DEREK BRUNSON VS. EDMEN SHAHBAZYAN
Elevated to the main event midway through last week, this middleweight clash remains a three-round affair, but given the track records of the two men set to close out the show on Saturday night, they might not even need that much time to settle things.
Brunson has been a fixture in the Top 15 for the vast majority of his UFC run, which began two days prior to the end of 2012 with a unanimous decision win over Chris Leben. The North Carolina native is 11-5 inside the Octagon (20-7 overall) and enters this weekend’s contest on a two-fight winning streak, having earned unanimous decision wins over Elias Theodorou and Ian Heinisch in 2019.
Currently stationed at No. 8 in the middleweight rankings, the 36-year-old Brunson has only ever lost to elite competition inside the Octagon, dropping bouts to current champ Israel Adesanya, former champs Anderson Silva (by controversial decision) and Robert Whittaker, and perennial contenders Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza and Yoel Romero. He is the middleweight version of the veteran presence in the middle of the rankings that upstarts and hopefuls need to deal with before graduating to being full-fledged contenders and, thus far, only the absolute best of the best have been able to get past him.
Through his first four UFC appearances, Shahbazyan has given fans plenty of reasons to believe he will be in the title conversation or holding championship gold in the middleweight division in the not too distant future.
A graduate of the Contender Series, the 22-year-old “Golden Boy” has pushed his record to 11-0 with four very impressive outings since matriculating to the Octagon. He showed toughness, grit, and heart in edging out Darren Stewart in his promotional debut, and has since needed a combined 257 seconds to dispatch Charles Byrd, Jack Marshman, and Brad Tavares, doing so by displaying an array of offensive weapons and finishing instincts that you don’t often see from someone so young and so early in their professional career.
This pair was originally scheduled to meet at UFC 248 before being shuffled to one of the fight cards canceled by the COVID-19 pandemic and keeping it intact was the correct call.
Shahbazyan has earned another step up in competition and Brunson is easily his toughest assignment to date, making this a high risk, high reward opportunity for the Glendale Fighting Club product. For the 27-fight veteran Brunson, it’s a chance to further cement his standing as one of the best middleweights in the world, while potentially handing a rising star the first loss of his career, both of which could potentially set him up with a greater opportunity later this year.
Brunson has only been the distance five times in 16 UFC starts and seven times in his career, while Shahbazyan has only seen the scorecards once, which means there is a very strong likelihood that the judges won’t be needed in this one.
