The Return… To The Apex | UFC Vegas 67 Preview

This coming Saturday, the UFC returns to frequent scheduling as middleweights take to the Apex stage in the main event of the evening, featuring Nassourdine Imavov and Kelvin Gastelum.

Despite the whole ‘new year, new me’ spiel, in the year 2023, the UFC are still making use of the dark, energy sapping Apex. Not only that, but they’re still putting on an excessive amount of events, and the quality of said events are taking a big hit. Having said that, from top to bottom, there are some promising matchups on this weekends card.

One of the most exciting prospects in MMA, Shavkat Rakhmonov, was scheduled to co-main event UFC Vegas 67 against the hard hitting, Geoff Neal, but Neal pulled out a few weeks back, and the UFC have decided not to try and keep Shavkat on the card. That fight has since been re-scheduled for UFC 285 on March 4th. That was the first big hit the event took, as that fight was the peoples main event.

The co-main now stands as Dan Ige vs Damon Jackson in a featherweight affair. The aforementioned, Ige, is hoping to bounce back from a three fight skid, whereas the latter, Jackson, is looking to imitate a career best performance in his last outing, where he finished Pat Sabatini. The only loss that Jackson has faced in his second UFC tenure, was against streaking star, Ilia Topuira.

Just a few fights into the card is Isaac Dulgarian vs Dan Argueta. The reason this fight has been under the magnifying glass, is because Isaac Dulgarian was a long time product of Glory MMA. Of course, the controversial, James Krause, is no longer with the team and so Dulgarian’s preparations haven’t led to him having to find a new home, however, the situation around the gym can’t have been good for his preparation.

Not long after that is a bantamweight bout, between undefeated prospects, Javid Basharat and Mateus Mendonca.

The Brazilian 23-year-old impressed on Dana White’s Contender Series late in 2022. Basharat on the other hand, is one of the top prospects in a completely stacked bantamweight division. The Afghan native fought twice in 2022, impressively beating both Trevin Jones and Tony Gravely.

Despite this being an exciting matchup, UFC fans assumed that Basharat was going to be fighting close to the rankings, with 2023 being the year he finds a number next to his name.

The fight many fans are most looking forward to now, stands as Umar Nurmagomedov vs Raoni Barcelos. The 26-year-old Russian impressively dispatched of Nate Maness in his last outing, and prior to that, scored a finish over Brian Kelleher.

His Brazilian opponent, Barcelos, bounced back from back-to-back losses, unanimously defeating Trevin Jones. Again though, the opponent for Nurmagomedov came at a slight surprise, as the 26-year-old currently occupies rank 11, it was expected he’d fight someone in the range of 5-8.

And then comes the main event of the evening.

Kelvin Gastelum against the impressive Nassourdine Imavov. This will mark Gastelum’s fourth main event in eight years, with the 31-year-old consistently finding a way to hang around near the top of the division.

Imavov though is at a different stage in his career. At just 26-years-old, the talented “Russian Sniper” is looking to climb his way up the rankings, focussing on a top 8 bout before the year is out. Of course, the experience factor lies with Gastelum, who has been fighting under the UFC banner since 2012, and has fought for interim Gold.

The skill and youthfulness advantage though, lies with Imavov. Last time out, he had the pleasure of fighting in front of the French crowd in Paris, the country he represents. In that bout, he showcased an extremely impressive well-roundedness, defeating the tough, Joaquin Buckley.

The highly experienced, Gastelum, stands undoubtedly as Imavov’s toughest test so far, and a lot of questions will be answered come Saturday night.