For the first time in its 22 year history, the UFC will be staging three back to back consecutive events in one week. The cards comprise of a UFC Fight Pass card headlined by Strawweight's Paige VanZant vs Rose Namajunas, the Ultimate Fighter Season 22 Finale headlined by Chad Mendes vs Frankie Edgar and finally on Saturday, UFC 194 see's Featherweight Champion Jose Aldo takes on Interim Featherweight Champion Conor McGregor in the main event and in the co-main, Chris Weidman defends his UFC Middleweight championship for the forth time against fellow American, Luke Rockhold.
When all is said and done, in and around thirty six bouts will have taken place, depending of course on injuries and how the Ultimate Fighter Finale card is made up. There could be potentially be a new featherweight and middleweight champion, new number one contenders at Strawweight, Bantamweight, Featherweight, Lightweight and Middleweight.
First up on Thursday night, over on UFC Fight Pass, one of the UFC's brightest up and coming stars, Paige VanZant makes her UFC Main Event debut and looks to make a real statement when she takes on Ultimate Fighter Season Twenty runner up "Thug" Rose Namajunas. At only 21 years old, VanZant is one of the youngest fighters on the UFC roster. She is currently 3-0 in the UFC with all of those wins being dominating performances including two finishes over Kailin Curran and Alex Chambers. In her three bouts with the UFC she out struck her opponents 201 times to 86. She has been dominating to the point that many have pointed out that she should be next in line for a shot at Strawweight Champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk. Others have pointed out her that she is still young and that her career progression should be done slowly.
Paige was originally supposed to face Joanne "Jo-Jo" Calderwood on Thursday night but Jo-Jo was forced to pull out with a knee injury. Jo-Jo is ranked number nine on the official UFC rankings, two below VanZant.
Her new opponent, Rose is ranked number three, has already challenged for the UFC title and defeated Paige's original opponent Jo-Jo, albeit in the Ultimate Fighter. She is a huge step up in terms of caliber of opponent for VanZant. Rose is coming off a submission of the night finish over Angela Hill on the prelims for UFC 192 back in October. Prior to that bout, Rose last fought Carla Esparza for the Strawweight title back in December 2014. Rose was submitted in the third round of that bout, she was due to fight again in May this year at UFC 187 against Nina Ansaroff. The bout did not take place as Ansaroff was forced to withdraw 24 hours before the fight with the flu.
When Rose was competing on the Ultimate Fighter, comparisons were made at the time between herself and Ronda Rousey and how she would be the next big star in Women's Mixed Martial Art's. After her loss to Esparza last December, the hype around Rose began to fade away, this coupled with the rise of Joanna Jedrzejczyk and VanZant meant that the topic of the conversation turned to these women. Now with Rose back in winning form and in such spectacular fashion against Angela Hill, talks of a title shot are now looming again for her, and in a high profile fight against the UFC's current 'it' girl is the place for her to make her case.
Its unclear what the UFC will do with either lady should they win this weekend. For both girls, there are little other options for them other than a shot at Joanna. Depending on the nature of the win should she get it, Paige could soon see herself in the top five of the strawweight division. Despite the fact she has more than earned it (assuming she beats Namajunas), perhaps one or two more fights would be the best option for her, continue to bring her up slowly. A devastating loss to Joanna this early into her career could be detrimental in the long run for VanZant. The best thing to do for her would be to let her get used to the limelight of the main event and the formalities that go with it before booking a title shot.
Joanna's next defence will most likely be against Claudia Gadhella, the Brazilian that took her to a split decision last December. Joanna is also recovering from a broken hand following her second defence of her belt at UFC 193 against Valerie Letourneau last month. Therefore even if Paige was promised a title shot, the chances of that happening in the next six to nine months is extremely low.
Same can be said for Rose, should she win there are very little other options for her other than a title shot. Perhaps a rematch in the mean time with either of the two women that have beaten her before, Tecia Torres or Carla Esparza would be good for her. With Torres fighting at UFC 194 and Esparza hoping to return to fighting in 2016 after a shoulder injury, the timing works out to make either fight for Namajunas.