91³Ô¹ÏÍø

Watch CBS News
Sports

Local UFC Fighter Previews Saturday Night Card In Pittsburgh

/ CBS Pittsburgh

Follow KDKA-TV: |

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) --- The Ultimate Fighting Championship returns to PPG Paints Arena Saturday night, bringing a big main event and some intriguing undercard bouts to Pittsburgh.

Saturday night's Fight Night card is headlined by a middleweight showdown between Luke Rockhold (15-3-0) and David Branch (21-3-0). It will be the first fight for Rockhold since he lost the UFC middleweight title to Michael Bisping at UFC 199 in June 2016.

Branch is one of the hottest fighters in UFC. He's riding an 11-fight winning streak into Pittsburgh. He may also have some extra motivation Saturday. He recently welcomed his third child.

A post shared by David Branch (@davidbranch32) on

Saturday night's card also includes a pair of intriguing heavyweight bouts. One person who will be watching closely is Adam Milstead. The UFC heavyweight makes his home in Pittsburgh. He says he'll be in attendance, front and center, at PPG Paints Arena.

"Being at the fights this Saturday is really going to tug at my heart because I know Pittsburgh needs a Pittsburgh fighter in that cage that night," Milstead said. "I take a great amount pride in knowing I'm the only current UFC fighter out of Pittsburgh."

Milstead is working his way back from a . He says he suffered a torn ACL and meniscus in his right knee, along with a severe sprain of his MCL. He underwent surgery late last March and is still receiving treatment.

"All in all I'm doing better then I was. I'm training a lot more and I can't wait to get back in that cage and fight for this city."

Milstead may be scouting some future opponents Saturday night.

Undefeated heavyweight Justin Ledet (8-0-0, 1 NC) will face a Pennsylvania product fighting in the UFC for the first time at the age of 36. Zu Anyanwu (14-4-0) is the second graduate of Dana White's Tuesday Night Contenders Series to make his official UFC debut.

Anyanwu will be one of a couple options for local fans looking for a hometown hero on Saturday night's card. He fights out of Langhorne, Bucks County. Milstead said he was nearly matched up against Anyanwu years ago, before both found their ways to the UFC.

"I'm glad he got in," Milstead said, "but this is a whole different group of athletes compared to the local talent he's known to fight. I think he's in for a rude awakening from Ledet."

Another heavyweight on Saturday night's card will be appearing in only his second fight in the UFC. Daniel Spitz (5-1-0) lost via unanimous decision in his debut against Mark Godbeer at UFC 209 last March. Spitz took the fight on short notice.

Spitz will face Anthony Hamilton (15-7-0) on Saturday night. Hamilton was on the last UFC card in Pittsburgh, where he lost a unanimous decision to Shamil Abdurakhimov.

Milstead expects a better outcome for Hamilton in his return to Pittsburgh.

"Spitz is too young in this sport to top a veteran like Hamilton."

Another fighter who will likely receive some extra support from local fans is Gregor Gillespie (9-0-0). He was a 4-time Division I All-American at Edinboro University of Pennsylvania and won a NCAA national championship at 149 lbs. in 2007. He currently fights out of Long Island, New York. Gillespie will face Jason Gonzalez (11-3-0) on Saturday night.

As for the main event, Milstead said he's excited to see Luke Rockhold back in the octagon.

"(David) Branch is a tough fighter, but even a tougher grappler. Luke can definitely win this fight standing up and deal with a good bit on the ground. I don't see Branch showing Luke something he hasn't seen before. I'm putting my money on Luke. Happy to see him back in the cage again."

As is often the case in UFC, there's a late change to Saturday night's card. On Wednesday, it was revealed that Thiago Alves was being pulled out of his scheduled bout against Mike Perry (10-1-0). Alves will be replaced by Alex Reyes, who will make his UFC debut on just three days notice.

Most of the matches will be broadcast nationally on FS1. The prelims start at 8 p.m. The main card begins at 10 p.m.

In:

© 2017 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.

View CBS News In
CBS News App Open
Chrome Safari Continue
const link = doc.createElement('link'); link.rel = 'stylesheet'; link.href = '/fly/fly/bundles/cbsnewscontent/css/cmp-banner.min.css?v=50747257b890e014813016b79ece0fb2'; doc.head.appendChild(link); doc.body.innerHTML = CONSENT_MESSAGE; } else { el.insertAdjacentHTML('afterend', CONSENT_MESSAGE); } }); } function hidePrivacyMessage() { // Remove from the main document document.querySelectorAll(`.${CONSENT_MESSAGE_CLASS}`).forEach(el => el.remove()); // Remove from inside any iframes document.querySelectorAll('iframe').forEach(iframe => { const doc = iframe.contentDocument || iframe.contentWindow.document; doc.querySelectorAll(`.${CONSENT_MESSAGE_CLASS}`).forEach(el => el.remove()); }); } function activateGatedScripts() { // Handle both new format (cmp-gated-script) and old OneTrust/Ketch format (optanon-category-4) const gatedScripts = Array.from(document.querySelectorAll('script.cmp-gated-script, script.optanon-category-4')); // Activate scripts sequentially with a small delay to avoid timing issues let delay = 0; gatedScripts.forEach(function(placeholder, index) { setTimeout(function() { // Skip if already processed if (placeholder.hasAttribute('data-cmp-processed')) { return; } placeholder.setAttribute('data-cmp-processed', 'true'); const newScript = document.createElement('script'); newScript.type = 'text/javascript'; // Try new format first (data-cmp-src), then fall back to old format (data-src) const src = placeholder.getAttribute('data-cmp-src') || placeholder.getAttribute('data-src'); if (src) { newScript.src = src; } else if (placeholder.textContent) { // Inline script - just copy the content newScript.textContent = placeholder.textContent; } // Handle new format attributes (data-cmp-attrs) - for both inline and external scripts const attrs = placeholder.getAttribute('data-cmp-attrs'); if (attrs) { const tempDiv = document.createElement('div'); tempDiv.innerHTML = '
<\/div>'; const tempAttrs = tempDiv.firstChild.attributes; for (let i = 0; i < tempAttrs.length; i++) { // For external scripts, allow defer/async. For inline scripts, skip them (not valid) if (src || (tempAttrs[i].name !== 'async' && tempAttrs[i].name !== 'defer')) { newScript.setAttribute(tempAttrs[i].name, tempAttrs[i].value); } } } // Copy other attributes from old OneTrust format for (let i = 0; i < placeholder.attributes.length; i++) { const attr = placeholder.attributes[i]; // Skip attributes we've already handled or don't want to copy if (!['class', 'data-src', 'data-type', 'data-cmp-src', 'data-cmp-attrs', 'data-cmp-processed', 'type', 'async', 'defer', 'src'].includes(attr.name)) { newScript.setAttribute(attr.name, attr.value); } } placeholder.parentNode.replaceChild(newScript, placeholder); // If external script, manually trigger window.onload handlers after it loads // This handles widgets that use window.onload for initialization if (src) { newScript.addEventListener('load', function() { // If page already loaded and script set a new onload handler, trigger it if (document.readyState === 'complete' && window.onload) { const originalOnload = window.onload; window.onload = null; // Clear temporarily to prevent loops originalOnload(); // Execute the handler } }); } }, delay); delay += 500; // 500ms delay between each script to allow full loading }); } cbsoptanon.onScriptsReady(function(cmp) { cmp.ot.targetingAllowed(function(allowed) { if (!allowed) { showPrivacyMessage(); } else { activateGatedScripts(); } }); cmp.ot.awaitInitialConsent(function(consent_model) { cmp.ot.addOnConsentChangedHandler(function() { cmp.ot.targetingAllowed(function(allowed) { if (allowed) { hidePrivacyMessage(); activateGatedScripts(); } else { showPrivacyMessage(); } }); }); }); });