Diggin’ Deep on UFC: Blaydes vs. Lewis - Nine prelim bouts? Quantity doesn’t mean quality

Peter Casey-USA TODAY Sports As of now, there are nine – nine! – preliminary contests for UFC Vegas 19. There is time for a contest to fall out as it has become commonplace for one or two fights to fall out in the final days heading into events. Hell, it isn’t even that unusual for a fight to fall out after weigh-ins anymore. That’s why they’ve been scheduling cards to have a large number of fights because they expect them to have injury or illness pick away at amount of contests like vultures. That’s the reasoning behind the bloated card. What’s on the prelims is about as diverse of a group as you’ll find on prelims, from a former UFC title challenger to several newcomers, five to be exact. However, the former title challenger is well past his prime and nobody is predicting future title contender for any of the newcomers. That could mean nothing as there wasn’t a lot of buzz behind the debuts of the likes of Stipe Miocic and Khabib Nurmagomedov. Regardless, quantity doesn’t mean quality, meaning few would blame you if you waited until the main card.

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