Winner of Swanson/Stephens Poised To Earn UFC Featherweight Title Shot

By Adam Martin

Although it hasn’t officially been designated as a title eliminator, by all accounts the winner of Saturday night’s main event at UFC Fight Night 44 between Cub Swanson and Jeremy Stephens will earn a chance to fight for the UFC featherweight title in the near future. Two top contenders at 145 pounds square off in this main event matchup, which takes place at AT&T Center in San Antonio, Texas, and it makes a whole lot of sense for the winner of the fight to take on the winner of UFC 176’s Jose Aldo vs. Chad Mendes II for the featherweight title either at the end of the year or sometime early next year.

Swanson is currently riding a five-fight win streak at 145 lbs that includes four knockout victories. He’s defeated Dennis Siver (via TKO), Dustin Poirier (via decision), Charles Oliveira (via KO), Ross Pearson (via TKO) and George Roop (via TKO) to earn his spot in the top five of the division, inches away from a rematch with Aldo, the man who knocked him out with a double flying knee in just seven seconds back in WEC.

And the powerful knockout artist Stephens, after a 0-3 run to end his UFC lightweight career, moved down to 145 lbs and has looked absolutely sensational at the new weight class, taking out Darren Elkins (via decision), Rony Jason (via KO), and Estevan Payan (via decision) to earn a spot in the division’s top 10 and get a fight against a top guy like Swanson. Considering all of his UFC experience inside the Octagon, it’s pretty amazing that Stephens is still only 27 years of age, and he’s still improving, even despite the fact he’s been in the UFC since 2007.

If Aldo defeats Mendes in August, and the oddsmakers are saying that he will, he won’t have many more challenges left in the division, which is where the winner of Swanson vs. Stephens comes into play. Yes, Aldo has already defeated Swanson – via knockout, no less – but the Swanson of today is not the Swanson of old, and if he beats Stephens this weekend to earn another title shot, I’m expecting him to do a lot better than he did the first time these two fought.

As for Stephens, he would make a very interesting contender for the featherweight belt if he can take out Aldo. Remember, Stephens went to a split decision with current UFC lightweight champion Anthony Pettis just a few years ago, so it’s not out of the realm of possibility that he could be competitive with Aldo, especially given his improvements since dropping to the featherweight division. Of course he would be a big underdog if the two were to fight, but Stephens has been an underdog in three of his four bouts at featherweight, and if he can take out another top contender in Swanson this weekend, it shouldn’t shock anyone for him to be able to hang with the champion.

The only thing that would keep the winner of Swanson vs. Stephens from getting that next featherweight title shot would be an incredible finish in the trilogy fight between BJ Penn and Frankie Edgar, which takes place next weekend at the TUF 19 Finale. Both of those fighters are really big names, and if one gets a huge finish against the other, the UFC could very well go ahead and grant the winner a title shot because of their respective names. But if that fight is a stinker, the winner of Swanson vs. Stephens is in the clear in regards to a potential title shot.

With a potential title shot looming, look for Swanson and Stephens to go all out and try to finish each other, which makes the bout a win-win, for the fans, for the promotion, for the fighters, for everyone. It should be a great fight, and while the rest of UFC Fight Night 44 isn’t great, this is an awesome main event, and with so much on the line, the odds of it turning out boring are nearly nonexistent. It’s likely to be the best fight of the entire weekend.