If you drill down through the UFC 205 hype, down past the Conor McGregor layer and the New York City layer and the Jose Aldo layer, and if you can see despite the glare of the three title belts that will be on the line that night, you might just find a pretty interesting UFC card happening this weekend.
What you'll find is UFC Fight Night 96, going down Saturday from Portland, Oregon. In the main event, John Dodson, one of the hardest-hitting bantamweights on the UFC roster, faces John Lineker, one of the hardest hitters in the entire UFC. The co-main event pits former Bellator lightweight champ Will Brooks in his second UFC contest, this one against aggressive finisher Alex "Cowboy But Not Donald Cerrone Cowboy" Oliveira.
What are the key storylines to follow coming into and out of this event? Here are the top four.
Don't Blink During the Main Event
Two former flyweights named John. Freaky, I know.
Not enough to pique your interest? I guess that makes one of us. OK, your majesty. How about two former flyweights named John with 22 knockout wins between them fighting for top-contender status? Oh, now you're happy.
If you're not familiar with John Lineker, take Saturday to rectify that. With 13 of his 28 pro wins coming directly by knockout and several other wins besides having been set up by his ferocious punches, it's clear what Lineker (28-7) is in there to do.
But this is far from a one-man show.
After all, this bout probably determines the next challenger in the bantamweight division, and the other John in the equation is a good reason for that.
John Dodson (18-7) is a spectacular and spectacularly skilled athlete. His supercharged hand and foot speed made him one of the best flyweights around, and a 37-second knockout in his return to 135 pounds showed he carried those talents—and his truck-stopping power—back up to bantamweight with him.
A slight betting underdog according to Odds Shark, Dodson may be able to skitter around the perimeter, dancing inside for quick strikes and combinations. At 5'3" he won't be able to exploit Lineker's size, but his fast-twitch is very much on the table.
Is John Lineker a Real Contender?
You may know him as the flyweight who could never make flyweight. The Brazilian missed the division's 125-pound weight limit on four separate occasions—at one point constituting half his UFC career! Not what you're looking for.
And yet, through it all there was one saving grace. That would be the remarkable power in his fists. Unless he contracted greyscale, that power must be why they call him "Hands of Stone."
Thanks to the thunder coiled into that 5'3" frame, Lineker has earned quite the cult following on social media. This is a chance to transcend that position.
A win over Dodson would be the biggest win of his pro career, in any weight class. But given Dodson's aforementioned athleticism, Lineker might need to prove he's more than a head-hunter. Come to think of it, that's probably kind of the point.
Can Will Brooks Find a Foothold in UFC's Most Crowded Division?
The 29-year-old Brooks (19-1) made the UFC leap earlier this year, taking a close and conservative decision victory over Ross Pearson in his debut.
Brooks has been plenty busy in Bellator for years, though, beating Michael Chandler, Marcin Held and plenty of others while earning and defending the promotion's lightweight belt.
He's aiming for similar heights in the UFC, but to do that he'll need to navigate a very crowded division. The official UFC rankings are certainly not a perfect tool, but when Dustin Poirier is ranked No. 10 and Edson Barboza is only No. 5, that's telling you something.
Brooks certainly has the chops, including a hybridized karate-wrestling game that is tough to deal with, wherein he fights from long range and attacks with kicks but still can get and defend takedowns. This fight with a bona fide berserker in Oliveira is a needed step forward. A finish would make it two steps.
Popular Veterans Face Possible Pink Slips
Three straight losses is generally accepted as the UFC's cut line. Walking papers often follow closely behind consecutive defeat No. 3.
But not always. Sometimes, a fighter who's particularly popular with fans or UFC brass can survive beyond that line. Sometimes, the opposite applies. It's a complex calculation, and there are several fighters on the Portland card who may be on the wrong side of it.
Middleweight Nate Marquardt might be among them. The 37-year-old veteran has shown a diminished chin in dropping three of his last four (two by knockout) and six of eight (four by knockout) dating back to 2013. He needs to make a statement in the featured bout on the UFC Fight Pass portion of the undercard, where he has stiff competition in Tamdan "The Barn Cat" McCrory.
The 36-year-old Joshua Burkman has also seen defeat in three of his last four—and it would be four of five if Hector Lombard hadn't burned down the bathroom with his urine stream and turned a win to a no- contest. Burkman may have caught a bit of a matchmaking break in Portland when Bobby Green pulled out with injury and UFC newcomer Zak Ottow replaced him. If Burkman can't beat Ottow, that's a problem.
Andre Fili is only 26 and probably not facing release, but we'll throw him in as an honorable mention (of sorts) because this is a massive fight for him. The Team Alpha Male trainee is not a prospect anymore. What he is is a 3-3 UFC fighter coming off a loss in which he was on the wrong end of the highlight reel against Yair Rodriguez. See video.
Fili has yet to defeat a dyed-in-the-wool top-level fighter. His opponent Saturday, Hacran Dias, is ranked 12th in the official rankings. A win would be the biggest feather in his UFC cap to date.
Scott Harris writes about MMA for Bleacher Report. For more stuff like this, follow Scott on Twitter.
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