VIDEO | UFC Long Island: Road to the Octagon – Full Episode

This Saturday, the UFC will debut in Long Island, New York with the exciting, 13-fight UFC Long Island card.

This card will be headlined by a key middleweight scrap between struggling former champion Chris Weidman and surging contender Kelvin Gastelum. Weidman will enter this fight having been stopped in his last three Octagon appearances, first by Luke Rockhold, then by Yoel Romero, then by Gegard Mousasi. Gastelum, meanwhile, will enter the fight on a nice streak. In his most recent outing, he scored a dominant TKO win over MMA legend Vitor Belfort, though this win was overturned when he tested positive for marijuana metabolites. This fight was preceded by a TKO defeat of Tim Kennedy, and a decision defeat of former welterweight champion Johny Hendricks.

UFC Long Island’s co-main event, meanwhile, will see New York’s own Dennis Bermudez collide with hard-nosed wrestler Darren Elkins. When we last saw Bermudez in action, he had a two-fight streak derailed by the returning “Korean Zombie” Chan Sung Jung. Elkins, meanwhile, is on a fantastic four-fight streak. In his last fight, he picked up a KO win over Mirsad Bektic in one of the greatest comebacks ever.

Other features of the UFC Long Island card include a light heavyweight battle between Gian Villante and Patrick Cummins, and a bantamweight scrap between Jimmie Rivera and Thomas Almeida, who stand out as two of the division’s hottest contenders.

Ahead of this anticipated card, the UFC has released a full episode of Road to the Octagon for it. Watch this episode in full at the top of this post.

Which feature of the UFC Long Island bill are you most excited for? Do you think Chris Weidman corrects his skid in the main event, or does Kelvin Gastelum march further in the direction of a title shot?

This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 7/18/2017.