{"id":158719,"date":"2025-09-21T11:49:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-21T11:49:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/158719\/"},"modified":"2025-09-21T11:49:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-21T11:49:09","slug":"mma-legend-bas-rutten-names-two-ufc-320-stars-on-his-list-of-2025s-must-watch-fighters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/158719\/","title":{"rendered":"MMA legend Bas Rutten names two UFC 320 stars on his list of 2025’s ‘must watch’ fighters"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

There are plenty of must watch fighters in the UFC, but MMA legend Bas Rutten has given his main picks.<\/p>\n

Although there is some belief that the UFC is currently undergoing a \u2018lack of star\u2019 problem<\/a>, there are several fighters who have increased in popularity over the last few years.<\/p>\n

And that is one of the main reasons why the promotion was able to secure a whopping $7.7 billion broadcast deal<\/a> with Paramount earlier this year.<\/p>\n

However, there are a handful of fighters that are regarded more as \u2018must see\u2019 considering their body of work so far in the sport.<\/p>\n

And UFC legend Bas Rutten<\/a> has revealed who some of his current favorite fighters are to watch in the UFC.<\/p>\n

\"BasPhoto by Brandon Magnus\/Zuffa LLC\/Zuffa LLC via Getty ImagesBas Rutten names Merab Dvalishvili and Alex Pereira in his favorite fighters to watch<\/p>\n

In just a few weeks time, the premier promotion returns with another PPV offering when UFC 320 takes place at the T-Mobile Arena.<\/p>\n

In the main event, the light heavyweight title will be on the line when Magomed Ankalaev<\/a> and Alex Pereira<\/a> clash in a rematch of their title fight earlier this year.<\/p>\n

The co-main event also sees a title on the line as Merab Dvalishvili<\/a> looks to extend his win streak by defending his bantamweight title against Cory Sandhagen<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And talking in an exclusive interview with Bloody Elbow, former UFC heavyweight champion, Rutten, named both Dvalishvili and Pereira as two of his favorite fighters to watch.<\/p>\n

\u201cMerab, Khamzat (Chimaev), Pereira, (Israel) Adesanya, Kayla Harrison, Amanda Nunes, that\u2019s gonna be a big fight.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s so many fighters, like I said, everybody stands out, I like the guys and everyone likes these guys, who can knock people out, they can submit people, and can do it by all different kinds of punches, not only one punch or one certain submission.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s why with Adesanya I come back to the whole Pereira thing when he did the rope a dope pretty much, he let him think, he let him think and then poof, suddenly the punch comes, that\u2019s cool stuff,\u201d Rutten explained.<\/p>\n

Alex Pereira faces huge weight cut ahead of UFC 320<\/p>\n

With Pereira\u2019s rematch against the Russian just weeks out now, fans have shared their concerns after the Brazilian shared his current weight.<\/p>\n

Currently weighing just over 234lbs, \u2018Poatan\u2019 has almost over 30lbs to cut in a short space of time<\/a> which has resulted in fans questioning his preparation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There are plenty of must watch fighters in the UFC, but MMA legend Bas Rutten has given his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":158720,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[11159,64,63,105596,786,25363,785,85,787,60152],"class_list":["post-158719","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-alex-pereira","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-bas-rutten","tag-fighting","tag-merab-dvalishvili","tag-mma","tag-sports","tag-ufc","tag-ufc-320"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158719","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=158719"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158719\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/158720"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=158719"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=158719"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=158719"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}