Stream UFC 296 on ESPN+ https://plus.espn.com/ufc/ppv Megan Olivi and Brett Okamoto get you ready for the final PPV of 2023 …
what’s up everyone Megan alevy BR OT here UFC 296 is almost upon us and I feel like this is one of the best pay-per-views at least on paper that we have put together in a long time and that’s saying something considering how many great cards there have been the main event Leon Edwards versus kobby Covington a fight we’ve talked about for a long time but we’ll finally get to see yeah I I completely agree top to bottom I think this card is is very very stacked it’s very very interesting it’s got a lot of different story lines at play um yes I know we do talk about these pay-per-views and we’re always like man this card is so great this card is so great and there’s different levels of great I do think this one stands stands above um I think I don’t know what people like if they think that Colby deserves this or not like he he keeps saying that that people say that he’s he’s not deserving of it that maybe he’s hearing that chatter and I don’t know if he’s making it louder in his own head than it really is I do think there are some people like hey man the dude’s sat out for 20 months and so why is he getting a title fight I think that Colby Covington is is deserving of this I think he had two extremely close fights withar Usman he really believes that he won one of those and that the other one was stopped prematurely so I think that he is deserving of this opportunity I think he has done when he when he needed to do something he put together the types of performances to get you into this position so this is his last shot I think I mean you’ve already lost two so he’s he turns 36 in a couple months uh so this is going to be his last shot and right now Leon Edwards is is flying High I mean the guy just like since that kick everything has gone well for Leon Edwards so you got Stakes you’ve got potentially shot for Colby Covington a different matchup at 170 a fresh matchup I’m very excited for the main event such interesting Styles going head to-head as well that main event is going to be so exciting scheduled of course for five rounds but also scheduled for five rounds another title fight this one for the flyweight World title Alexandre Pantoja Who will look for his first title defense against Brandon royval Brandon royval is somebody who’s may be flying under the radar a little bit but for those who us of us who have watched his career immensely talented you’re so right very much flying under the radar and I don’t know why because he is super entertaining so it’s he’s very very fan friendly but he just has kind of lacked some of those big big type moment fights you know and and and in one of them that he suffered kind of an arm injury so it ended a little bit weird um he’s had sort of an understated career in terms of yes the recognition that he’s getting but this guy’s good he’s confident he’s creative um super interesting match up all the matchups at flyweight are interesting because it’s just a it’s just a very very interesting division these guys are capable of doing everything I mean davidon figuro is a former Champion but he was saying man it’s easy up here at 135 cuz these guys moving slow you know like the fly whes are moving like this and it’s going to be that type of fight it’s going to be a FR a frantic fast-paced fight really really entertaining fan friendly um championship match up I’m glad it gets to co-headline a card with such an intriguing fight like Leon and Colby as well so we’ll get some more eyeballs in that division because you know we love the flyways all right rounding out this pay-per-view we’ve got chavot versus Steph Thompson uh Tony versus Patty and viente luk versus Ian G Brett they told us talk about three fights I’m going to let you pick what the third one is dang yeah that is hard to do because you know I I think the eyeballs are going to are going to go towards Tony just because of you know the situation that he’s in David goggin the David gogins and let’s be honest some of us are really worried about that and others think it’s a great idea so there’s like yeah there’s that that Intrigue of like is Tony going to come in just completely gassed out because of this hard training camp that he’s gone through so I think there’s just a lot of intrigue there this kind of almost turn that Patty was like liked and now he’s not liked because of the way his last fight went um and now he’s fighting just a beloved guy in the sport so I think that um that’s the one that’s going to kind of suck all the air out but I’m interested to see Ian Gary I think this guy has been talking ever since he came into the UFC like I don’t think he has stopped talking since the UFC signed him but I have been so impressed talk or not of the development of of his skills he has looked so much better in every fight I mean in the beginning he was kind of underwhelming he had some kind of flat performances he is cooking right now and so I I’m I’m very interested to see what that matchup looks like with two guys who are familiar with one another cuz they’ve trained together yeah well facing a former teammate in vente Luke this entire UFC 296 card is so great what a way to close out 2023 that’s our final event of the year and we cannot wait for it Brett and I will be on site to give you all the coverage you need for UFC [Applause] [Music] 296