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The year 2020 is upon us and with a big 2019 in the books for the UFC – their first under the new deal with ESPN – the world’s biggest MMA promotion will be hoping for another successful calendar year this time around.
With plenty of shows in store and 5 title fights already booked for the first quarter of the year, we should be in for a roller-coaster ride but undoubtedly, at least a handful of things will go wrong. After all, they always do in the world of MMA.
In an ideal world, though, the following 4 wishes would come true in the UFC in 2020.
#1 Khabib Nurmagomedov vs. Tony Ferguson will actually happen
UFC 249 is currently scheduled to take place on April 18th in Brooklyn, New York, and tentatively set to main event the show is the long awaited clash between Khabib Nurmagomedov and Tony Ferguson, with the UFC Lightweight title on the line. But will 2020 be the year that the fight finally happens? Every fan of MMA must hope so.
After all, this is a fight that the UFC has attempted to book before – on no less than four separate occasions since 2015 – and every time it has fallen apart at the last hurdle, with both men being forced out with injuries twice respectively. The last time the promotion signed the fight off, Ferguson somehow blew out his knee during a press conference – essentially, it’s hardly a stretch to call it cursed.
But hopefully, 2020 will be the year that the curse is broken. Although it’ll be hard to believe the fight will actually happen until the two men enter the Octagon, it’s still easy for any MMA fan to salivate over the prospect of Ferguson trying to use his unorthodox striking and grappling to combat the stifling wrestling game of ‘The Eagle’. If this fight takes place, it could be an all-time classic – so let’s hope that it does.
#2 Conor McGregor fights more than once
2019 saw the UFC sign a lucrative deal with ESPN that meant that their pay-per-views could only be purchased through the ESPN+ streaming service, and while that meant that the process became tricky for some fans, it proved to be a winner for the promotion – who now make as much money as they would’ve done for a buy rate close to 500k regardless of the actual number of buys.
That was a massive plus for the UFC last year as their biggest drawing card – Irish superstar Conor McGregor – did not fight at all following his 2018 loss to Khabib Nurmagomedov. However, 2020’s first pay-per-view will change that as ‘The Notorious One’ will step back into the Octagon to face-off against Donald Cerrone in the main event of UFC 246.
Will McGregor win the fight? It’s hard to tell, but one big wish for the UFC in 2020 must be that the Irishman returns to the Octagon on at least one more occasion before the year is out. That’s probably more likely if he beats Cerrone, as UFC President Dana White has suggested a Lightweight title shot would be within his grasp with a win – but even if he loses, it’d be nice to see him back in action against someone like Jorge Masvidal.
The UFC will definitely hope that this is a wish that comes true – particularly due to the financial impact it’d have – but it’d be cool for the fans too, as nobody else on the roster brings the kind of “big event” feel that McGregor does to a UFC show.
#3 The UFC stops throwing its fighters under the bus
The UFC has grown massively over the last fifteen years, but this hasn’t always been a good thing; most notably, at times the promotion doesn’t exactly treat its fighters too well. This isn’t always the case – the likes of Michael Bisping and Daniel Cormier have sung the praises of UFC President Dana White recently – but for every positive when it comes to the UFC’s treatment of its stars, there also seems to be a negative.
Take the recent spat between White and Lightweight contender Justin Gaethje, for instance; did the UFC President really need to tell the media that ‘The Highlight’ has been turning down fights in recent months, whether or not that’s true?
Gaethje isn’t the only fighter to have a beef with the UFC either; Heavyweight contender Francis Ngannou was complaining about his treatment prior to the announcement of his 2020 fight with Jairzinho Rozenstruik, while Cris Cyborg outright departed the promotion following a war of words with White in the summer.
Basically, no UFC fan wants to see their favorite fighters at war with the promotion, and while it is true that sometimes it feels like fighters are biting the hand that feeds them, most of the time the onus must be on the UFC – and White – to treat its athletes better. Hopefully 2020 will be the year that it finally happens.
#4 Jon Jones finally loses
Whether you love or hate Jon Jones, there’s no denying that the current UFC Light-Heavyweight champion is one of the greatest MMA fighters of all time. ‘Bones’ has only lost once in his 27 fight career, and even that wasn’t a true loss – it was a bogus disqualification against Matt Hamill back in 2009.
Since then, Jones has been put to test a couple of times – most notably by Alexander Gustafsson and Daniel Cormier – but he’s always been able to come through with a victory in the end. And if it wasn’t for his personal issues – including suspensions for PEDs – he’d have a ridiculous 13 UFC title defenses under his belt.
2019 wasn’t the best year for him though, despite being faced with a pair of apparently over-matched challengers in the form of Anthony Smith and Thiago Santos, Jones appeared to struggle during the fights, almost getting himself disqualified against Smith and being pushed all the way to a semi-controversial split decision against ‘Marreta’.
Given Jones is now 32 years old and has been at the top of the UFC for a decade, there must be hope that 2020 is finally the year in which someone knocks him off the top of the mountain at 205 lbs. Even ignoring the personal issues that hardly make ‘Bones’ the most likable fighter, someone finally being able to conquer him would arguably be the moment of the year for the MMA world.
