Getty Khabib Nurmagomedov poses on the scale during the UFC 254 weigh-in on October 23, 2020 on UFC Fight Island, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.
Khabib Nurmagomedov and Justin Gaethje are set to face off for one of the most highly anticipated UFC main events in recent memory, but the fight night will also feature a packed card of prelims to set the tone.
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In the United States, the early prelims (11 a.m. ET) won’t be televised, and the prelims (Noon ET) will be on ESPN2, but if you don’t have cable, anyone in the US can watch all the UFC 254 prelim fights live on ESPN+:
ESPN+ has live coverage of nearly every UFC Fight Night and prelim card, as well as dozens of other live sports. It also includes every 30-for-30 documentary and additional original content (both video and written) all for $5.99 per month.
Additionally, if you plan on also watching the UFC 254 PPV, you can buy the PPV and a year of ESPN+ for 84.98, which works out to just over 25 percent savings:
Once signed up for ESPN+, you can watch the UFC 254 prelims live on the ESPN app on your Roku, Roku TV, Amazon Fire TV or Firestick, Apple TV, Chromecast, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, iPhone, Android phone, iPad or Android tablet.
You can also watch the fights on your computer via ESPN.com.
UFC 254 Prelims Preview
There will be plenty of action before the main card at UFC 254 with some notable names in the prelim fights. Here’s who’s set to take the octagon for the early fights:
Prelims
Heavyweight: Stefan Struve (265) vs. Tai Tuivasa (265)
Catchweight (140 lb): Nathaniel Wood (140) vs. Casey Kenney (140)
Welterweight: Alex Oliveira (173) vs. Shavkat Rakhmonov (171)
Light Heavyweight: Da Un Jung (206) vs. Sam Alvey (206)
Early preliminary card
Women’s Flyweight: Liana Jojua (126) vs. Miranda Maverick (126)
Lightweight: Joel Álvarez (159.5)* vs. Alexander Yakovlev (155.5)
The notable clash is between the two heavyweights, Struve and Tuivasa. Struve is a veteran with more than 40 fights to his name, but he’s just 2-4 in the UFC. Tuivasa, aka Bam Bam, is 9-3 and all but one of his wins have come via knockout. Tuivasa won his first two UFC fights, but has dropped his last three in a row by knockout, decision and submissions.
“He’s an exciting fighter, he always brings something to the table that not a lot of people have, and that’s personality to his fighting style,” Struve told reporters at UFC 254 media day. “I think it’s a good matchup for me. If I fight the way I should fight and the way I was fighting Rothwell, because before the low blows he didn’t get a single shot with me, if I fight like that, Tuivasa ain’t touching me either. And everybody agrees, if I take him down, it’s going to be a bad night for him.”
Fight fans will also be excited to see what Casey Kenney can do. He’s won eight of his last nine fights, including a submission win against Louis Smolka back on May 30. It’s the fourth fight of the year for Kenney as he takes on Nathaniel Wood, who has won nine of his last 10 and is 4-1 in UFC action.
“It’s about time us little guys got some respect,” Kenney told SCMP MMA. “This is a tough division and I wouldn’t have it any other way. I’m trying to beat the game on ‘expert’, I’m not trying to beat the game on ‘easy.’
“I’ve really think I’ve hit my stride and found my home here in bantamweight,” said Kenney. “The last two fights I have walked into the cage about 10 pounds bigger than I did in my first three fights in the UFC. I spent a lot of years sucking down to flyweight and not it’s just been letting my body grow into what it should be and here we are. It’s working. Getting down to flyweight used to steal my soul.”