5 Main Card Predictions For UFC 177

5. Yancy Medeiros vs. Damon Jackson

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xASZ0IXczN0 Weight Class: Lightweight Lets start with this simple statement: This is a fight that has no place on a UFC PPV. The fact that it is included on UFC 177, even as the opening fight, is a testament to how weak this card really is. Originally, this fight was to feature Medeiros vs. Justin Edwards, which wasn't any better - Edwards is on a two-fight skid, and in no way shape or form should that fight have been considered PPV-worthy. That fight was itself replacing a scrapped heavyweight bout (Ruslan Magomedov vs. Richard Odoms, cancelled due to an injury to Odoms), so it was basically just something the UFC cobbled together to fill a slot on the card. Now instead of Edwards we get Jackson. This isn't a knock on the fighters, they're just not at a PPV level. So what do you do? A lack of matchmaking care and poor event planning produced a fight that should have been on the prelims, and really, the Scott Jorgensen bout on the preliminary card should have been bumped up - but even the prelims for this event look weak, and moving Jorgensen, who actually has a recognizable name and puts on entertaining fights, would rob the free show of it's most notable name. The other option would have been to replace one heavyweight bout with another and move Ruan Potts vs. Anthony Hamilton to the opening slot of the main card, but both fighters are coming off losses and neither is well know to fans with only one fight a piece in the UFC so far. So Medeiros (9-2, 1NC), who hasn't won a bout since 2010, gets newcomer Damon Jackson (9-0), a former Legacy FC champ, and the fans, honestly, get cheated. It's not that this won't be a decent bout, but it's not a compelling fight and only winds up on the PPV card because of a lack of depth at the event, period. I'm actually giving the edge to the debuting Jackson in this fight, mostly because he has been winning, and winning over some decent names outside the UFC (it's likely his win over Leonard Garcia that caught the UFC's eye). Jackson (who is known as The Leech) by submission in the second round.