UFC Card of the Year?

Tonight's UFC 245 event, the last pay-per view event of 2019 is stacked. This is the first time since UFC 217 where three titles are up for grabs, as well as two UFC legends looking to see where they fit in the 135 lb weight class against two of the sports most exciting young prospects. Dana White said in an interview the promotion had to move their annual year-end show a few weeks to make up for ESPN's airing of the College Football Playoffs.

I'm not going to break down the X's and O's of the fights (I'd highly recommend Luke Thomas' Youtube page), instead I'd like to share my thoughts on some major topics as we close out 2019 and look ahead to 2020 in the world of UFC.

• Tonight's Main Event, Covington vs Usman, doesn't feel as big as I thought it would outside of the MMA bubble. Not sure if Colby's MAGA character is starting to feel forced and not as clever as the likes of Chael Sonnen, or if the Conor-Khabib rivalry got so ugly that fans don't want to see things get as heated outside of the Octagon again. I'd like to see Jorge Masvidal get a title shot against the winner.
• If Holloway can get past Volkanovski in the co-main, it's getting harder to find potential opponents for "Blessed" at Featherweight. Zabit Magomedsharipov and Yair Rodriguez didn't look ready for Max in their last fight, and I would love to see a number one contender bout between them.

• Champ-Champ Amanada Nunes is riding a nine-fight winning streak, and has cleaned out Women's Bantamweight and Featherweight. It seems to early to throw Ketlen Vieira or Aspen Ladd in the cage with her.
• Jose Aldo and Urijah Faber are in their second decade of their MMA careers and looking for a spark of what made them future Hall of Famers against two up and comers. Marlon Moraes is trying to bounce back from his loss against Henry Cejudo and is welcoming Aldo to 135 pounds. Petr Yan is 5-0 in the UFC and a win against Faber will put him on the fast track to title contention.

• Frankie Edgar's decision to fight the Korean Zombie next weekend at featherweight instead of waiting for his scheduled debut at bantamweight against Corey Sandhagen in January is peculiar. In an interview on Luke Thomas' Sirius XM show, Edgar said he's been looking to get back into the cage before the end of the year and feels great. He reached out to Dana once Ortega was injured and had to pull out of the fight. Ironically, Edgar was scheduled to fight Zombie last November before pulling out with an injury. I don't see how waiting a month would really make much of a difference, but I'm not a professional athlete. It seems to me that Edgar feels like Holloway is going to lose tonight, and a win against Zombie will be enough to get his 4th crack at the Featherweight crown. Either way I feel like Edgar is in a tough position as he enters the twilight of his legendary career. He's good enough to beat almost any contender, but isn't at the elite level to add a second championship to his record.

• UFC kicks off 2020 with Conor McGregor making his long awaited return at UFC 246 against "Cowboy" Cerrone. While this isn't an easy fight, this is a smart fight for Conor. Cerrone won't be afraid to stand and bang with him, which will lead to an entertaining fight. I just hope McGregor's past is behind him and see him make the walk to the cage several times this year.
• UFC 247 will feature Jon Jones defending his belt against Dominick Reyes who is one of the last remaining contenders for the Light Heavyweight belt. I'd be surprised if "Bones" doesn't go to heavyweight soon.
• I wonder if we'll really see Khabib-Ferguson at UFC 249 in Brooklyn. Dana White's white whale fight, that has fallen apart four times appears to be jinxed. I won't believe it until Bruce Buffer announces their names in Barclays Center.