UFC 207 takes place on Friday night with a huge fight between Ronda Rousey and Amanda Nunes for the UFC Women's Bantamweight championship belt. The bout comes at the top of an exciting fight card from Las Vegas, Nevada, with the FS1 Prelims having a start time of 8 p.m. ET, and the main card getting a start time of 10 p.m. ET.
The entire event can be watched on TV on UFC PPV, or online through live stream on UFC.TV via the link provided below. A full fight card for UFC 207 can also be found at the foot of this article.
Most of the talk ahead of UFC 207 is about the fact that Ronda Rousey isn't talking. She has decided to avoid media exposure ahead of her big comeback fight against Nunes, and will try to let her fists and armbars do the talking in the Octagon on Friday night.
Rousey finds herself in the unfamiliar position of being the challenger tonight, following her stunning loss 13 months ago against Holly Holm. She is also being touted as the underdog by many analysts who believe she still has not recovered psychologically from being knocked out by Holm so emphatically in November 2015.
Even though Nunes is the champ, all the pressure appears to be in Rousey's corner. Surely another defeat here tonight would leave her career in taters. But oppositely, a big win here tonight would likely make many critics fall back in line and put her Holm defeat down to a simple blip.
Rousey comes into the bout with a 12-1 record, however, she has not fought for 13 months, and who knows what type of ring rust she might be carrying with her into the Octagon on Friday?
Best case scenario for Rousey is that the old "Rowdy Ronda" reappears tonight, and puts on a performance that brought her so much publicity and adoration prior to her shock loss to Holm. Remember that before suffering that solitary defeat in her career, she had demolished her previous three opponents in a combined total of 64 seconds (16 secs, 14 secs, 34 secs).
What makes tonight's match up so intriguing is that we have no way of knowing which Rousey will turn up. With the media blackout imposed by Rousey, we have been given little indication as to how she is mentally and what mind-set she will be bringing to the Octagon.
Though, if she does lose tonight, it will almost certainly be down to her mental state, as physically she looks in better shape than ever before in her career. She has trimmed down and toned up, and photos ahead of the bout have shown Rousey to be in prime condition.
UFC has allowed Rousey to impose the media blackout despite it clearly being detrimental to them hyping up tonight's event. Speaking about allowing Rousey to enforce the media shutout, UFC President Dana White has said, "She's done a lot for this company…She's never asked for much. She asked for this, and we said yes."
Her opponent tonight, Amanda Nunes has a 13-4 record, and is looking to make her first successful title defense. Since Rousey relinquished her title to Holm, no one has been able to make a successful defense and truly make the title their own. Holm lost her first defense to Miesha Tate, and Tate went on to lose the title to Nunes.
Whether Nunes will become the first to make a successful defense, or whether we'll go a full 360 and return to having Rousey as the champ remains to be seen. And by the end of the night we'll be able to see whether Ronda Rousey still has fight left in her or whether curtains will be drawn on the career of one of UFC's first major global stars.
Tonight's UFC 207 has a scheduled Prelims start time of 8 p.m. ET and a main card start time of 10 p.m. ET. The Ronda Rousey vs Amanda Nunes fight will likely not start until after midnight ET, and can be watched on TV on UFC PPV, or via UFC.TV by clicking here.
A full UFC 207 fight card can be seen below:
UFC 207 Main Card (PPV, 10 p.m. ET)
UFC Women's Bantamweight Championship: Amanda Nunes vs. Ronda Rousey UFC Men's Bantamweight Championship: Dominick Cruz vs. Cody Garbrandt TJ Dillashaw vs. John Lineker Dong Hyun Kim vs. Tarec Saffiedine Louis Smolka vs. Ray Borg
Fox Sports 1 Prelims (8 p.m. ET)
Johny Hendricks vs. Neil Magny Antonio Carlos Junior vs. Marvin Vettori Mike Pyle vs. Alex Garcia Brandon Thatch vs. Niko Price
