Heading into UFC 225, the heavyweight division was looking at a major injection of youth.
Somewhat controversially placed on the prelims, former Strikeforce Heavyweight Champion and UFC Title Challenger, #2 Alistair Overeem took on #4 Curtis Blaydes. After impressive performances against, Adam Milstead, Daniel Omielanczuk, Aleksei Oleinik and Mark Hunt, a win over Overeem would put him in title contention.
Blaydes used his superior wrestling ability to secure a three round decision victory over his decorated opponent. We saw Blaydes open up his hands and stun Overeem in the third to set up his final takedown that allowed him to cruise his way to a victory -- or so it appeared. With just over a minute remaining in the fight, Blaydes unloaded disgusting elbows, opening up and knocking out Overeem.
After the fight, Blaydes made his desire to take on the winner of UFC 226's main event known.
Not necessarily as close to the title was the charismatic #12 Tai Tuivasa. After two quick knockout wins in the UFC, he was faced with the task of taking down former UFC Champion and #9 Andrei Arlovski, which got the PPV main card treatment.
The bout saw the two trade big punches throughout the first two rounds, which led to the first third round (and second round, for that matter), of Tuivasa's career. The final stanza saw Arlovski putting together combinations and limiting Tuivasa to single punches, staying active in an effort to steal the round. After going to the scorecards, Tuivasa managed to edge out the former UFC Heavyweight Champion.
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