Saturday night in Anaheim, Ewa Beach native, strawweight Kailin Curran returns to the octagon facing Alexandra Albu (6-0) in the main event of the UFC 214 Fight Pass prelims.

Curran, who is 1-4 in her three years in the UFC, has her lone victory over Emily Kagan sandwiched between a pair of two fight losing streaks.

However, Curran has shown flashes of brilliance in her time in the octagon, making her a popular +135 underdog pick this weekend.

Like in past fights Curran trained out of the RVCA gym in California under boxing coach Jason Parillo. One of her training partners at the gym is womens MMA legend and one of the headliners on the UFC 214 card, Cris Cyborg Justino.

Every day, shes training hard and now shes training boxing and making full growth, learning every day more and shes eager every time in the gym and wanting to learn, and Im excited for her fight, Justino told KHON2 Sports Director Rob DeMello. I think it will be an amazing fight and shes getting better with each fight. She doesnt give up. She just keeps going and that has motivated me and the other people in the gym too.

Curran will enter the fight with a two-inch height advantage and three-inch reach advantage, which will be key in creating separation against Albu, who showed impressive grappling skills in a submission victory over Izabela Badurek in April.

Justino will fight Tanya Evinger for the vacant UFC featherweight championship on the main card on pay-per-view, which starts at 4 p.m. HST.

Former two-time ICON Sports middleweight and UFC welterweight champion Robbie Lawler will face Donald Cerrone.

The main event on the card is the highly anticipated light heavyweight title showdown between champion Daniel Cormier and former champ Jon Jones.

UFC 214 fight card

Main card 4pm HST PPV

Light Heavyweight Championship Daniel Cormier v Jon Jones

Welterweight Championship Tyron Woodley v Demian Maia

Vacant Womens Featherweight Championship Cris Cyborg v Tonya Evinger

Welterweight Robbie Lawler v Donald Cerrone

Light Heavyweight Jimi Manuwa v Volkan Oezdemir

Prelims 2pm HST FXX

Featherweight Ricardo Lamas v Jason Knight

Catchweight (140 lbs) Aljamain Sterling v Renan Barao

Featherweight Brian Ortega v Renato Moicano

Featherweight Andre Fili v Calvin Kattar

Early prelims 12:30pm HST UFC Fight Pass

Womens Strawweight Kailin Curran v Alexandra Albu

Flyweight Eric Shelton v Jarred Brooks

Lightweight Josh Burkman v Drew Dober

See the rest here:

Women's MMA legend Cyborg praises Hawaii's Curran ahead of ... - KHON2