The Ultimate Fighting Championship makes its way back to pay-per-view for UFC 285 on Saturday at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, and with it comes the expected stacked undercard. The featured slot sees former bantamweight champion Cody Garbrandt return to 135 pounds after an aborted campaign at flyweight, as he looks to get back on track in a sneakily difficult pairing against Trevin Jones. However, the next two bouts provide the most intrigue: Dricus Du Plessis gets a shot to break into middleweight contender status against Derek Brunson, while Brazilian countrywomen Viviane Araujo and Amanda Ribas each look to hold serve in an increasingly deep women’s flyweight division. Further down, there are some young prospects, led by rising Irish welterweight Ian Garry.
Bantamweights
Cody Garbrandt (12-5, 7-5 UFC) vs. Trevin Jones (13-9, 1-3 UFC)ODDS: Garbrandt (-165), Jones (+140)
Garbrandt is still somehow just 31 years old, but there is less and less faith that he can fully turn his career around. An obvious physical talent with elite quick-twitch athleticism and knockout power, Garbrandt quickly became a UFC favorite and was assumedly rushed into a title shot against then-champion Dominick Cruz at the tail end of 2016. That made it all the more impressive when Garbrandt put together the best performance of his career, countering Cruz consistently and becoming 135-pound champion in dominant fashion. However, it has been all downhill since. Garbrandt pivoted to a feud with former teammate T.J. Dillashaw. Garbrandt’s first defense saw him storm out to a hot start, only for Dillashaw to quickly adjust and score a knockout in the second round. The result looked even worse when Dillashaw picked up where he left off in an immediate rematch and ran through Garbrandt in under a round. A third straight loss, this time to Pedro Munhoz, seemingly wrote the book on Garbrandt as someone who was unable to adjust throughout his fights and, even worse, could be baited into losing a brawl at the drop of a hat. On the plus side, the loss to Munhoz seems to have been enough to make Garbrandt attempt to change his approach, but that really has not bore much fruit. He was able to score a spectacular knockout of Raphael Assuncao but has put on worrying performances in his last two trips to the Octagon. A main event against Rob Font went well enough until the point that Garbrandt got cracked, after which he became quite passive; and in what seems to have been an ill-advised cut down to flyweight, Garbrandt did not show much before getting knocked out by Kai Kara France.
“No Love” is at least back up at 135 pounds for this bout, but Jones is a tricky test. Some battle-tested veterans were able to get into the UFC amid the matchmaking chaos of 2020, and Jones has been one of the more successful members of that bunch, kicking off his UFC career with knockouts of Timur Valiev and Mario Bautista. That is essentially Jones’ game, as he is a powerful athlete in his own right who waits for opportunities to hit huge counters, even if he has been too cautious for his own good over the course of this three-fight losing streak. Jones has a size advantage and does seem to be conscious of his need to step up the aggression, so there is a solid shot that he lands a knockout blow and potentially derails Garbrandt’s UFC career for good. With that said, Garbrandt is the rightful favorite, mostly on the faith that he can still win a level of matchup that would clearly be the worst loss of his career otherwise—particularly on the back of his wrestling. The pick is Garbrandt via ugly decision.
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Garbrandt vs. Jones
Du Plessis vs. Brunson
Ribas vs. Araujo
Barriault vs. Marquez
Garry vs. Song
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Ricci vs. Penne
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