UFC 225 is tonight! Who else is watching?

This is shaping up to be the most well rounded card of the year! Not only is the main card pretty stacked but even the prelims and early prelims have some great fights on them! The Australian Middleweight champion Robert Whittaker defends his belt against real life mutant ninja turtle and all round freak of nature Yoel Romero. Ex-Lightweight champion Rafael dos Anjos fights for the Welterweight Interim champion belt against the most hated man in the UFC Colby Covington and ex-WWE person CM Punk goes head to head with Michael Jackson who also has no wins on his record, he did write Thriller though. Someone's 0 has got to go!

I'm not quite a purist yet and I might never be but I'm not a casual either, far from it! I'm that sweet spot in the middle, I came into the UFC and MMA in general on the Conor McGregor hype train and I haven't looked back since! It's beyond McGregor at this point, there's so many interesting characters and interesting dynamics going on that I've fallen in love with the sport completely. There's still some blank spots but all I need is a moment and I'm sold, I say that for any purists out there reading this who may think I haven't given a fighter their due, it's simply because I haven't been sold on them as a character, as a person or on the importance of the dynamic in their fight, why's it interesting?

Any way back to the point! UFC 225, I'm just gonna give a quick run down of all the fights I care about and why, let's start with the main card.

Main Card

Robert Whittaker (19-4-0) v Yoel Romero (13-2-0) - Middleweight

Rafael dos Anjos (28-9-0) v Colby Covington (13-1-0) - Welterweight

Holly Holm (11-4-0) v Megan Anderson (8-2-0) - Women's Featherweight

Andrei Arlovski (27-15-0) v Tai Tuivasa (7-0-0) - Heavyweight

CM Punk (0-1-0) v Mike Jackson (0-1-0) - Welterweight

First of all there's two belts on the line here, one of them's an Interim belt but still! Whittaker and Romero have both proved themselves to be at the top of the foodchain, but it's Romero's unpredictability that makes this fight particularly interesting, he's known to knock opponents out in the later rounds, particularly the third and he's also an interesting character, that Cuban accent reminds me of Scarface and if he wins I'm definitely interested to see where it goes. RDA fighting Colby for the Interim belt leads in a whole load of interesting directions, first of all a fight with current Welterweight champion Tyron Woodley, I'd be happy to watch anybody knock him out, but, it would be particualrly funny if it was Colby, and you've got Darren Till bubbling in the background. I don't like Colby, but, I like Colby, I've seen his shtick, we all have, and that in itself creates more stake in a fight for me, there's more on the line now and I'm interested to see the outcome, I kind of hope he wins because I want someone who will go back n forth with him banter-wise, it would be fun and make for a great fight!

Then you have Holly Holm v Megan Anderson, I like Holly Holm, she seems like a nice woman and will always have the notch in her belt of having been the first one to dethrone Ronda Rousey! Since then she's been on a losing streak including losses to Miesha Tate and Cris Cyborg most notably, I'm rooting for her here, I don't know anything about Megan Anderson though. Then you have the hilariously deadpan Russian Andrei Arlovski fighting Tai Tuivasa who drinks spit out of shoes, literally, when Ariel Helwani told Andrei about it, he simply replied ''disgusting'', which, yeah. Rooting for the Russian in this one but it should be a great fight, Tuivasa's as yet undefeated in the Heavyweight division. Then of course we have CM Punk's second fight in the UFC, I've seen a lot of hate about him from purists or people pretending to be purists on social media but honestly I look forward to watching him fight again, he's a character, it's a story, will it be good? Probably not, definitely not on paper it's 0-1 v 0-1, but we'll see, I'm rooting for him and it definitely took some balls to step back in there after being humiliated in his first fight.

Prelims

Alistair Overeem (43-16-0, 1NC) v Curtis Blaydes (9-1-0, 1NC) - Heavyweight

Claudia Gadelha (15-3-0) v Carla Esparza (13-4-0) - Women's Strawweight

Ricardo Lamas (17-6-0) v Mirsad Bektic (12-1-0) - Featherweight

Rashad Coulter (8-3-0) v Chris De La Rocha (4-2-0) - Heavyweight

Alistair Overeem is the man who was almost decapitated by Francis Ngannou, it's very much old blood v young blood here or ''new meat'' as Alistair refers to it as, I don't have a whole lot invested in this but I'm interested enough to watch it, it's definitely a chance for Curtis Blaydes to shine and obviously everyone knows the Reem! I only know Claudia Gadelha from her fight with Joanna and I haven't really given Carla Esparza a look yet so, nothing invested in that for the moment, I've heard her name enough to give it a look though! Ricardo Lamas is another name I've heard, if I remember correctly it was him in that fight with Max Holloway where they had that awesome stand and bang moment, outside that not a whole lot invested here either, I don't know Mirsad Bektic but 12-1 is a pretty good looking record, on paper it's a great fight! Rashad Coulter and Chris De La Rocha, that's a completely blank slate for me, I don't know them and I don't care, maybe after the fight that will change!

Early Prelims

Rashad Evans (19-7-1) v Anthony Smith (28-13-0) - Light Heavyweight

Joseph Benavidez (25-4-0) v Sergio Pettis (16-3-0) - Flyweight

Clay Guida (34-17-0) v Charles Oliveira (22-8-0, 1NC) - Lightweight

Mike Santiago (19-11-0) v Dan Ige (8-2-0) - Featherweight

I don't know much about Rashad Evans but I know enough to be excited about this fight, he's the ex-Lightweight champion and he has some notable wins over names like Chuck Liddel, Michael Bisping, Tito Ortiz, Rampage Jackson, Dan Henderson and Chael Sonnen. I don't know much about Anthony Smith but he looked like a substitute teacher at the media press day! He seems like a cool dude and with 41 professional fights is a worthy opponent of Evans, it should be a great fight! I don't know much about Joseph Benavidez but he's got a great record, as does Sergio Pettis and I know just as much about him, I'm expecting a great fight! Clay Guida's a name I hear a lot and I definitely know what he looks like, looks like a fucking mess. Charles Oliveira's another name, I've got nothing interesting to say here or for Mike Santiago v Dan Ige unfortunately, this is the card to make me care though, I'll be watching!

That's about it for my mid-way between purist and casual perspective, I hope you hate me! It's an all round great card but that main card is pretty fucking beastly on its own, Whittaker/Romero and RDA/Colby in particular, and we get all of the answers tonight! It's like waiting for the next episode of a TV show you're really invested in, I can't wait! Then we get UFC 226 which I'm even more excited about, Holloway v Ortega is my most anticipated fight of the year so far! Are you excited about UFC 225 tonight, what are your thoughts and what's your most anticipated fight on the card? Let me know in the comments.