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UFC 239 Jon Jones vs. Thiago Santos: Start time, full fight card and how to watch or stream online

This weekend dominant champs Jon Jones and Amanda Nunes face off against Thiago Santos and Holly Holm respectively. How can you watch and when does the whole thing kick off?

Mark Serrels Editorial Director
Mark Serrels is an award-winning Senior Editorial Director focused on all things culture. He covers TV, movies, anime, video games and whatever weird things are happening on the internet. He especially likes to write about the hardships of being a parent in the age of memes, Minecraft and Fortnite. Definitely don't follow him on Twitter.
Mark Serrels
3 min read
UFC 239: Ultimate Media Day

Jon Jones on the left, Thiago Santos on the right.

Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC

UFC 239 -- it's a big one. Not only is Jon Jones, the consensus greatest male fighter of all time, defending his belt. Amanda Nunes, the consensus greatest female fighter of all time is defending her belt, against Holly Holm.

Make no mistake, this is a big one. A fight card for the ages. UFC 239 is stacked top to bottom.

Start time

As always the full UFC card is split into three main parts, the early prelims, the prelims and then the card itself. All fights take place on Saturday July 6.

The Main Card starts at 10 p.m. (ET)

The Prelims start at 8 p.m. (ET)

The Early Prelims start at 6:15 p.m. (ET)

Who's fighting

This is an incredible card let's break it down...

Main card

Jon Jones (c) vs. Thiago Santos 
Amanda Nunes (c) vs. Holly Holm
Ben Askren vs. Jorge Masvidal
Luke Rockhold vs. Jan Blachowicz
Michael Chiesa vs. Diego Sanchez

Prelims

Gilbert Melendez vs. Arnold Allen
Marlon Vera vs. Nohelin Hernandez
Claudia Gadelha vs. Randa Markos
Alejandro Perez vs. Song Yadong

Early Prelims

Edmen Shahbazyan vs. Jack Marshman
Ismail Naurdiev vs. Chance Rencountre
Julia Avila vs. Pannie Kianzad 

How to watch

This year the UFC entered a new partnership with ESPN. That's great news for the UFC and the expansion of the sport of MMA, bad news for consumer choice.

In the US

In the US, you can only watch UFC 239 on PPV through ESPN+.

If you already have an ESPN+ subscription you can buy the event for $60.

If you don't already have an ESPN+ subscription you can buy a year's subscription and the PPV for $80.

Considering that's how much you used to pay just for a PPV event back in the day, the yearlong subscription deal is a good one.

In the UK

MMA fans in the UK can watch UFC 239 exclusively through BT Sport.

In Australia

More options if you live in Australia. You can watch UFC 239 through Main Event on Foxtel. You can also watch on the UFC website or using its app. You can even order using your PlayStation 4 or using the UFC app on your Xbox One.

What's worth watching?

Jon Jones is the best fighter the sport has ever seen. This fight against Thiago Santos is largely seen as a "gimme fight," no one expects him to lose against Santos, and many are looking past this fight to a potential rematch with Daniel Cormier, possibly at Heavyweight.

That said, this is MMA. Anything can happen with those four ounce gloves. Santos is fast, explosive, hits hard and is a ruthless finisher.

Amanda Nunes vs. Holly Holm is a compelling match-up. Nunes, fresh off a mindblowing KO of Cris Cyborg at featherweight, is moving back to her natural bantamweight class to face Holm, whose footwork and athleticism could potentially cause her problems. Nunes, now a two weight champ and the consensus greatest female fighter of all time, is still heavily favoured to win.

Perhaps the most intriguing fight on the card is Ben Askren vs. Jorge Masvidal. Askren is a rising star in the UFC, having dominated in other organisations. Masvidal is a slick charismatic striker who literally got started fighting on the streets as a teenager. There are a of lot unanswered questions about Askren's ability to compete among the UFC elite, hopefully with this fight we'll get some answers.

Further down the card, former middleweight champion, and part-time male model, Luke Rockhold makes his light heavyweight debut. If he wins this fight he might be next up against Jon Jones.

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