It has been a while since the UFC had a Pay-per-View to offer fans - over a month in fact. Nearly two. The last UFC PPV card was back at the start of July, UFC 175 - a huge card that saw both Chris Weidman and Ronda Rousey defend their titles, against Lyoto Machida and Alexis Davis, respectively. That marked the biggest PPV show to date for the UFC in 2014. The drought that followed was unfortunately brought on by the last-minute cancellation of UFC 176 due to an injury to featherweight champion Jose Aldo. That brings us to UFC 177 - another extremely thin card relying, if we're being honest, on a single fight: T.J. Dillashaw vs. Renan Barao 2. Dillashaw shocked the MMA world back in May by dominating Barao from pillar to post over the course of five rounds, taking the title from a champion who had seemed unbeatable since arriving in the UFC. Barao had defeated Dillashaw teammate Urijah Faber twice, as well as a number of top bantamweights. Dillashaw was an injury replacement who had looked good since losing at The Ultimate Fighter 14 final to John Dodson, but no one expected him to upset the reigning champ. When he pulled off the upset, people were stunned, but he beat Barao so soundly that calls for a rematch were absent anywhere save the UFC brass. They're pushing this fight due to a lack of challengers at 135lbs and the fact that the next best bantamweight, Faber, will not fight his teammate Dillashaw. The problem is, there is not a single other compelling fight on this card, although Shayna Baszler vs. Bethe Correia could get interesting for reasons we will get to later. So if you're sold on seeing Barao vs. Dillashaw 2, then you'll order this, but if you see it as an unnecessary rematch based off a one-sided fight from just a few months ago, well... there's not much to sell you on this. If you do opt to watch the event, however, well, you might want to know who's going to appear - and who might win. So lets look at five main card predictions for UFC 177, a.k.a. the event that is designed to tide you over to better Fight Night cards and UFC 178 in September.
Primarily covering the sport of MMA from Ontario, Canada, Jay Anderson has been writing for various publications covering sports, technology, and pop culture since 2001. Jay holds an Honours Bachelor of Arts degree in English from the University of Guelph, and a Certificate in Leadership Skills from Humber College.
