Bellator, UFC

Bellator 197 and UFC Glendale fun fight facts

Peter Knox

April 11, 2018

Another double feature is upon us this weekend with a lightweight banger between Michael Chandler (17-4-0) and Brandon Girtz (15-7-0) to kick’s us off on Friday the 13th at Bellator 197. Fireworks follow as Justin Gaethje(18-1-0) and Dustin Poirier(22-5-0) look to break into a top three spot in the UFC lightweight rankings on Saturday at UFC Glendale. Here are some fun fight facts:

Bellator 197

At 22, AJ Mckee is undefeated 10-0 with the longest winning streak in Bellator history. Seven of those wins via finish
Mckee headlined his last fight at Bellator 187, where he defeated Brian Moore via RNC
“Halloween terror, its Friday the 13th, I’m coming to slice something Michael Myers style. Its gonna be fun” (Aj Mckee via fightful.com)
Home court advantage, Justin Gaethje fights in his home state of Arizona while Michael Chandler returns to Missouri for the first time since Bellator 157. Last time, Chandler knocked out Patricky Pitbull to win the vacant lightweight title
Chandler’s 14 victories are tied with Patricio Freire for most in company history
Michael Chandler started as a welterweight but made his lightweight transition with the Bellator promotion winning the season 4 tournament to get the title shot against Eddie Alvarez
Chandler’s 11 victories in Bellator lightweight competition are most in divisional history
Girtz and Chandler have a combined 30 Bellator fights under their belts
At Minnesota State, Girtz received NCAA Division II All-American honours
Brandon Girtz and Justin Gaethje are longtime training partners, he said: “This is like the third fight in a row where Gaethje and I are fighting a week apart” (Brandon Girtz via Cagesidepress.com)
MMA vet Justin Lawrence was a cast member on The Ultimate Fighter 15
Lawrence is a two-time St. Louis’ Golden Gloves Boxing Tournament Champion and has over 150 amateur kickboxing wins
Kevin Ferguson Jr. is the eldest son of the late professional fighter Kimbo Slice
Ferguson’s has two pro wins, both first-round finishes
“Baby Slice” Kevin Ferguson attended the Academy of Art University in San Francisco where he studied Fashion and Photography.He most recently designed new Team Kimbo shirts

UFC Glendale

Dustin Poirier won an eight-man tournament as an amateur in Iowa over the course of two days
He’s received several UFC bonuses 4x fight of the night, 2x performance of the night and 1x submission of the night
Dustin Poirier is known to auction off his fight kit to donate $$ to various foundations helping those in need

Justin Gaethje’s TKO win/UFC debut against Michael Johnson won 2017’s fight of the year
15 of his 18 wins have come by stoppage
At the University of Northern Colorado, Justin received 2010 Division I All-American and finished seventh in NCAA tournament
“I want to go to Brazil, I want to fight top Brazilians in Brazil. I want to go to Russia, fight Khabib in Russia. They’re going to be screaming ‘you’re gonna die’ the whole time. That’s the sh*t that I freakin’ love. It’s the sh*t that separates one from the other.” (Justin Gaethje via MMAfighting.com)
Alex Oliveira’s most recent bout against Yancy Medeiros came in a close second for 2017’s fight of the year
Oliveira’s fight journey began after he was spotted fighting in a nightclub and invited to start training
Oliveira is stepping up on short notice (two weeks) to replace Matt Brown
Carlos Condit is a former interim UFC welterweight champion and WEC welterweight champion. where he made three successful title defences as their last champion
28 of Condit’s 30 wins have come by way of knockout or submission