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Analysis Of UFC Fight Night 120

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UFC Fight Night 120 will be in Norfolk, Va. this Saturday, featuring a top lightweight contender against a former champion attempting to regain elite-level relevancy.

No. 8 ranked lightweight Dustin Poirier will face former lightweight champion Anthony Pettis in the main event of a loaded card. Poirier hasn’t fought since a no contest result against Eddie Alvarez in May. The fight had fight of the year potential, until it was stopped due to Poirier suffering illegal knees to the head while on the ground. Poirier had former champion Alvarez badly hurt in the fight, until Alvarez returned the favor before the stoppage.

Excluding the no contest against Alvarez, Poirier is 5-1 in his last seven fights and has looked much more comfortable …show more content…

Co-main event

Saturday’s co-main event will be a welterweight battle between Matt Brown and Diego Sanchez, two fighters who aren’t strangers to inflicting and absorbing damage. For Brown, it’ll be the last time he experiences both as he has announced that his retirement will follow the fight. Brown wants to walk away from the sport on a high-note and not be a middle-of-the-road fighter.

“I didn’t get into this to be a journeyman, or to be in second place,” Brown said on the MMA Hour in September. “I came into this to be a champion and I got very, very close to that. I think I was one round away from beating Robbie Lawler and getting to a title shot.”

Brown nearly earned that title shot after winning seven fights in a row from February 2012 to May 2014. That title shot was prevented by a controversial unanimous decision loss to former champion Robbie Lawler in July 2014. Since then, Brown has gone 1-5 and most recently suffered a vicious knockout loss to Donald Cerrone almost a year ago. Brown will most certainly walk away from the sport with a warrior’s spirit, but he won’t exit with an easy contest.

Sanchez has been in the UFC since being one of the winners of the first installment of The Ultimate Fighter series in 2005. He has been a part of some of the most epic battles in UFC history, as he has won Fight of the Night honors six times. His fight with Gilbert Melendez in 2013 has been considered by many as one of the greatest

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