UFC Fight Night 70, all the way from Brazil to Hollywood, Florida, the card headlined by Lyoto Machida and Yoel Romero has seen significant changes ahead of Saturday night’s opening bell.
Originally expected to take place in São Paulo, Brazil, the event was moved to Hollywood, Florida at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino.
Then came the huge VISA problem, due to technical issues within the Bureau of Consular Affairs division of the U.S. State Department, which saw several big bouts forced off the card.
With the lightweight and bantamweight finals of The Ultimate Fighter: Brazil 4, as well as Rick Story vs. Erick Silva moved to later events, both Machida and Romero’s drawing power is the last remanence of adhesive holding together this badly effected fight card.
The main event is a definitive title eliminator for the next shot at the middleweight belt proceeding Luke Rockhold’s impending title opportunity against Chris Weidman.
After a second round submission loss to Rockhold, ‘The Dragon’ Machida (22-6); still ranked fourth, looks to make himself relevant again, after a less than impressive performance last time out.
As for Romero (9-1), he is riding an unbelievable five-fight win streak, and stands undefeated inside the Octagon. His last win may have an aura of controversy surrounding ‘stoolgate’ but there was no doubt of his finish over Kennedy in the third round.
Historically, Machida has struggled against good wrestlers, and losses to Weidman, Phil Davis and Jon Jones further solidify that fact. The Brazilian will look to initiate his in-and-out, quick fire style of striking, against a Olympic silver medallist in freestyle wrestling.
Romero will likely keep Machida down should the fight progress to the ground.
Also, in the co-main, Argentina’s Santiago Ponzinibbio (20-2) clashes with Strikeforce and UFC vertan Lorenz Larkin (15-4-1 NC).
Despite a flat showing against Ryan LaFlare in his UFC debut, Ponzinibbio proved it was simply a case of UFC jitters, with great back-to-back performances over Wendell Oliveira and Sean Strickland.
After struggling to cope in the UFC’s middleweight division, winning one of five, Larkin’s move down to welterweight seems like it could possibly give his 20 fight career a new liese on life. A superb TKO victory over John Howard in January proved Larkin could still hang with the toughest in the Octagon.
UFC Fight Night 70 Main Card (Fox Sports 1)
Middleweight Lyoto Machida vs. Yoel Romero
Welterweight Santiago Ponzinibbio vs. Lorenz Larkin
Middleweight Antônio Carlos Júnior vs. Eddie Gordon
Middleweight Thiago Santos vs. Steve Bossé
Featherweight Hacran Dias vs. Levan Makashvili
UFC Fight Night 70 Preliminary Card (Fox Sports 2)
Welterweight Alex Oliveira vs. Joe Merritt
Welterweight Leandro Silva vs. Lewis Gonzalez
Welterweight Steve Montgomery vs. Tony Sims
Bantamweight Danny Martinez vs. Sirwan Kakai
