10 reasons to watch UFC Fight Night 28

The UFC’s march to mainstream dominance is a marathon, but its late summer schedule has been a sprint.

When UFC Fight Night 28 goes down Wednesday at Mineirinho Arena in Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil, the event might be as notable for its spot on the calendar as for the fights on its card. In one month’s span, UFC parent company Zuffa has run no fewer than six shows, with three of them coming within a week.

That means oodles of fights to keep up on and more names to keep track of. Although Wednesday’s card might not have the wattage of this past Saturday’s UFC 164 event, like most cards broadcast on free-ish TV, UFC Fight Night 28 has rising stars and key matchups in several divisions.

UFC Fight Night 28 marks the promotion’s eighth trip to Brazil as it looks to extend a boom in the country and grow regional stars. It’s the second time the octagon has landed in Belo Horizonte, following UFC 147 in June 2012. That event drew a reported 16,643 fans to Mineirinho Arena, but the card also featured two major stars, Brazilian legend Wanderlei Silva and former champ Rich Franklin, in the headliner.

The question leading into the event is whether the guys on the posters are capable of taking that role somewhere down the road. “Ace” and “The Axe Murderer” aren’t getting any younger, after all.

Wednesday’s main and preliminary cards air live on FOX Sports 1 (5 p.m. ET/2 p.m. PT) following a lone Facebook prelim (4:30 p.m. ET).

Here are 10 reasons to watch the event.

1. Glover Teixeira‘s title viability. Although the UFC Fight Night 28 headliner spent far too much of his career toiling in his native Brazil due to visa issues, Teixeira (21-2 MMA, 4-0 UFC) has proven himself the real deal in the UFC, winning four straight fights, including a “Submission of Night” victory against James Te Huna at UFC 160. The ongoing question is whether he spent his most formative years in his homeland, and whether he’ll be able to meet the challenges posed by the light heavyweight division’s top 5. The UFC seems intent on getting an answer, and there’s been rumblings of an imminent title shot for the 33-year-old fighter. Teixeira is just the kind of heavy-handed finisher whom the promotion likes, and another test against Ryan Bader (15-3 MMA, 8-3 UFC) brings him what could be the stiffest test of his sprawl when “The Ultimate Fighter 8? winner inevitably dives for his legs.

2. Can the “Gator” roll? At times, former Strikeforce champion Ronaldo Souza (18-3 MMA, 1-0 UFC) looked like the fighter who could give former middleweight champion Anderson Silva a run for his money. That still might be the case, and now that Silva no longer is the sheriff of the division, Souza’s story gets all the more interesting. Once a decorated submission grappler, he dove into MMA and developed a striking game. Now, he’ll need both to get past the 185-pound division’s toughest gatekeeper, Yushin Okami (29-7 MMA, 13-4 UFC), who’s ruined more than a few contenders with his tactical gameplans. If Souza can win, he’s perhaps one fight away from a title shot, so it’s a critical fight.

3. Flyweight rematch anyone? It’s been clear so far that Joseph Benavidez (18-3 MMA, 5-1 UFC) is a cut above all but one fighter in the 125-pound division: champ Demetrious Johnson, who beat him this past year to seize the inaugural title. But being that flyweight is the most shallow division on the UFC’s talent roster, you’re never too far away from a title shot. A win over Jussier Formiga (15-2 MMA, 1-1 UFC), who debuted in the octagon as a top-ranked flyweight but disappointed out of the gate, would almost certainly guarantee Benavidez another shot at “Mighty Mouse.”

4. Can “Massaranduba” make Hallman fall? At 35 years old, lightweight Francisco “Massaranduba” Trinaldo (13-2 MMA, 3-1 UFC) has a limited amount of time to make his bones in the UFC. But recently, he’s worked quickly in the promotion. After losing to veteran Gleison Tibau, he’s reeled off two straight wins via arm-triangle choke. Newcomer Piotr Hallmann (13-1 MMA, 0-0 UFC) is an Eastern European prospect with a similar record, but against inferior competition. So it’s up to the Brazilian fighter, whose nickname is taken from a sturdy tree, to get the fight to the ground, where his technical jiu-jitsu is something to behold.

5. The hammer of Tor. Swedish middleweight Tor Troeng (16-4-1 MMA, 1-0 UFC) first appeared on “The Ultimate Fighter 17,” where he lost to eventual semifinalist Josh Samman in the reality-show tournament. He fared much better when he returned to the cage in April, dominating fellow “TUF 17? vet Adam Cella en route to a first-round rear-naked-choke victory. Against Belo Horizonte native Rafael Natal (16-4-1 MMA, 4-2-1 UFC), he hopes to play the role of spoiler and climb the middleweight ranks. Natal always makes it a fight regardless of whether he’s got a sound gameplan or not, and this should be an entertaining scrap.

6. From Russia with glove. Highlight reels don’t guarantee good performances in the UFC, and resumes often fail to translate. But it’s hard to ignore 28-year-old Dagestani native Ali Bagautinov (10-2 MMA, 0-0 UFC) and his list of accomplishments in advance of his main-card fight with “The Ultimate Fighter: Brazil” veteran Marcos Vinicius (20-4-1 MMA, 1-1 UFC), and in the relatively anemic flyweight division, he offers more depth. In Russia, Bagautinov is a world champion in combat sambo and holds regional titles in pankration, wrestling and Brazilian jiu-jitsu. His international credentials are slim, so again, it’s a gamble whether he’ll be able to compete with the best in the UFC. But the aggressive Vinicius, who’s coming off a knockout loss to Johnny Bedford at The Ultimate Fighter 16 Finale, is a good start.

7. Ronda’s meltdown. OK, so “The Ultimate Fighter 18? debut is not exactly part of the card. But it’s almost an extension, with more than a dozen fights featuring both male and female bantamweights set to open the season’s first episode on FOX Sports 1. Of course, if you’re watching the reality show in the first place, it’s not just about fighting. With UFC women’s bantamweight champ Ronda Rousey coaching opposite rival Miesha Tate, “TUF 18? promises to be one of the most dramatic seasons in the show’s recent history. And since the UFC cut a promo highlighting Rousey’s initial reaction to Tate, who replaced an injured Cat Zingano, you kind of have to watch what happens after the show’s opening, when the champ storms about the Ultimate Training Center in Las Vegas.

8. Five-hour energy. The UFC’s new home for live events, FOX Sports 1, pretty much renders obsolete the three-stage fight cards seen in the promotion’s previous offerings on FOX and its sister channels. One step is no longer needed: You don’t need to log on to Facebook, click to FX, and then head to FOX. Now, you go to Facebook, and the rest is on FS1. That’s five hours of live UFC action, so have snacks at the ready. And if you want to see it live on the West Coast, take off from work early: The first leg of the televised portion of the card starts at 5 p.m. ET/2 p.m. PT. (Thursday’s overnight ratings should be interesting given the early start.)

9. Facebook flush. As MMA analyst Reed Kuhn detailed in a report on Fightnomics, fighters who compete on the Facebook-streamed preliminary card are statistically unlikely to win a performance bonus. Could welterweights Yuri Villefort (6-2 MMA, 0-1 UFC) or Sean Spencer (9-2 MMA, 0-1 UFC) change that? Villefort is coming off two losses and could be cut with a third, and Spencer lost in his UFC debut. The climate could be right for the type of scrap that stays fresh in the UFC’s memory when the extra checks are cut (but not sent, at least until drug test results are in). It’s a long shot, sure, but you never know.

10. Tough crowd. Sure, yelling “You’re going to die!” isn’t the nicest thing to say to an out-of-towner. But the slogan, now a fixture of live events in Brazil, kind of has its own charm. When an arena full of rowdy Brazilians says it, you just can’t help but join in in your head. Vai Morrer!

For more on UFC Fight Night 28, stay tuned to the UFC Rumors section of the site.

(Pictured, top to bottom: Glover Teixeira, Ronaldo Souza, Ronda Rousey)