Brian Kelleher vs. Cody Gibson is our pick for UFC Vegas 94 Fight of the Night

With UFC 304 just around the corner, fight fans all around the world have been waiting for the return to London, England since their last event in July 2023. However, the UFC still has one more event before their star studded pay-per-view with UFC Vegas 94.

With UFC Denver taking place a week prior, the fight of the night saw Jean Silva defeat Drew Dober in a great back-and-forth contest. At UFC Vegas 94, there are a number of potential Fight of the Night contenders but one matchup, in particular, stands out amongst the rest. The bantamweight showdown between UFC veteran Brian Kelleher and The Ultimate Fighter season 31 runner-up Cody Gibson will undoubtedly be the best fight at UFC Vegas 94.

When Kelleher steps into the Octagon, it will be his 40th career professional fight and his 17th fight in the UFC. At 37 years of age, it's likely that his best days are behind him as he is also on a three fight losing streak. However, Kelleher has shown throughout his career that he is more than capable of putting on a show for the fans.

His five prior performance bonuses include a pair of fight of the night awards from 2017 and 2020, respectively. Though he has lost his last three fights, his opponents have all been some of the best in the division including Umar Nurmagomedov, Mario Bautista, and Cody Garbrandt. While the results have not gone Kelleher's way recently, his high level strength of schedule should be encouraging for a potential fight of the night performance.

Brian Kelleher vs. Cody Gibson is our pick for UFC Vegas 94 Fight of the Night

In 2020, Kelleher was one of the most active fighters in the UFC, going 3-1 with three performance bonuses in what was arguably the best year of his professional career. Since 2020 however, he has gone just 2-4 with three of these losses coming by knockout or submission.

Kelleher will be taking on Gibson, who is similarly on a losing streak, although he has lost just two in a row. Gibson is also on his second tenure with the UFC after his original run from February 2014 to February 2015 lasted just four fights with a record of 1-3. Since returning to the promotion he is 0-2 but had a strong showing against Brad Katona.

His matchup against Katona was the finale of The Ultimate Fighter season 31 and although he was unable to emerge victorious, it was one of the best fights of 2023 and even earned fight of the night at UFC 292. In his fight against Katona, Gibson was able to land 169 total strikes in just 15 minutes with an average of over 10 significant strikes landed per minute over the course of the three rounds. If Gibson is able to keep up this sort of offensive output in his matchup against Kelleher, it will without question be the best fight at UFC Vegas 94.

One possible obstacle that may be standing in the way of a fight of the night bonus for both Kelleher and Gibson is their aforementioned losing streaks. In this case, both fighters cannot afford to lose at UFC Vegas 94 which means they could opt for a far more conservative game plan. Instead of an action-packed 15 minutes of stand-up fighting, Gibson and Kelleher could look to utilize the clinch and grappling in order to slow the fight down. However, of late both fighters, although in losing performances, have shown the ability to still put on entertaining fights no matter what.

Overall, UFC Vegas 94 has a number of underrated fights that could very well end up being the best fight of the event, but our pick for fight of the night is the bantamweight matchup between Kelleher and Gibson.