The UFC’s debut on “Fight Island” comes to an end on Saturday with a marathon card in Abu Dhabi.
Except for any last minute dropouts, a whopping 15 fights will fall to the UFC on ESPN 14, the most since UFC 2 in 1994, and several of those fights are consequential.
Nothing but the main event of the night, in which Robert Whittaker returns to the cage for the first time since he lost the middleweight championship to Israel Adesanya. There, he will take on another fighter with something to prove, English star Darren Till. Till, a former welterweight title challenger, has made a successful transition to 185 pounds, and is looking to prove he’s here to stay in his new division.
UFC on ESPN 14 takes place on Saturday at Flash Forum on Yas Island in Abu Dhabi. The card is broadcast on ESPN and broadcast on ESPN +.
Without further ado, here are six burning questions heading to the UFC on ESPN 14.
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Does Robert Whittaker still have it?
We’ll admit that, at first glance, this seems like a bit of a tough question to ask someone who only has one loss, Adesanya at it, after a streak of nine winning fights. But then he stops and considers that Whittaker has fought only once in the past two years and twice in the past three.
And that your body doesn’t seem to want to cooperate, from knee injuries to staph infections and intestinal collapse.
And he also considers that even though Whittaker (20-5 MMA, 11-3 UFC) has not yet turned 30, he has gone through some wars, including 10 absolutely grueling rounds with an assassin on Yoel Romero.
Will this all come down as a detour on the road before Whittaker makes adjustments and returns to the top? Or could the disastrous second-round KO loss to Adesanya prove its final turning point? A battle with Till (18-2-1 MMA, 6-2-1 UFC) should give us a strong indication of where this is going.
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