A preview of an underrated card in New Brunswick, and predictions on which fighter has better odds at leaving Moncton with a win.

After the spectacle of UFC 229, the promotion returns to usual programming with a Fight Night in Canada. The first UFC event centered in Moncton is headlined by a former light heavyweight title contender and a relative newcomer to the division.

Volkan Oezdemir is 3-1 in the UFC, and his only loss is to current double-champion Daniel Cormier; he looks to rebound from that January setback and defeat the surging “Lionheart” Anthony Smith, who has cut through everyone he’s faced at light heavyweight. Smith has found success after moving up to 205 in June of 2018, but Oezdemir represents the most dangerous and truly relevant opposition that Smith will have faced in the division.

The winner will most likely be one of the top contenders at light heavyweight and perhaps poised for a fight with the winner of one of the bouts slated for the end of the year: Jon Jones vs. Alexander Gustafsson 2, or Ilir Latifi vs. Corey Anderson. As sparse as the light heavyweight division is, especially with the impending retirement of champion Cormier (and despite the influx of prospects such as Dominick Reyes and Aleksandar Rakic), this fight comes with real consequences for the division, and the track record of the two men involved suggests that the contest will be uncommonly violent.

The entire event is deceptively strong, considering the star power expended at 229 and occupied for the rest of the year; this strength even ranges to the prelims, where two of the stronger prospects at the lighter weight classes, Calvin Kattar, and Nasrat Haqparast, look to defeat Chris Fishgold and Thibault Gouti (respectively). The main card features a number of relevant contests that are possible to be broken down; this article will attempt to do so, and come away with the fighter more likely to get their hand raised.