CHICAGO – Getting the chance to fight in Chicago again has brought forth a bit of nostalgia for veteran bantamweight Eddie Wineland . The 35-year-old, a longtime resident of nearby Northwest Indiana who does most of his training in Chicago, returns Saturday after a layoff of nearly a year. Wineland (23-13-1 MMA, 5-7 UFC) takes on promotional newcomer Grigorii Popov (14-2 MMA, 0-0 UFC) on the ESPN+ prelims at United Center. Early in his career, Wineland was fighting in local shows like Total Fight Challenge and Ironheart Crown in a truly old-school venue called the Hammond Civic Center just across the Illinois-Indiana state line in Hammond, Ind. In fact, Wineland won Total Fight Challenge’s bantamweight title in 2008, not long after he became the first 135-pound champion in WEC history, several years before the WEC merged into the UFC.
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UFC 238 brings back fond home-fight memories for Eddie Wineland – MMA Junkie