The UFC touches down for the first time Saturday in the storied fight city of Curitiba for its biggest Brazilian card to date, as UFC 198 looks to pack a 45,000-seat soccer stadium for Fabricio Werdum's first heavyweight title defense, Cristiane "Cyborg" Justino's UFC debut, and what could be last stands for all-time greats like Vitor Belfort, Mauricio "Shogun" Rua, and Antonio Rogerio Nogueira.
Host Jack Encarnacao welcomes a panel of Sherdog.com's Jordan Breen, MMAFighting.com's Luke Thomas, and pioneering Brazilian MMA journalist Marcelo Alonso for a full breakdown of Saturday's offering, from the first prelim to the main event.
Find out which panelist likes Shogun to pull off a Cinderella moment against Corey Anderson, as well as different ways the panel expects the important bantamweight tilt between John Lineker and Rob Font to play out. The panel also charts Ronaldo "Jacare" Souza's positioning in his middleweight tilt against Belfort, and spends some time assessing Belfort's strange, remarkable career.
Plus, full context on what the city of Curitiba means to Brazilian MMA, and discussion of whether UFC 198 contains the best jiu-jitsu talent of any UFC card ever, as well as assessments of where Werdum stands in the pantheon of great heavyweights stepping in to his title defense against Stipe Miocic.
There's no better way to get situated ahead of UFC 198 than taking in the latest SRN Roundtable, available for download here.