This weekend, the UFC will return to New York City’s hallowed Madison Square Garden with the stacked UFC 217.
In the main event of this massive card, former UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre will return from a multi-year hiatus to battle reigning UFC middleweight champion Michael “The Count” Bisping. The co-main event of the card, finally, will see bantamweight champ Cody Garbrandt and challenger TJ Dillashaw settle a long-standing beef, while the card will also feature a third title fight as strawweight champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk attempts to defend her strap against Rose Namajunas.
Other features of the card include a welterweight scrap between top contenders Jorge Masvidal and Stephen “Wonderboy” Thompson, a middleweight scrap between former welterweight champ Johny Hendricks and Paulo Borrachinha, a lightweight bout between Joe Duffy and James Vick, a welterweight bout between Mickey Gall and Randy Brown, and a light heavyweight bout between Corey Anderson and Ovince Saint Preux.
Today, all of the fighters scheduled for non-title bouts partook in a traditional pre-fight media day. Part of the day’s schedule were some awesome, pre-fight staredowns, which included some pretty interesting moments, from a handshake-denial from undercard light heavyweight Ion Cutelaba, to a mid-staredown phone call to Randy Brown, to a throat-slash from Jorge Masvidal. See it all unfold in the video at the top of this post!
Here’s a full rundown of the stacked UFC 217 card!
UFC 217 Fight Card
Main Card | 10pm ET / 7pm PT on Pay-Per-View
- Michael Bisping (c) (30-7) vs. Georges St-Pierre (25-2)*
- Cody Garbrandt (c) (11-0) vs. TJ Dillashaw (15-3)**
- Joanna Jedrzejczyk (c) (14-0) vs. Rose Namajunas (7-3)***
- Stephen Thompson (13-2-1) vs. Jorge Masvidal (32-12)
- Johny Hendricks (18-7) vs. Paulo Henrique Borrachinha (10-0)
Prelims | 8pm ET / 5pm PT on FS1
- James Vick (11-1) vs. Joseph Duffy (17-2)
- Walt Harris (10-6) vs. Mark Godbeer (12-3)
- Corey Anderson (10-3) vs. Ovince Saint Preux (21-10)
- Randy Brown (9-2) vs. Mickey Gall (4-0)
Prelims | 6:30pm ET / 3:30pm on UFC Fight Pass
- Michał Oleksiejczuk (12-2) vs. Ion Cutelaba (13-3, 1NC)
- Aleksei Oleinik (52-10-1) vs. Curtis Blaydes (7-1, 1NC)
- Aiemann Zahabi (7-0) vs. Ricardo Ramos (10-1)
What features of the UFC 217 card are you most excited for?
This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 1/11/2017.