Cub Swanson moves back up to featherweight, draws Hakeem Dawodu at UFC on ESPN 49

Longtime WEC and UFC featherweight contender Cub Swanson (28-13) will be returning to 145 lbs for his next contest, as he’s slated to face fellow striker Hakeem Dawodu (13-3-1) at UFC on ESPN 49.

UFC on ESPN 49 is to go down on August 12, 2023, live from the UFC Apex in Enterprise, Nevada.

Headlining the event will be a welterweight bout between Brazilian staples, former UFC lightweight champion Rafael dos Anjos and no. 10 ranked Vicente Luque.

Reverting back to our newly signed featherweight bout:

Cub Swanson is one of those fighters that probably should have, but never got his title shot during his peak. He had a six-fight win streak from 2012 to 2014 where he defeated future champions Charles Oliveira (TKO) and Dustin Poirier (UD), and he had another four-fight win streak during 2016 and 2017.

However, a four-fight skid would soon follow, before he’d go 3-2 over his latest five appearances with victories over the likes of Kron Gracie (UD), Daniel Pineda (KO), and Darren Elkins (TKO), losing to Giga Chikadze (TKO) and most recently Jonathan Martinez (TKO) in his bantamweight debut last October.

Hakeem Dawodu on the other hand, rather than coming up in the WEC, came up in the kickboxing ranks, where he went 42-5 as an amateur and 9-0 as a professional.

Following a 7-0-1 (draw avenged) start to his MMA career Dawodu would make his UFC debut, losing via submission in less than one minutes time. He would then win his next five-straight, finishing up his streak with wins over Julio Arce (SD) and Zuba Tukhugov (SD), before going 1-2 over his latest three outings where lost to Movsar Evloev (UD), defeated Mike Trizano (UD), and most recently lost to Julian Erosa (UD).

Swanson, at 39 years of age, is trying to keep his career going, while 31 year old Dawodu is trying to become the next face of Canadian MMA.

Who wins this epic featherweight contest going down at UFC on ESPN 49?

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Brady Ordway

I became a fan of combat sports when I was 12 years old. I was scrolling through the channels and landed upon Versus, where WEC was televised. Urijah Faber fought Jens Pulver for the second time that night. That's the first fight I ever saw, and I was immediately hooked. So eventually, I began covering the sport in the fourth quarter of 2018, and have since started writing about animals as well. If you'd like to see those pieces, be sure to check out learnaboutnature.com!

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