A&K Fight Night: UFC 243 Preview, Cannonier, Bellator Dublin, DC's final fight and more

A&K Fight Night will be Alive and Kicking's weekly post on the biggest MMA news from around the world.

The debut post for Alive and Kicking will consist of the build up to the highly anticipated UFC 243, Jared Cannonier's recent win and where that takes him in the middleweight division, reaction to Bellator Dublin, former two-division champion Daniel Cormier's decision on retirement plans and other exciting details from the MMA world.

UFC 243 Preview

The upcoming event will take place in Melbourne, Australia where current UFC middleweight champion and native Australian/New Zealander Robert Whittaker will face interim middleweight champion Israel Adesanya.

Whittaker, who's record is 20-4, will be facing his toughest challenge yet in the form of Nigerian Adesanya as "The Last Stylebender" is undefeated (17-0).

The fight is predicted to be one of the most exciting bouts of the year with Whittaker being on a 9 fight win streak and the stylish, exuberant Adesanya having 13 knockouts from his 17 wins.

The co-main event consists of lightweight strikers Al Iaquinta vs Dan Hooker. Dan "The Hangman" Hooker has finished 17 of his 18 career MMA fights, where as Iaquinta's (#6 UFC lightweight) backing up his "fight anyone anywhere" attitude by taking on the ranked #15 UFC lightweight in the world.

The rest of the card features heavyweight bouts between Tai Tuivasa against Sergey Spivak and Justin Tafa vs Yorgan De Castro, plus Luke Jumeau will go against Dhiego Lima in the welterweight division.

Unfortunately, Holly Holm vs Raquel Pennington has been cancelled due to Holm partially tearing her hamstring, although MMA fans should be aware that the fight will be rescheduled for a later date-Pennington tweeted out, "I found out my opponent pulled from the fight due to injury...the fight will be rescheduled."

Title on the horizon for Cannonier

"The Killa Gorilla" recently fought in his first UFC main event against Jack "The Joker" Hermansson, whom he defeated by technical knockout in the second round.

As a result of his excellent performance, Jared Cannonier has moved up four places in the UFC rankings and is currently #5- The American now is surely at most one fight away from getting a chance to dance with the winner at UFC 243.

Taking a look at the rankings, a fight between Paulo Costa could be on the cards with the Brazilian ranked at #2 in the division.

Costa has won 12 of his 13 fights by stoppage (11 KO and 1 submission) makes him a dangerous opponent, however Cannonier has stepped his game up massively since being in the middleweight division and has become a very well-rounded fighter.

Unfortunately, as Hermansson found, fighters don't always fight opponents above themselves in the rankings so Cannonier could face someone below him such as Ronaldo "Jacare" Souza, but either way after seeing "The Killa Gorilla's" journey in the octagon, he's capable of defeating anyone with his current mindset.

Humble and gracious in victory, whilst also letting his performances do the talking- rare, but excellent qualities for a modern mixed martial artist.

Bellator's time in Dublin recapped

Bellator hosted their typical style of events where a smaller, less hyped card of fighters will fight before the actual main fighting event begins-on the first main event, Irishman James Gallagher (22 years old) choked his opponent out in 35 seconds of the very first round.

Critics of Gallagher had previously called him a "Conor McGregor wannabe", although after his win an emotional Gallagher embraced McGregor who was in attendance of the event.

When asked about Gallagher's performance, McGregor replied saying "it was a phenomenal performance."

The winner of the second main event was MMA veteran Benson Henderson who comfortably beat Bellator debutant Miles Jury by unanimous decision.

Henderson was not as delighted with his performance in comparison to Gallagher, as he said his performance was "unsatisfactory."

Notable wins also came from Frans Mlambo, Leah McCourt, Michael Page, Norbert Novenyl Jr and Kiefer Crosbie.

Daniel Cormier announces retirement fight

Former Olympic wrestler and two-time division UFC champion (Heavyweight and Light heavyweight) Daniel Cormier has announced he will fight one more time in the octagon.

No opponent has been finalised, but in an interview with ESPN's Ariel Helwani DC stated he wants it to be against Stipe Miocic-" Next one is the last one, but it has to be Stipe, no one else matters."

The fight would set up an epic trilogy fight as Cormier defeated Miocic in their first encounter, however in August of this year Miocic returned the favour and stopped the 40-year-old.

As much to the delight of MMA fans who are excited for the heavyweight fight, many want Jon Jones to be his final opponent.

Despite Jones beating Cormier in their past two fights, a fight at heavyweight would make it one of the most exciting fights of 2020 if it were to occur.

Yair Rodriguez vs Jeremy Stephens rebooked

An eye poke in the first 15 seconds by Rodriguez on Stephens ended the UFC Mexico's main event, yet much to the delight of the fans the UFC have booked their second affair as a co main event for UFC on ESPN 6.

The eye poke left Stephens unable to continue, and the no contest bout has created bad blood between the two as footage has emerged from a hotel, of the two having an altercation which ended in Stephens pushing Rodriguez.

Their heated exchange will ensure their next fight will not be a no contest next time, as neither fighter will want the other to come unscathed.