UFC heads to Nashville for fight night 148

The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) heads to the Bridgestone Arena in Nashville tomorrow live on SS6 at 1am for UFC Fight Night 148.The event will be headlined by a Welterweight match between Stephen Thompson and Anthony Pettis. Thompson, widely regarded as one of the most accomplished strikers in the UFC, comes into the fight with a 14-3-1 professional record. However, he has won only once in his last four matches.

The 36-year-old suffered a unanimous decision defeat at the hands of Darren Till in his most recent outing, which took place at UFC Fight Night 130 in May last year. Thompson also notably drew with Tyron Woodley at UFC 205 in November 2016, before a majority decision defeat to the same fighter four months later at UFC 209 – both matches were for the UFC Welterweight Championship.

His opponent is 32-year-old Pettis, a former UFC Lightweight champion. The Milwaukee-born fighter was last in action at UFC 229 in October last year, where his corner threw in the towel (due to a broken hand) at the end of the second round for a TKO defeat at the hands of Tony Ferguson. Pettis holds a 21-8-0 professional record and is returning to the Welterweight division for the first time since 2008.

The co-main event is a heavyweight bout between number four ranked Curtis Blaydes (who saw a four-match winning streak ended by Francis Ngannou in November last year) and Justin Willis, who has won eight consecutive fights and is looking to claim a major scalp to accelerate his rise in the division.

The main card also features a Lightweight bout between John Makdessi (16-6-0) and Nasrat Haqparast (10-2-0); a Flyweight battle between Jussier Formiga (22-5-0) and Deiveson Figueiredo (15-0-0); Luis Pena (3-1-0) takes on Steven Peterson (16-7-0) in the Featherweight division; and the top drawer action kicks off with a Women Flyweight fight pitting Maycee Barber (6-0-0) against JJ Aldrich (7-2-0).