It’s a whole new mixed martial arts (MMA) world without Jon Jones to clear the field …

This Saturday evening (May 23, 2015), Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) will see its first new Light Heavyweight champion in four years when Anthony Johnson and Daniel Cormier duke it out in the main event of UFC 187, which will come to you live from the hallowed halls of MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Twenty pounds south at Middleweight, the long-awaited clash between division champion Chris Weidman and Vitor Belfort will finally decide the future of the 185-pound belt, while Donald Cerrone looks for his eighth-straight win against Canadian knockout artist — and late replacement — John Makdessi.

Despite the loss of Jones and Khabib Nurmagomedov, UFC 187 is one of the most stacked pay-per-view (PPV) events in a long time. And that surplus of talent extends to the “Prelims” undercard, the first three of which we examined yesterday right here.

For the rest, which comprise the FOX Sports 1 line up, just scroll down.

125 lbs.: John Dodson vs. Zach Makovsky

John Dodson (16-6) followed his The Ultimate Fighter (TUF) 14-winning knockout of T.J. Dillashaw with two straight wins at 125 pounds, propelling him to a title shot against Demetrious Johnson. Though he came up short in a thrilling bout, he’s since rattled off two straight finishes, most recently re-arranging John Moraga’s nose with a high kick.

Thanks to injuries, this will be his first fight in 11 months.

Zach Makovsky (19-5) — the former Bellator Bantamweight champion — entered UFC undefeated at 125 pounds and quickly established his place in the division elite with wins over Scott Jorgensen and Josh Sampo. His win streak came to an end at the hands of former No. 1-ranked fighter Jussier Formiga, but he re-entered the win column earlier this year in an entertaining bout with Tim Elliott.

Six of his victories are by submission, though none since 2011.

There’s a concept in tabletop gaming, or really gaming in general, called min-maxing. In certain systems, you can get more points to improve your character by willingly adding certain flaws. I feel like Dodson used that concept to sacrifice height in favor of ridiculous everything else. He’s incredibly fast, ludicrously powerful and packs flat-out unfair athleticism. As much as I like Makovsky and as cognizant as I am of his skills, I can’t picture him having any success trying to impose his kinetic grappling attack against a man this impossible to take down.

Though the layoff is worrying, Dodson is a human cheat code who I’d favor against anyone in the division besides the champion. I consider Makovsky elite, but Dodson is all wrong for him. “The Magician” finds a home for that huge left hand in the second round.

Prediction: Dodson via second-round technical knockout

170 lbs.: Dong Hyun Kim vs. Josh Burkman

Once maligned for his lack of entertainment value, Dong Hyun Kim (19-3-1) surprised many by scoring two of the nastiest knockouts in recent memory at the expense of Erick Silva and John Hathaway. His newfound proclivity for violence wound up costing him dearly against Tyron Woodley, who laid him out with a nasty right hand during an attempt at spinning shi*t.

At 6’1,” he will enjoy three inches of height over Josh Burkman (27-10).

“People’s Warrior” — once written off after four losses in his last five Octagon appearances — earned another crack in the promotion with nine wins in 11 fights, including a guillotine of Jon Fitch that earned Sherdog’s 2013 “Submission of the Year.” He made his first Octagon appearance in more than six years in January, when he lost a decision to Hector Lombard that was later overturned to a “No Contest” thanks to a failed drug test.

He has stopped 17 professional opponents, 10 via submission.

This fight will boil down to whether Kim wants to be “entertaining” or whether he wants to win. He’s got one of the most suffocating grappling attacks in the division, one that I’m not convinced Burkman has an answer for, but it’ll be a coin flip if he decides to just go balls-out again.

I’m going to give him the benefit of the doubt and assume the Woodley fight knocked some sense into him while it was knocking some brain cells out.

Kim has a lot of physical strength and length at his disposal alongside his technically-sound Judo. If and when he decides to take it south, there’s not much Burkman can do about it. Kim remembers that he’s not built to brawl and grinds out his man for a wide decision win.

Prediction: Kim via unanimous decision

185 lbs.: Uriah Hall vs. Rafael Natal

In his Octagon debut, Uriah Hall (10-4) found the momentum he’d built up on TUF 17 blunted courtesy of consecutive decision losses to Kelvin Gastelum and John Howard. He has since rebounded with three straight wins, including a nasty cut stoppage of Ron Stallings in his most recent bout.

He’s knocked out six opponents overall and has only ever been stopped by current champion Chris Weidman in non-UFC action.

An 0-1-1 start to Rafael Natal (19-6-1)’s UFC career gave way to five wins in his next six fights, marred only by a head kick knockout to Andrew Craig in a fight he was comfortably ahead in. After consecutive losses to Tim Kennedy and Ed Herman, Natal rattled off two straight wins of his own at the expense of Chris Camozzi and Tom Watson.

Eight of “Sapo’s” wins are by submission, though just one came inside the Octagon.

Both of these men are inconsistent, but one’s high points are significantly higher. Sapo — though a capable grappler — seems to alternate between “decent” and “atrocious” on the feet and we all know about the endless battle between Hall’s body and Hall’s brain.

To his credit, Hall does seem to  have gotten his act together — he looked quite good in those two recent stoppages and he did a pretty solid job against Thiago Santos for a man whose toe was on backward. It’s no contest on the feet and I don’t believe Sapo can score the takedown. So long as Hall doesn’t sleepwalk through the fight like he did against Howard, expect him to spark Natal sometime in the first round.

Prediction: Hall via first-round knockout

115 lbs.: Rosa Namajunas vs. Nina Ansaroff

Rosa Namajunas (2-2) exploded onto the scene with a brutal run through TUF 20, scoring three straight impressive submissions en route to the Finale. Once there, “Thug Rose” struggled with the wrestling prowess of Carla Esparza before eventually tapping to a rear-naked choke in the third round.

She is one of the youngest fighters on the roster at just 22 years of age.

Nina Ansaroff’s (6-4) record is rather deceiving — she faced the likes of Esparza and Barb Honchack in her first four fights and entered UFC on a five-fight win streak. Once there, she faced Brazil’s Juliana Lima in hostile territory, losing a narrow decision.

Four of her wins, including her last three, are by form of knockout.

To disabuse the ill-informed, let me say first that Ansaroff is not a pushover. As a former Flyweight, she’s got size for the division alongside legitimate power and some nasty ground-and-pound. What she isn’t is a sufficiently sound wrestler to shut down Namajunas’ crazy grappling attack.

The longer the fight goes, the more it will favor Ansaroff. In addition, her ground-and-pound makes Namajunas’ willingness to fight off her back a liability. That said, Namajunas’ sheer submission prowess and her constant improvement have me confident in her victory.

She taps Ansaroff in the early going.

Prediction: Namajunas via first-round submission

That’s a UFC 187 “Prelims” wrap.

Remember that MMAmania.com will deliver LIVE round-by-round, blow-by-blow coverage of the entire UFC 187 fight card, starting with the Fight Pass “Prelims” matches online, which are scheduled to begin at 6:30 p.m. ET, and then the remaining under card balance on FOX Sports 1 at 8 p.m. ET before the PPV main card start time at 10 p.m. ET.