On July 9 at the recently opened T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, the Ultimate Fighting Championship will celebrate its milestone 200th event with UFC 200, a mammoth of a card that features high-level bouts all the way from the preliminaries to the main events on pay-per-view.
A week following the mixed martial arts spectacle, another type of fighting event will be taking hold of Sin City: the 2016 Evolution Championship Series (Evo) for competitive fighting games. The main event, the "Street Fighter V" top eight, will be broadcast live on ESPN2 on July 17 at 7 p.m. PDT/10 p.m. EDT from inside the Mandalay Bay Events Center.
What would happen if these two worlds collided? In preparation for Saturday's fights, which coincide with UFC's International Fight Week, we took the top matches from the UFC 200 lineup and set out to determine which SFV character each of the UFC competitors would be.
Heavyweight 3-Round Main Event: Brock Lesnar (Necalli) vs. Mark Hunt (Birdie)
Necalli, known as the "Emissary of the God," is a beast-like being that wakes from his slumber every few hundred years to feast on the souls of the world's strongest warriors. Wait, are we sure Capcom didn't base this brand-new character on Brock Lesnar in the first place?
The former heavyweight champion of the world returns at UFC 200 for his first MMA bout in five years since losing back-to-back fights to Cain Velasquez, who just so happens to be on the card, and Alistair Overeem. After competing in World Wrestling Entertainment since 2012, the man known as the 'Beast Incarnate' is hungry to return to the Octagon for his next battle.
Unlike Lesnar's Necalli, who towers over the rest of the fighters in stature, Mark Hunt's Birdie is less physically imposing, similar to the Kiwi brawler. A master of the bar room brawl, Birdie is as tough as they come in the world of "Street Fighter," and his mastery of chains allows him to pull his opponents in for a well-timed knockout shot. Hunt, a veteran of almost 20 years, simply loves to fight. He has fought in mixed martial arts, kickboxing and boxing throughout his career, and has never backed away from a challenge. Dubbed the "King of Walk-Offs" for his one-punch knockout power, it doesn't matter how large a beast Necalli or Lesnar is; it only takes one precise strike for the result to be the same.
Women's Bantamweight Championship: Miesha Tate (R. Mika) vs. Amanda Nunes (Laura)
In the only women's fight on the main card at UFC 200, the new bantamweight champion Miesha Tate will attempt to defend her title against the Brazilian contender Amanda Nunes. After beating the seemingly-unbeatable Ronda Rousey for the belt, boxing champion Holly Holm dropped the title to the veteran Tate this past March at UFC 196.
A grappling-based fighter, Tate has been in the game for almost a decade in mixed martial arts. Similarly, her counterpart in Rainbow Mika is a fighter who enjoys fighting on the ground with top-notch grappling and powerful throws. Also like Mika, Tate is the type of fighter who will stay in the ring until the bitter end. She routinely stages comebacks in her fights, like in the championship victory against Holm, where she was losing until the final submission.
Tate's opponent, Amanda Nunes, enters Saturday's matchup on a three-fight winning streak and is capable of holding onto the hot potato that is the women's bantamweight title. A heavy striker, Nunes fits well with her Brazilian peer in "Street Fighter V": Laura. While proficient in both fighting on her feet and taking it to the ground, it is Nunes' (and Laura's) pressure that makes them both incredibly difficult opponents to fight against.
Interim Featherweight Championship: José Aldo (Vega) vs. Frankie Edgar (Guile)
With current featherweight champion Conor McGregor set to settle the score with Nate Diaz at the upcoming UFC 202, a five-round contest will take place this Saturday between the top two contenders to crown an interim champion for the division.
On one side of the Octagon we have José Aldo, the former longtime featherweight champion of the world who lost his title to McGregor less than a year ago in a shocking 13-second knockout. As he looks to regain his crown, Aldo matches well to the technical specimen that is Vega. When it comes to speed and mechanical ability, there is no one better than Aldo. One of the best pound-for-pound fighters in the world, Aldo's quickness and deadly Muay Thai strikes with his knees in the clinch show why he went almost a decade undefeated in competition. Nicknamed the "Spanish Ninja," Vega primarily uses his flexibility and bullfighting expertise to lure opponents into lunging forward for attacks and opening themselves up for a powerful counterattack.
Opposite him is another legend of the sport in America's Frankie Edgar. A past champion in the UFC's lightweight division, "The Answer" wants to become one of the first to claim a title at two different weight classes. A native of New Jersey, Edgar would be Guile in the Capcom universe, as the all-American brawler from "Street Fighter" has been around even longer than the tenured Edgar. Similarly to Edgar, Guile is an all-around combatant, proficient in most areas and skilled in both the offensive and defensive aspects of battle.
Saturday's showdown between the two will be a classic struggle between the Brazilian's speed and the American's grit.
Light Heavyweight 3-Round Fight: Daniel Cormier (Zangief) vs. Anderson Silva (F.A.N.G)
Daniel Cormier was scheduled to fight in the main event of the evening against fierce rival Jon Jones for the light heavyweight championship. However, the match was called off after Jones was ousted from the card because he failed a drug test back in June. In his stead, on only two days notice, is possibly the greatest mixed martial artist of all time: Brazil's Anderson Silva, the 41-year-old who held the middleweight championship for an unprecedented 2,457 days. Although it will be a light heavyweight fight, the title will not be on the line, as Silva stated he'll already be considered "the man" if he can knock off the champ at the biggest UFC event.
For "The Spider," as Silva is often styled, his funky, unorthodox style of striking and movement around the octagon fits perfectly with Street Fighter's F.A.N.G, the second-in-command of the Shadaloo behind M. Bison himself. Although Silva's strength might not be the same as it was back a decade, or even five years ago, his illusive nature and unpredictability are what has set him apart from almost every fighter in the UFC during his tenure. F.A.N.G, like Silva, is just annoying to fight against -- the long, lanky limbs of both fighters are able to out-range opponents and mix up the pace of fights.
Cormier, who is the naturally heavier fighter -- showing impressive results in both the light heavyweight and heavyweight divisions -- is shorter and has a reach disadvantage against his new opponent; that is what could give him the most trouble on the night he's preparing for. A world-class wrestler, Cormier fits best with the "Red Cyclone" Zangief, the all-powerful close-range grappler and wrestler. The American Olympian and the Russian bear wrestler both know how to close the space between them and their opponent before delivering a thundering takedown to lay them out on the mat.