EA has revealed the upcoming UFC 5 cover athletes, and it’s safe to say the athletes featured this year are of championship quality. The Deluxe Edition even features a returning face from UFC 4.
Today, EA Sports tore back the curtain on its upcoming MMA sports game, UFC 5’s cover athletes. This time around, it will feature two new faces from the men’s and women’s divisions, as well as a returning face for the Deluxe cover (hint: it’s not Conor McGregor).
Former UFC Flyweight Champion Valentina Shevchenko (and currently ranked #1 contender) and the reigning UFC Featherweight Champion Alexander Volkanovski (also the highest-rated pound-for-pound champion in the company) will grace the box of UFC 5. The Deluxe Edition of the title will see Israel Adesanya return from UFC 4, making him the second fighter to have been featured on two separate UFC title cover arts.
While many fighters may deserve the box art honours, it’s difficult to say Volkanovski’s spot wasn’t well earned. Not only has he defeated one of the greatest fighters on three separate occasions in Max Holloway, the most recent UFC 292 Bantamweight contest that saw Suga Sean O’Malley defeat Aljamain Sterling by TKO in round 2 for the championship, had the stripped champion mention Volkanovski by name after saying he won’t go up a weight class, saying “He (O’Malley) caught me like that, imagine what Volk would do” putting respect on the cover athlete’s name.
On the flip side, Valentina Shevchenko is getting a rematch against Alexa Grasso in 11 days at UFC Fight Night, who shockingly dethroned her at UFC 285 by rear naked choke. Aside from the loss to Grasso, Shevchenko is a storied champion who won six out of her 15 UFC fights by early stoppage, with eight of those fights having championship gold on the line. Three fighters who are arguably at the top of their game in MMA are gracing the cover of UFC 5, and it is well deserved.
It’s worth mentioning this will be the first time in the UFC video game franchise’s history that actual character models in the game will be used as actual cover art instead of actual photographs of the fighters. While EA promises more information on UFC 5 will be released this Thursday, the release date of UFC 5 is rapidly approaching, so fans can shoot over to the official EA website for more information ahead of Thursday.
