UFC 295: Prochazka vs Pereira - Nov 11 ???

[wandshogun09]

Back in NYC. Back at MSG. 

PPV MAIN CARD
Jiri Prochazka vs Alex Pereira - Vacant Light Heavyweight Title

Sergei Pavlovich vs Tom Aspinall - Interim Heavyweight Title  

Jessica Andrade vs Mackenzie Dern

Matt Frevola vs Benoit Saint-Denis

Pat Sabatini vs Diego Lopes  

ESPN PRELIMS 
Steve Erceg vs Alessandro Costa 

Tabatha Ricci vs Loopy Godinez

Mateusz Rebecki vs Roosevelt Roberts

Nazim Sadykhov vs Viacheslav Borshchev

ESPN+/FIGHT PASS PRELIMS 
Jared Gordon vs Mark Madsen

Kyung Ho Kang vs John Castaneda

Joshua Van vs Kevin Borjas

Jamall Emmers vs Dennis Buzukja  

 

First off, don’t worry about the bout order. Pay it no mind. The running order hasn’t been made official yet and I doubt it’ll stay this way. This is just how Marcel Dorff has it at the moment but I’ll edit as and when. What a card though. It’s not one of those cards that’s stacked from top to bottom but that main and co-main is insane. And there’s just enough on the undercard to give it some depth as well. Plenty to like about this card. Apologies in advance, this is gonna be a long scroll…

 

 

Jiri Prochazka vs Alex Pereira is now the main event, thanks to Jon Jones killing the Stipe fight. If the matchmakers had contacted me personally (why would they?) and asked me who these guys should fight next, this is the fight I’d have chosen. It’s one of those matchups where you just can’t picture anything other than pure chaos and violence. It feels like the only two ways this can go is either a quick and brutal knockout, or it’s an all-out war until someone drops. It’s sad to say but this is pretty much the only fight you can make in the Light Heavyweight division that I’m genuinely buzzing for. Considering 205 used to be seen as the glamour division where the biggest fights happened, it’s a bit depressing to see how far things have plummeted. Gone are the days of Chuck Liddell, Tito Ortiz, Randy Couture, Wanderlei Silva, Rampage Jackson, Shogun Rua and so on. LHW has been a total shitshow for some time now, and the title picture has been one big fat clusterfuck for about 18 months. Try to follow this shite…

The title had been a hot potato ever since Jon Jones relinquished the thing back in 2020. In September that year, Jan Blachowicz knocked out Dominick Reyes to win the vacant strap and become the new champ. After one defence against Israel Adesanya, Blachowicz got subbed by Glover Teixeira in Abu Dhabi and lost the belt. From there, Glover lost the title in his first defence against Jiri Prochazka at UFC 275 in Singapore…

This is where it really started getting messy. Jiri vs Glover was a classic. My FOTY last year. A crazy, back and forth war full of twists and turns and drama. I haven’t watched it back but I remember thinking Glover was well on his way to winning the decision, then Jiri pulled out the sub deep into the 5th round. Wild end to a tremendous fight and, while no-one was sure how long it would last, I think everyone was looking forward to seeing what a Jiri Prochazka title run would look like. The fight with Glover was so good that they booked the immediate rematch for UFC 282 in December. They had a tough act to follow and I doubt they could’ve topped that nutty first fight but, still, there wasn’t a better fight to make at that time than the rematch. I don’t remember much complaining about the booking anyway. Then it happened…

Jiri suffered a shoulder injury and, not only had to pull out of the rematch with Glover, the injury was thought so severe and the layoff was expected to be so long that Jiri opted to just vacate the title.

“This is the worst shoulder injury the doctors have seen in UFC history. It’s really fucking bad. His shoulder is very, very bad. He’s going to have serious surgery which will require extensive rehab.” - Dana White

With the UFC short on options and scrambling, and Glover refusing to face a short notice replacement, the matchmakers went with Jan Blachowicz vs Magomed Ankalaev as the new battle to crown a champion.

Quite a comedown but they didn’t have a whole lot of choices. To say the reception for Jan vs Ank was lukewarm at best is an understatement. No-one really gave a bollocks. Especially as a PPV main event. And it didn’t help that the fight turned out to be a bit of a dud on the night. I mean, it wasn’t terrible but it wasn’t much good either. And to top it off, the fight ended in a draw.

So the whole point of the main event, to crown a new champ, went up in smoke. The night ended and we still had no Light Heavyweight champion!

So you’d think they’d just book the rematch, right? Wrong. Apparently Dana hated the fight so much that he decided to shun these two and book a completely new fight to crown a new champion. At the following month’s PPV, UFC 283 in Brazil in January, it would be Glover Teixeira vs Jamahal Hill.

Jamahal Hill won a clear decision. Glover retired after. At 43 years old, it wasn’t a surprise. Hill put a beating on Glover and the judges scored it 50-44 across the board. So no controversy this time. No draw. We finally had a champion! I said it at the time and I’ll say it again, this just felt a bit weird to me. Credit where it’s due, Hill did what he had to do and it was a strong performance. But it felt like Hill had been very fortunate and benefited from circumstances more than anything. Glover seemed to have one foot out the door coming in and it was only for the fact Jiri got injured, Blachowicz vs Ankalaev ended in a draw and that Dana hated the fight that Hill even got the shot. But whatever. He jumped on the opportunity and made it count. Finally, the Light Heavyweight division had a champ again. But not for long…

You couldn’t fucking script it. It seemed like all signs were pointing towards Hill vs a returning Jiri and we’d finally clear up the mess of who the actual, legitimate champion at 205 was. Then that happened. Just seems like Jones put a curse on the division when he left. It wasn’t all doom and gloom in July though. One bright spot for 205 came in the form of Alex Pereira moving up to LHW.

The life and soul there. Loving life. Of course, his run at Middleweight and history with Israel Adesanya is a story that’s been talked about to death. No need to go over old ground. But when Izzy finally got that elusive win over him at UFC 287 in April, it was just a matter of time until Pereira moved up. Especially because Adesanya weirdly shut down any talk of a rematch. There was nothing for Pereira to stay at 185 for. He’d already won the belt, he’d traded wins and losses with Izzy and, honestly, I don’t know how in the fuck he made 185 as long as he did anyway. That weight cut must’ve been a bastard. Pereira’s huge. So I was happy to see him make the move to 205. Much healthier for him and, at 36, the weight cut is only gonna get harder. Sack it off. He had a successful 205 debut in July, beating Jan Blachowicz on points in a decent but not spectacular performance. It wasn’t a great fight but there were positive signs there if you’re a Pereira fan. He looked strong and durable at 205 and he was in with a big, tough lump. Didn’t get the finish but a win’s a win. The phrase ‘styles make fights’ is done to death but I think it fits here. Jan was never gonna be an easy matchup for Pereira to shine in but with the right opponent…

And he’s back!

Jiri Prochazka makes his long awaited Octagon return after nearly 18 months out. Hopefully the injury hasn’t fucked him up too much. You just never know though, especially with something like a shoulder injury. I know it’s not the same thing but my brother fucked his shoulder up in his teens, had surgery but it’s never been the same again. Obviously he’s not a pro fighter but he’s in a physical job and has had issues over the years. So I can only imagine the toll training camps and fighting will have on an injury like that. You know he’s gonna be up for it mentally though. He’s a unique character and seems to be wired a bit different, even by mad bastard pro fighter standards. He’ll go for it. And you know Pereira’s gonna be right there with him.

Fuck knows what happens here. Hopefully we get a champion out of it at least! Feels like they’re just gonna collide and they’re both so dangerous that anything can happen. Really could just be a case of whoever lands first. It’s not like either are defensive marvels either. That combination of both of them being lethal on the offence and a bit vulnerable on the defence is a recipe for a real edge of the seat battle. Can’t wait for this. Not a clue how it plays out but I can’t wait to find out. My first thought was to lean towards Pereira cracking him and closing the show. The fact that Jiri can get reckless and routinely puts himself in harm’s way to land his own shit, I can just picture Pereira catching him coming in with that horrible left hook. But Pereira’s got a habit of getting clipped himself, doesn’t really move his head and Jiri’s awkwardness could well throw him off. Probably slightly favouring Pereira but I’m about 50/50 on this. Genuinely one of my most anticipated fights of the year!

 

Sergei Pavlovich vs Tom Aspinall, for the interim title, is now the big Heavyweight battle on this card. Was obviously supposed to be Jon Jones vs Stipe Miocic for the proper belt but Jones fucked that up just a couple of weeks out by getting injured in training. Apparently he tore his pectoral muscle “off the bone”. That’s according to Dana anyway. It’s looking like he could be out for around 8 months. The twat. Funny how you start tearing your shit up when you spend years being inactive and ‘bulking up’, then try and do back-to-back training camps in your mid 30s. Might be jumping to conclusions but don’t muscles also start “tearing off the bone” more when you’re juiced up? Wouldn’t surprise me in the slightest given it’s Jones we’re on about.

Yep. Dickhead. I’ve said it later in the thread but I honestly wouldn’t be too fussed if he never fights again. He was only sticking around for the Stipe fight anyway and even that was happening years too late.

Anyway…the UFC scrambled and came up with this Pavlovich vs Aspinall fight. It’s nowhere near as big a fight as Jones vs Miocic in terms of ‘names’ but, honestly, I think it’s actually a better and more relevant fight in 2023. It was pretty much common knowledge that both Jones and Miocic were thinking about retiring after their fight. So the title was gonna end up vacant anyway, whoever won that fight. So now we get an interim title in the meantime.

That’s how the Heavyweight rankings are looking currently. As you can see looking at that Top 5, Pavlovich vs Aspinall wasn’t just the best option, it was the only option. Dana’s already said that Stipe wasn’t even offered a different fight and the plan is still to do Jones-Stipe when Jones is healthy. Then you’ve got Gane who’s one fight removed from that embarrassing loss to Jones and is 0-2 in title shots in less than 2 years. And Blaydes is coming off a first round knockout loss to…

Yes. Big Sergei sparked Blaydes in their Apex headliner back in April. He’s looked like an absolute wrecking ball so far. He’s 18-1 with 15 knockouts. All 15 knockouts came in the first round, 5 of them in less than a minute. You might assume those ‘less than a minute’ finishes came early in his career against nobodies in Russia. No, 2 of them were in the UFC within the last year or so. Fan favourites Derrick Lewis and Tai Tuivasa were both gone in 60 seconds. Sergei doesn’t fuck about. I feel like I’ve said it before and after every one of his UFC fights but it still feels like we don’t know that much about him. We know he can definitely whack. But we haven’t really seen anything else because he hasn’t had to show anything else recently. He hasn’t needed more than his punching power in his last few fights. His only loss to date was a first round TKO in his UFC debut against Alistair Overeem in 2018. Aside from that, he’s been on a terrifying streak. Just before he signed with the UFC, he did actually have a couple of fights in 2016/17 that went the distance. A 3 rounder and a 5 rounder. They’re the only times he’s gone past a round. He won both but I’m sure I read he didn’t look great in at least one of them. I’m curious to see how those fights went, although obviously they’re 6/7 years ago now. Regardless, it’s safe to say you don’t want a dig off him.

Tom Aspinall has been on the rise for a while now and I think most see him as the most promising and most talented all-around fighter of the new generation of Heavyweights. Definitely the best chance the UK has ever had of having a British UFC Heavyweight champion. He’s 13-3 but he’s really only had one legitimate loss. He got heel hooked on a BAMMA card in his 4th pro fight back in 2015. The other 2 ‘losses’? One was a DQ for an illegal elbow and the other was the night he blew his knee out against Blaydes in 15 seconds. The fear was that the injury would derail him long term and he might never be the same again. But after a year on the shelf recovering, he returned in July and battered Marcin Tybura in just over a minute.

It genuinely looked like he hadn’t missed a beat. Before that hiccup against Blaydes he’d been steadily progressing and had stopped Andrei Arlovski, Sergey Spivac and Alexander Volkov in a row. That Tybura fight was like he was just picking up where he’d left off. Like the injury and subsequent 12 month layoff never even happened. Hopefully that injury is 100% behind him now because he really has looked the business so far. Like Pavlovich though, we still don’t know quite how good he is yet. Everyone seems high on him and he clearly appears to be one of the best Heavyweight prospects to come along in a while. But he hasn’t been beating a who’s who yet. The Volkov and Tybura wins were particularly impressive but those guys are solid middle of the pack guys, not title contenders. It was the way he dealt with them that was impressive more than anything. He’s passing the eye test so far though. And he’s saying all the right things as well.

“I think Pavlovich is the most dangerous guy in the UFC. To be honest, it’s the most dangerous situation you can have - fighting the most dangerous guy in the UFC on two weeks notice. But I’m willing to put it all on the line. This is my absolute dream.”

“Fuck, I’m doing a Bisping, aren’t I? Bisping took it on two weeks notice. Bisping did it on two weeks notice and won against Rockhold. So why can’t I do it?”

“I’m a dedicated guy. I’m in the gym anyway. I would’ve liked longer than two weeks, you know what I mean, but you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do. I’ll be ready, no excuses. I’ll be ready to go, and I’m coming to win. The narrative of this fight isn’t gonna be I’ve taken the fight on two weeks notice. No, I’m fucking coming to win.” - Tom Aspinall

Fascinating one this. I’m pretty much 50/50 on it. On paper, it seems like Aspinall is overall definitely the more skilled and well rounded of the two. Even just in the striking, he seems to have more tools. But Pavlovich has that kind of freaky punching power that can negate all of that with one shot. Game changing power. And he doesn’t just wildly wing punches either. He’s not just some big lumbering slugger. He moves deceptively fast, has decent MMA boxing and uses straight punches as well as the big horrible haymakers. People will say there’s questions on him but the same goes for Aspinall. We’ve never seen Aspinall get cracked and he’s never gone past the second round. They’ve both had one legit loss where they were finished. We don’t really know how either man will respond under pressure or when they’re hurt or when things aren’t going their way because (aside from Sergei’s loss to Reem), in the last few years they’ve both just been smashing sods up and finishing fights early. Who the fuck knows how this one goes? Feels like one of those fights where whoever gets the first significant moment off will take over and end it early. They’re both such strong finishers. But I don’t know. I wanna favour Aspinall and I am leaning towards him slightly, but I could just as easily see Pavlovich walloping him early. Either way, while it’s a shame Jones vs Miocic is off, that was just a one-off, end of an era, double farewell fight. The winner of this fight is the one who’s gonna stick around and be champion into 2024.

 

Jessica Andrade vs Mackenzie Dern is a solid fight in the Strawweight division. Don’t really know what to expect but I don’t think the ingredients are there for a bad fight. Andrade’s never boring and Dern has been quite entertaining to watch herself in recent fights. Tough matchup for Andrade because she’s in a right slump at the moment. Probably could’ve done with a couple of steps back and an easier fight but I wouldn’t be surprised if she asked for this. She’s game as fuck and doesn’t seem the type to want easier fights. I think it would’ve been wise here though. She’s coming off 3 straight losses now, and was finished in all of them. Erin Blanchfield submitted her in February, Yan Xiaonan knocked her out in 2 minutes in May, then Tatiana Suarez subbed her in August. It’s been a rough year for her. She’s been a favourite of mine for years. Never a dull moment, fights her arse off, former champ etc. But she’s got some work to do to claw things back now. Dern could be catching her at just the right time…

She beat Angela Hill on points in their Apex headliner back in May. I remember it being a much more enjoyable fight to watch than I expected going in and also recall thinking it was probably Dern’s overall best performance yet in the UFC. Everyone knows Dern is gonna have the grappling advantage over pretty much anyone she faces but she beat Hill up on the feet as well, which was a bit of a surprise. Can’t read too much into it because Hill isn’t amazing and she’s probably on the way out now. But it was good stuff from Dern. You know the score as well. Don’t be surprised if Dern gets fast tracked into the title picture with a win here. You know the higher ups at UFC HQ want her in the mix. And I can’t deny, I can see the appeal of her as a challenger for Zhang Weili down the line. Fun matchups to make but she’s gotta get past Andrade here. On recent form, I suspect she will but we’ll see.

 

Matt Frevola vs Benoit Saint-Denis is ***WAND’S ONE TO WATCH*** on this bad boy. It’s not my favourite fight on the card but I’ve bummed Jiri-Pereira enough and I wanted to highlight this. Even on a card like this, it’s a fight that stands out to me. If you’ve been watching these two recently you know why I’m shining the spotlight on this fight. Should be a killer fight. And the crowd is gonna be mega hot for it with Frevola being a New Yorker. Be interesting to see how Saint-Denis handles what I expect to be a hostile crowd here actually. Coming off the massive support he got in Paris last time, this’ll be a complete role reversal for him facing Frevola in New York. An ‘away game’, if you will.

Julio Cesar Frevola! ? 

I’ve became a big fan of the ‘Steamrolla’ over the years. He’s a Serra-Longo fighter with a record of 11-3-1 with 7 of his wins coming inside the distance. He actually fought on DWCS way back in 2017 but I don’t remember him getting on my radar until he fought Lando Vannata in a corker in the UFC later. He hit a rough patch a couple of years ago when he lost to Arman Tsarukyan (in what I recall being another belter) and then got sparked by Terrance McKinney in 7 bastard seconds! It sounds mad but I honestly think the UFC gave up on him after that and were trying to get rid of him. The fact that, coming off a 7 second KO loss, they then immediately matched him up with Genaro Valdez who at the time was 10-0 with 10 finishes, tells you all you need to know. Frevola wasn’t having it though. Him and Valdez had a bonkers 3 minute shootout and Frevola chinned him. He followed that up by decking another dangerous KO artist in a round in Ottman Azaitar. Then in his last fight…

He knocked out Drew Dober, again in a round, at UFC 288 in May. It was as fun as a Frevola vs Dober fight sounds on paper. Fantastic stuff. Dober has a fucking paving slab of a jaw on him as well, so for Frevola to stop him was a big statement. What a career turnaround. To go from getting walloped in 7 seconds to coming back and scoring 3 straight first round KOs is nuts. It’s been great to see. He’s got another tough fight ahead of him here though…

Benoit Saint-Denis has really emerged over the last year or so as a really exciting fighter and also a guy worth keeping an eye on as an up and comer in the Lightweight division. He came into the UFC undefeated a couple of years ago but got battered by Elizeu Zaleski Dos Santos in his debut and I think a lot of people kind of wrote him off after that. It was a bad beating, to the point the referee actually got pulled from his duties the rest of the night for not stopping it. Saint-Denis has bounced back big time though. He’s gone 4-0 with 4 finishes since then. He’s really shone on the two Paris cards so far. The support of the French crowds seemed to bring something extra out of him and he’s fought like a man possessed on both. He completely derailed the hype train of Ismael Bonfim in July, battering and submitting him in a round. Then on September’s Paris show he crushed Thiago Moises and got the TKO. Got a really good feeling about this. Going off the last few performances from Saint-Denis and the run Frevola’s currently on, this should be a real banger.

 

Pat Sabatini vs Diego Lopes is a must watch just for Lopes. In just 2 fights in the UFC, he’s already a ‘can’t miss’ fighter for me. Sabatini’s a tricky test on paper though. He’s not always the most exciting fighter to watch but he’s effective and he’s not an easy guy to beat. He’s 18-4 with 13 finishes and, besides the surprising quick loss to Damon Jackson last year, he’s won 7 of his last 8 fights. He’s coming into this fight off a submission win over Lucas Almeida in June. Like I said though, Lopes is your reason to tune in for this one.

He’s 28 years old and has a record of 22-6 with 20 of his wins being finishes. He made his UFC debut in May, jumping in on short notice against undefeated Movsar Evloev. He lost a decision but instantly won over a lot of fans. First of all, the balls on him even taking that fight on late notice! Evloev’s a hard enough fight with a full camp, to go in without full prep just shows how much Lopes believes in himself. And Evloev is a real good fighter but not necessarily known for being in entertaining fights just because he usually just dominates his opponents and grinds out wins. But Lopes went out there and dragged an incredible fight out of him. It was about as good a performance as you can have in defeat. He really made Evloev earn the win and was constantly threatening from all angles. He came back after a full camp in August and made short work of Gavin Tucker, armbarring him in about 90 seconds. Looking forward to seeing him back in there.

 

Steve Erceg vs Alessandro Costa might be decent. Just not really familiar enough with either of these two but you usually can’t go too far wrong with the Flyweights. It was originally supposed to be Erceg against Matt Schnell but Schnell’s once again pulled out. Always seems to be on the shelf that fella. Anyway, Erceg made his UFC debut back in June, beating David Dvorak by decision on short notice. I vaguely remember him looking pretty good. He’s Australian, 28 years old, 10-1 with 7 finishes and basically looks like Kenny Florian and Ryan Hall somehow had a baby together. There’s an image. Costa’s Brazilian, 27 years old and 13-3 with 10 finishes. He got knocked out in his Octagon debut by Amir Albazi but bounced back with a TKO over Jimmy Flick in June.

 

Tabatha Ricci vs Loopy Godinez should be fun. Neither are gonna trouble the title picture but I like this matchup a lot actually. Ricci is Brazilian, 28 years old, has a 9-1 record and is currently on a 4 fight win streak. The only loss was against Manon Fiorot in a fight Ricci took on short notice and was stupidly outsized in. She comes into this fight off a points win over Gillian Robertson in June. As for Loopy, she’s Mexican, 30 years old and 11-3…

She battered and submitted Elise Reed in a POTN winning showing on the Mexican Independence Day card in September. She looked like a monster but she’s so inconsistent you just never know how she’s gonna look from one fight to the next. This was definitely one of her better performances but then again Reed isn’t much cop. I like Loopy though. Hoping she can start stringing the wins together and finally start building some proper momentum now.

 

Mateusz Rebecki vs Roosevelt Roberts is a late card change. Was originally supposed to be Rebecki vs Nurullo Aliev but Aliev dropped out injured. In steps Roosevelt Roberts, returning to the UFC for the first time since 2021. He got spin kicked into oblivion by Ignacio Bahamondes in his last fight in the UFC, one of the most incredible knockouts in recent years, and was released after. It wasn’t the best run but he went away and won a couple of fights, then went on TUF earlier this year but ended up losing to Austin Hubbard in the semi finals. Rebecki is Polish and has a really decent record of 18-1 with 15 finishes. To be honest, I remember him boring the shite out of me in his UFC debut, smothering Nick Fiore to a decision. But in fairness, looking at his finish ratio, that probably wasn’t an accurate reflection or typical of his style. Maybe some ‘Octagon jitters’ were at play for his debut because he looked ace in his next fight in June and absolutely wrecked Loik Radzhabov with leg kicks to set up the KO.

 

Nazim Sadykhov vs Viacheslav Borshchev is another standout fight on the undercard to me. Sadykhov’s another New York based Ray Longo fighter, 9-1 with 7 finishes and it’s so far, so good for him in the UFC. He got a doctor stoppage over Evan Elder in his debut in February in a really exciting hidden/forgotten gem. Then followed that up by submitting Terrance McKinney in July. He takes on ‘Slava Claus’…

Big fan. That’s him waffling Maheshate Hayisaer in his last fight in May. He’s a one-trick pony for sure. It’s been made apparent that he’s got pretty much zero grappling. That got exposed in his losses to Marc Diakiese and Mike Davis last year. Those fights just laid out the blueprint to beat Slav. Yet Maheshate still decided to try his luck in the striking and paid the price. Slav’s a problem on the feet. He showed it in his DWCS fight against Chris Duncan and stopped Dakota Bush with a nasty body shot in his UFC debut. If Sadykhov is smart, he could potentially make this very easy if he’s got even a half decent ground game. For my own entertainment purposes though, I hope he chooses to bang it out on the feet.

 

Jared Gordon vs Mark Madsen is whatever. Not a bad fight but I’m not really feeling it. Nice to see Gordon get to fight in his backyard NYC though. Even nearly a year later, I can’t help but feel bad for him after he got blatantly robbed against Paddy Pimblett. Even despite it officially going down as a loss, he got more fan support following that than he’s ever had at any other point in his career. But he hasn’t been able to capitalise on it. His fight with Bobby Green in April ended on a clash of heads and he had some concussion issues after that which stopped him fighting for a bit. Hopefully he’s OK now. Can’t play around with that shit. I’d like to see him get the win here. Winning at MSG would be a special moment for him. Plus, Madsen’s going nowhere. It sounds really harsh saying that considering he’s coming off his first ever loss and is 12-1 overall. But he’s also 39 years old. He got in late and hasn’t been the most active anyway. He’s got that wrestling background but, I don’t know. He got subbed by Grant Dawson last time and it’ll be a whole year of inactivity by the time he gets in there for this fight. This seems like a fairly evenly matched fight on paper but it’s not really grabbing me.

 

Kyung Ho Kang vs John Castaneda is just filling a slot really but I could see it being enjoyable enough to watch. Kang’s 36 now, has been on the roster 10 years and none of it really sticks in the memory but, to be fair, I remember him looking good last time out in June, dropping and choking Cristian Quinonez in 2 minutes. Only took him a decade but it was a cracking performance. Castaneda is 20-6 and coming off a points win over Muin Gafurov in what I remember being a good little fast paced scrap in June. He’s also got UFC wins over Miles Johns and Eddie Wineland and went the distance with Nathaniel Wood in his UFC debut.

 

Joshua Van vs Kevin Borjas understandably isn’t gonna get much attention on a card like this but if Van’s performance in his UFC debut is how he typically fights, he’s gonna be worth a watch. He’s only 21 years old and he’s 8-1 with 7 finishes. I’d never heard of him before his debut but he got the call to step in on short notice against Zhalgas Zhumagulov in June after Zhalgas had a couple of opponents pull out on him. Everyone was on the Zhalgas bandwagon going in but Van gave zero fucks.

He gave Zhalgas a bit of a hiding as I recall, en route to a split decision win. Not sure how the one judge scored it for Zhalgas. I thought Van won clear cut myself. Was a cracking fight though and the pace Van put on Zhalgas was crazy. If you didn’t know better, you’d swear Van was the one who had the full camp going in. Borjas makes his debut here. He’s from Peru and he’s 9-1 with 8 knockouts. That’s literally all there is on Sherdog about him. They don’t even have his age and height listed!

 

Jamall Emmers vs Dennis Buzukja. Not bad. I’ve only seen a few Emmers fights but I think he’s one of those guys who’s a little bit better than his record suggests. He’s 19-7 and has alternated between wins and losses over the last few years. He lost a split decision against Jack Jenkins in his last fight in June but I’ve got a hazy recollection of thinking he should’ve got the decision that night. Then you dig a bit deeper into his record and you’ll see he took Giga Chikadze to a split back in 2020 and actually beat Cory Sandhagen on a LFA card in 2017. As for Buzukja…

He’s gonna have the crowd on his side here. He’s another Serra-Longo guy out of NY, 26 years old with a record of 11-3 and 5 finishes. He fought on DWCS and finally made his UFC debut back in August. It wasn’t ideal, he stepped in on short notice and lost a decision to Sean Woodson. I remember it being fairly clear for Woodson as well but we’ll see how Buzukja looks here off a full training camp.

 

 

And…breathe. If you read all that have a gold star or something.

That’s 295.

Edited November 10, 2023 by wandshogun09

[Dai]

Amazing write up Wand! The main event is fascinating. Stipe of 2023 is a complete unknown. Due to Jones' last fight, he is still a complete mystery too. I think theres no real basis to predict this fight, which makes it really interesting. The only factor that I know for sure is that this will be Jones' second training camp of the year, and it will be Stipe's first for a couple of years. Not much, but it may sway me in the favour of Jones.

Should be an amazing fight, which I cant see lasting long. Imagine if we never get that moment of Jones being sparked out cold? Its something people have wanted for over a decade. Just feels wrong if he gets out of the game without that happening.

For an MSG show they havent exactly stacked it like they have done previously. If Jones manages to fuck things up in the next month, this is a weak as piss MSG show.

[Egg Shen]

Yeah, feels like a two fight card, but its 2 cracking title fights on paper.

As for the main event, I see Jones handling Miocic with little issue.

[Panhead]

Incredible write up @wandshogun09 That's got me even more pumped for the the two title fights. I wish it was happening this weekend now! 

[neil]

Wand with the epic write-up!

[wandshogun09]

Current bout order. 

[WeeAl]

Today is the day we all knew would arrive sooner or later . . .

https://www.mmafighting.com/2023/10/25/23931315/jon-jones-injured-sergei-pavlovich-vs-tom-aspinall-set-for-interim-heavyweight-title-at-ufc-295

Jones tears his pec, both he and Stipe are off the MSG card. Well, I for one, am shocked. 

[Egg Shen]

This sport is all over the gaff

[Dai]

Insanely dissapointing news, but I think we all have our expectations firmly limited when it comes to a Bones Jones fight.

I love the replacment fight, should be a cracker. Sergei is an absolute beast, so will be real interesting to see how Aspinall's footwork fares against the killer thats coming toward him.

[Kfogg1991]

Im at a loss for words

We get this situation happen for the last PPV less than three days ago in which a fighter booked originally gets the opportunity but a new opponent but Jones drops out and Stipe gets fucked off and taken out of the main event. 

Not a fan of this main event personally it's a huge let down in comparison 

[Bus Surfer]

29 minutes ago, Kfogg1991 said:

Not a fan of this main event personally it's a huge let down in comparison 

Jones fighting is always a massive spectacle, but I don't think anyone really gave Stipe a chance here. It seemed one way traffic to me. Big Sergei v Captain Tom should be a really interesting match up. 

This has royally fucked up Jones' graceful exit plan. From what he's said, he had no real motivation to fight any of the new blood at Heavyweight, but I think it's gonna be hard for him not to now we'll have an interim belt in the mix. 

So many questions here... What happens with Stipe? If Jones does come back he's surely not side stepping Pav/Tom to give Stipe the fight? 

Can Jones keep a level head and not go on a mad one in the meantime? 

Crazy sport. 

 

Edited October 25, 2023 by Silky Kisser

[WeeAl]

I feel for Stipe here in this one. This was the only fight left for him as well that must have held any interest at his age. He probably won't be getting/won't be taking the fight with Jones in a year's time if it's back as a possibility. 

Interim titles eh? Gotta love 'em. The Light Heavyweight and Heavyweight divisions are a special breed of fucked up all of their own. Even Tony Khan would give himself a headache if he was to make this shit up to this extent. 

[wandshogun09]

[Dai]

Stipe or Bones will want nothing to do with Aspinall, let alone a monster like Sergei. They are staying well clear of him. I assume MSG was sold out with this headliner, so maybe Dana just does the Stipe/Bones match in a years time in Vegas, with the Title on the line. Dana says 'The winner of this fight will fight Sergei/Aspinal/Whoever', and then both men retire and the interim champ becomes main champ. If theres money to be made, then Dana could easily do this I think.

[Egg Shen]

1 hour ago, Silky Kisser said:

Jones fighting is always a massive spectacle, but I don't think anyone really gave Stipe a chance here. 

 

Yeah, Jones was gonna butcher Stipe. I still wanted to see it, but having an Interim Championship set up between the two best up and coming heavies in the sport is a pretty great consolation prize. It puts the winner bang in time for a fight with Jones too, either of which are fights we need to see.

I wouldn't be surprised if Stipe was offered the Interim fight but turned it down to hang on for Jones. He'll have been out of the cage for 3 years by the time Jones returns though, I aint sure they'll revisit it.