Tonight in Rio De Janeiro at 10:00 p.m. ET UFC Fight Night's main card will kick off on Fox Sports 1 featuring the return of welterweight Demian Maia against unbeaten Ryan LaFlare, the 14th-ranked welterweight in the UFC. Fans can watch the card online for free by clicking this link. The prelims begin on Fox Sports 2 at 8:00 p.m. ET, while the early prelims start at 7:00 p.m. and can be watched online here.
Maia has been out of action for nearly a year because of a rare bone infection in his shoulder that took a month to diagnose.
"We didn't know what the problem was," Maia told ESPN.com. "I was in the hospital and the fever was coming back every five or six hours. They were doing a whole bunch of tests on me and everything was coming back clean, so they ordered a full body scan to see if there was a tumor or something.
"That's when it got scary. I was thinking maybe I had something really serious. I started to think about my family and my kids. I was very afraid."
While Maia is the big attraction tonight, LaFlare is the up-and-comer with four straight wins in the UFC. He believes Maia's layoff and advancing age might be a factor tonight against a younger, hungrier contender.
"Demian is a great fighter, but you know, he's had a lot of fights," LaFlare said. "He's 37. He's had a chance to fight for the belt. I know what he has for me. He might have picked up a few tricks along the way, but I know what he brings to the table. He doesn't know what I'm going to bring. I have so much to my game that no one has even seen yet. He's not going to be able to prepare for that."
Prediction: LaFlare def. Maia by unanimous decision.
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