UFC Fight Night Barnett vs. Nelson: 5 Reasons to Watch

The cancellation of a bantamweight bout between Norifumi “Kid” Yamamoto and Matt Hobar has reduced this weekend’s UFC Fight Night 75: Barnett vs. Nelson fight card to 10 bouts.

In an event that marks the beginning of the UFC’s relentless fall schedule, Barnett will be making his first appearance since suffering an opening-round, knockout-loss to Travis Browne at last December’s UFC 168.

It’s UFC’s first event in Japan for more than a year and there will be a number of talented Asian fighters on the card at Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan.

In advance of his scrap this Saturday with Nelson, the UFC has posted an interesting segment, where Barnett discusses his time with PRIDE and his favorite bout.

In middleweight action, Mousasi will be looking to earn his third straight victory when he squares-off with Hall on Saturday, but defeating an un-ranked opponent won’t improve his already unlikely chances of earning a title shot. In his last five bouts, he’s 3-2. For me, it’s Diego Brandao.

And yet I still want to believe. When he’s aggressive and focused, Brandao can still look scary, but there are also those times where he seems completely overmatched mentally and physically and it’s hard to know which one you’re going to get on a fight-by-fight basis.

But until that happens, I’ll continue to hold out an irrational hope that the Brazilian featherweight figures it out and reaches his full potential.

A quick glance at the MMA Twitter beef repository indicates the social media squabble between UFC middleweights Elias Theodorou and Uriah Hall has moved from active to squashed ahead of UFC Fight Night 75.