ottawa this weekend.

Cub Swanson vs. Shane Burgos

The featherweight barn burner between Cub Swanson and Shane Burgos is nearly every fight fans pick for Fight of the Night heading into this weekend’s UFC Ottawa card — and for good reason.

Although the 35-year-old Swanson has lost his last three contests, he rolled off four straight just prior to that, with one of those Ws coming in his epic war with Doo Ho Choi back in 2016.

Burgos, 28, bounced back from the first setback of his career with a win over Kurt Holobaugh at UFC 230. “The Hurricane” is a real dark horse in the featherweight division.

“The Kraken” Juan Adams

Juan Adams will make his second walk to the Octagon this weekend in Canada. He would love nothing more than to ruin Arjan Bhullar’s Canadian UFC run of 2-0.

Adams is a big man. He cuts down from nearly 300 pounds to make the heavyweight limit of 266 pounds. He possesses very good wrestling and his striking game is ever improving. Adams has a ton of potential and could really had a lot of excitement to the division in the coming years.

“Superman” Brad Katona

The ceiling is high for The Ultimate Fighter (TUF) season 27 winner Brad Katona.

Katona is a native of Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada but moved to Dublin, Ireland many years ago to train at Straight Blast Gym (SBG) Ireland with the likes of Conor McGregor.

Now 27-years-old and signed to the UFC with an unbeaten record of 8-0, Katona will take the next step in his young MMA career as he faces his toughest test to date in Merab Dvalishvili.

One Heck Of A Main Event

For fight fans, it doesn’t get much better than this: “Cowboy” Cerrone going toe-to-toe with “Raging” Al Iaquinta in the five-round UFC Ottawa main event.

Iaquinta enters this bout having won six out of his last seven fights. His only defeat in that time was his short notice fight against Khabib Nurmagomedov at UFC 223.

As for “Cowboy”, the long time UFC vet has had a newfound drive in life ever since the birth of his first child. Cerrone has picked up wins in three of his last four fights. This is going to be fun.

This article first appeared on BJPENN.COM on 5/2/2019.