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UFC Fight Night 112: Three Fights You Don't Want To Miss

The UFC will stage its fourth event of the month on Sunday night, with UFC Fight Night 112 seeing the Octagon roadshow pull into the Chesapeake Energy Arena in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

Ending a run of five consecutive weekends with a UFC show, MMA fans could be forgiven for feeling a little fatigued and disinterested in this weekend’s offering. But the six-fight main card is surprisingly well stacked, with plenty of intrigue for the casual to the more discerning of fight fans.

Here are the three fights at UFC Fight Night 122 that you don’t want to miss.

Michael Chiesa vs Kevin Lee – Lightweight

Ordinarily, this bout between two skilled yet hardly world famous fighters would garner little interest beyond the most ardent followers of the sport.

But a controversial scuffle between the pair on stage at a recent UFC promotional event has left everyone in anticipation of seeing the two 155lbs fighters face of in the Octagon, in what promises to be a grudge match between two competitors more emotionally invested that you’d usually expect.

Wrestler Chiesa comes into the fight as the UFC’s eighth-ranked lightweight with hopes of further climbing the ladder towards title contention. The gifted grappler and submission specialist has won seven of his nine Octagon bouts to date, with the most recent a hugely impressive rear-naked choke tap-out of Jiu Jitsu stylist Beneil Dariush in April last year.

Heavy-hitting Lee has eight wins from 10 UFC outings and is also coming off a stellar submission victory over a grappling specialist having tapped out Francisco Trinaldo in March


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Tim Boetsch vs Johny Hendricks – Middleweight

Middleweight power strikers Tim Boetsch and Johny Hendricks will meet on Sunday night in a battle of two fighters trying to rediscover the kind of form which once saw them regarded among the finest in their division.

Boetsch has lost seven of his last 11 fights, dropping a submission reverse to Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza earlier this year and will be hoping to bounce back against former welterweight king Hendricks.

“Big Rig” got his hand raised in his last outing, earning a decision victory over veteran Judoka Hector Lombard, but he too has struggled for consistency in recent years, winning once in his last four bouts and only three times in his last eight.

It’s unlikely that either man will recapture their former glories at this point, but both remain skilled, dangerous and tremendously powerful.

BJ Penn vs Dennis Siver – Featherweight

 BJ Penn
BJ Penn

One of only three men to hold titles in two different weight divisions, BJ Penn is a legend of the sport and a shoo-in for the UFC Hall of Fame in the future. But at 38, the Hawaiian is a shadow of his former self, and even his most vociferous supporters would agree that, win or lose, the former welterweight and lightweight champion should hang up his gloves on Sunday night.

Penn lost in emphatic fashion to young contender Yair Rodríguez last time out, but will face a more manageable task this weekend in the form of fellow 38-year-old Dennis Siver, who himself has won just once in five fights.

This contest marks the perfect opportunity for Penn to bow out with his hand raised, in what would be his first victory in almost seven years.