This saturday night when the Ultimate Fighting Championship invades the American Airlines Arena in Dallas, Texas, two world titles will be on the line.
The UFC heavyweight title will be the evening's main event when champion Stipe Miocic (16-2) is challenged by former title holder, Junior dos Santos (18-4). Miocic dropped a unanimous decision to Dos Santos when the two first competed against one another in December 2014.
Things are slightly different now, more than two and a half years later. Miocic is on a four-fight win streak, with all wins coming by way of knockout or technical knockout.
Dos Santos on the other has only fought twice since their first pairing, losing one fight to Alistair Overeem via TKO in 2015, followed by a unanimous decision win over Ben Rothwell in 2016.
On a path to make history?
No UFC heavyweight champion has ever defended his title more than two times in the history of the organization. With a win on Saturday, Miocic would have two wins since claiming the belt from former champion Fabricio Werdum in Brazil. Only former champions Brock Lesnar, Randy Couture, and Tim Sylvia, have ever defended the belt twice.
Joanna 'Champion'
In the evening's co-main event, undefeated women's strawweight champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk will face arguably her toughest opponent to date in Jessica Andrade.
Jedrzejczyk, a native of Poland, holds a perfect 13-0 professional mixed martial arts record while her opponent, Andrade, of Brazil, sports a 16-5 pro MMA record. Because of the complexity of properly pronouncing her last name, Jedrzejczyk is often called 'Joanna Champion' by UFC commentators and fans alike. But will that all end on Saturday night?
Jedrzejczyk captured the 115-pound title in March 2015, defeating the first ever UFC women's strawweight champion Carla Esparza via KO in the second round. Since then Jedrzejczyk has been called 'one of the best strikers in the UFC,' and has been on an absolute tear, defeating all four of her challengers.
Andrade is on a three-fight win streak since moving down from 135-pounds where she suffered her last defeat at the hands of Raquel Pennington in September 2015.
The Brazilian has defeated former title contender Jessica Penne, Joanne Calderwood, and most recently former Invicta Fighting Championship's strawweight champion Angela Hill.
If Andrade defeats Jedrzejczyk on Saturday night in Texas, she will become just the third woman to hold the title.
