Welcome to the Saturday edition of the Knockdown Daily. Today, we’ll go over today’s big three MMA events. This issue also has a lengthy notes section, covering happenings from all around the sport.
Prochazka, Pereira Aim For Return To The Top
There hasn’t been a division in the UFC that has experienced more turmoil in recent years than light heavyweight. Since Jon Jones vacated his belt in 2020, it has been a hot potato in the division and carried a lot of bad luck with it.
Jan Blachowicz was the first to earn the belt after Jones, beating Dominick Reyes at UFC 253. After defeating Israel Adesanya in the then-middleweight champ’s arguably worst performance at that point, Blachowicz dropped the title to 41-year-old Glover Teixeira.
Teixeira kicked off a three-fighter stretch of talents that didn’t successfully defend their belt once. He was unseated last year by Jiri Prochazka, who claimed a UFC title just three fights into his promotional run. Then, after Prochazka suffered a shoulder injury, it was Blachowicz and Magomed Ankalaev that fought for the belt in late 2022. After that bout ended in a draw — leaving the belt vacant for even longer — Jamahal Hill became a champion with a victory over Teixeira.
Now that Hill has also suffered an injury that forced him to get rid of the belt, it’s up for grabs once again this weekend in the main event of UFC 295 from Madison Square Garden in New York City, New York, USA.
Prochazka will have the chance to regain the belt, appearing for the first time since an injury ended his previous reign. He will go up against Alex Pereira, a former champ who is coming up a division after competing at middleweight.
Just about one year ago in the exact same venue as Saturday’s UFC event, Pereira scored an upset win over Israel Adesanya to earn the UFC Middleweight Championship. He lost that belt this year, suffering a defeat to Adesanya in their second MMA appearance (but between MMA and kickboxing, their fourth meeting overall). Now that he beat Blachowicz in July, he will fight to become a champion once again in a new division.
UFC 295, which is certainly one of the promotion’s stronger lineups of 2023, will also crown a new interim heavyweight champion in the co-main event. A matchup between rising contenders Sergei Pavlovich and Tom Aspinall was made after UFC Heavyweight Champion Jon Jones suffered an injury in training, forcing him out of a fight against former titleholder Stipe Miocic, who was scheduled to make his long-awaited return.
Pavlovich has quickly sprung into the title conversation since his return in 2022, picking up four consecutive first-round finish wins due to strikes. His last was a win against Curtis Blaydes, which he won in the main event of a card. Aspinall will attempt to become UFC’s second current British champion, getting the interim opportunity after a promotional campaign that has seen him score six wins through seven appearances, with the sole loss coming via injury.
Those are just details about the top two matches on UFC 295. A total of 13 bouts are scheduled for the pay-per-view event, which will mark the promotion’s seventh time in Madison Square Garden since the state of New York legalized MMA.
Here’s the full lineup:
Main Card (10:00PM EST) (PPV)
Bout 13: Jiri Prochazka (29-3-1) vs. Alex Pereira (8-2) (Vacant UFC Light Heavyweight Championship)
Bout 12: Sergei Pavlovich (18-1) vs. Tom Aspinall (13-3) (Vacant Interim UFC Heavyweight Championship)
Bout 11: Jessica Andrade (24-12) vs. Mackenzie Dern (13-3) (Strawweight)
Bout 10: Matt Frevola (11-3-1) vs. Benoit Saint-Denis (12-1) (Lightweight)
Bout 9: Pat Sabatini (18-4) vs. Diego Lopes (22-6) (Featherweight)
Preliminary Card (8:00PM EST) (ESPNews / ESPN+)
Bout 8: Steve Erceg (10-1) vs. Alessandro Costa (13-3) (Flyweight)
Bout 7: Tabatha Ricci (9-1) vs. Loopy Godinez (11-3) (Strawweight)
Bout 6: Mateusz Rebecki (18-1) vs. Roosevelt Roberts (12-3) (Catchweight 158 lbs)
Bout 5: Nazim Sadykhov (9-1) vs. Viacheslav Borshchev (7-3) (Lightweight)
Early Prelims (6:00PM EST) (ESPN+ / UFC Fight Pass)
Bout 4: Jared Gordon (19-6) vs. Mark Madsen (12-1) (Lightweight)
Bout 3: Kang Kyung-ho (19-9) vs. John Castaneda (20-6) (Catchweigt 138 lbs)
Bout 2: Joshua Van (8-1) vs. Kevin Borjas (9-1) (Flyweight)
Bout 1: Dennis Buzukja (11-3) vs. Jamall Emmers (19-7) (Catchweight 147 lbs)
Welterweight Title Fight Headlines Final Cage Warriors London Card of 2023
Cage Warriors will crown a new champion at welterweight when they head to Indigo At The O2 in London, England on Saturday night.
The last three Cage Warriors Welterweight Champions (Rhys McKee, Ian Machado Garry and Mason Jones) all went to the UFC shortly after earning gold in the promotion. A similar fate could be upon Omiel Brown or Giannis Bachar when they compete in Saturday’s headlining fight.
Brown has spent his entire eight-fight pro career since 2021 in Cage Warriors. He bounced back from his second-ever loss in July, putting together a first-round stoppage win against Jesse Urholin. Now, he gets to fight for a title for the first time in his career.
Bachar, on the other hand, enters this weekend on a seven-fight winning streak since 2016. He made his return to competition earlier this year, winning his Cage Warriors debut with a finish against UFC and Bellator vet Carlo Pedersoli.
A total of 12 fights are scheduled to go down from London this week. Undefeated flyweight prospect Shawn Da Silva will get the biggest test of his career thus far on the main card when he faces 16-fight vet Gerardo Fanny. The co-main event spot will go to former title challenger Will Currie, who will face Brazilian vet Wallison Henrique.
A bantamweight fight recently joined this weekend’s Cage Warriors card from London, England on short notice. After pro newcomer Sineadh Ni Nuallain lost her original opponent, Awa Sow, Kate Bacik took her place. Bacik’s sole pro win came in March when she earned a first-round submission victory over Sow. Also, after Annalisa La Bella wasn’t medically cleared for her strawweight fight against Rhi Rhi Hudson, that bout departed the lineup.
Here’s how Cage Warriors 163 looks:
Main Card (4:00PM EST / 9:00PM GMT) (UFC Fight Pass)
Bout 12: Omiel Brown (6-2) vs. Giannis Bachar (8-2) (Vacant Cage Warriors Welterweight Championship)
Bout 11: Will Currie (10-3) vs. Wallison Henrique (16-13) (Middleweight)
Bout 10: Shawn Da Silva (5-0) vs. Gerardo Fanny (13-3) (Flyweight)
Bout 9: Luca Borando (3-0) vs. Wesley Machado (3-4) (Featherweight)
Bout 8: Jimmy Quinn (1-0) vs. Tom Wright (0-1) (Bantamweight)
Preliminary Card (1:30PM EST / 6:30PM GMT) (UFC Fight Pass)
Bout 7: Francesco Mazzeo (2-0) vs. Angus Hewett (1-1) (Middleweight)
Bout 6: Mateusz Figlak (7-2) vs. Denilson Neves (16-10) (Welterweight)
Bout 5: Michael Blair (2-1) vs. Tariq Pell (2-0) (Catchweigth 161 lbs)
Bout 4: Kate Bacik (1-1) vs. Sineadh Ni Nuallain (0-0) (Bantamweight)
Bout 3: Shirzad Qadrian (3-1) vs. Rory Evans (6-5) (Bantamweight)
Bout 2: Teddy Stringer (1-0) vs. Italo Julio (3-1) (Lightweight)
Bout 1: Adam Darby (2-1) vs. Thorsten Jakobs (3-1) (Welterweight)
Two Radom Fighters Look To Prevail In KSW 88 Main Event
A city that has a population of just over 200,000 will see two of its own compete in the main event of KSW 88 on Saturday. Radom, Poland, will be the host for this weekend’s KSW event, where featherweights Daniel Rutkowski and Patryk Kaczmarczyk will compete in the main event spot.
Rutkowski was in the main event of KSW’s first-ever Radom card in 2022. He was unsuccessful in that fight, losing to featherweight champion Salahdine Parnasse via submission. After picking up three more wins in KSW, he will come back to his home city with the goal of scoring another win. Kaczmarczyk, a fighter who has been with KSW for his last six appearances, will attempt to pick up his third consecutive victory in the promotion.
KSW 88 underwent a few changes in recent days.
While Danu Tarchila and Ramzan Jembiev were originally scheduled to face each other, they were split into separate matches after Jembiev missed weight for his fight on Friday. Jembiev is now expected to face Fabian Luczak, a Polish prospect with two wins. Tarchila will go up against newcomer Vladyslav Falbiychuk, who will be making his pro debut.
Albert Odzimkowski was also given a new opponent for his KSW 88 fight in Radom, Poland. While originally booked to meet Nemanja Nikolic, he is now expected to face Jorge Bueno at middleweight.
Here’s how the card looks:
Main Card (1:00PM EST / 7:00PM CET) (KSW PPV)
Bout 10: Daniel Rutkowski (16-3) vs. Patryk Kaczmarczyk (10-2) (Featherweight)
Bout 9: Bartosz Lesko (13-3-2) vs. Piotr Kuberski (12-1) (Middleweight)
Bout 8: Kamil Gawryjolek (5-0) vs. Stefan Vojcak (6-1) (Heavyweight)
Bout 7: Anita Bekus (7-3) vs. Maria Silva (9-1) (Strawweight)
Bout 6: Marcin Wojcik (18-8) vs. Luis Henrique da Silva (19-9) (Light Heavyweight)
Bout 5: Albert Odzimkowski (13-7) vs. Jorge Bueno (10-3) (Middleweight)
Bout 4: Danu Tarchila (6-2) vs. Vladyslav Falbiychuk (0-0) (Featherweight)
Bout 3: Fabian Luczak (2-0) vs. Ramzan Jembiev (4-1) (Catchweight 159 lbs)
Bout 2: Jacek Gac (2-0) vs. Michal Gniady (1-0) (Catchweight 176 lbs)
Bout 1: Krystian Bielski (9-5) vs. Konrad Rusinski (5-1) (Middleweight)
Notes On: UFC, PFL, Cage Warriors, LFA, CFFC & ONE Championship
Vince McMahon announced his plan to sell 8.4 million of his 27 million shares in TKO, the parent company of UFC and WWE. The stock has fallen since that announcement and closed Friday at $79.22 per share, which is down 7.46 percent since last week.
Featherweights Charles Jourdain (15-6-1) and Sean Woodson (10-1-1) will meet at UFC 297 on January 20th from the Scotiabank Arena in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, per an announcement made by the promotion this week. Jourdain is coming off a successful 2023, where he beat Kron Gracie and Ricardo Ramos. Woodson has picked up three wins and one draw since the beginning of 2021. The fight will mark Jourdain’s first appearance in his home country of Canada since joining the UFC roster in 2019.
Julia Budd (17-6) has been released from her PFL contract after being pulled from her upcoming fight against Kayla Harrison (15-1). In a statement made to Damon Martin of MMA Fighting, PFL CEO Peter Murray stated that Budd “refused to fulfill her contractual obligation” with Harrison, causing the end of her stint with the promotion. On Thursday evening, Budd said on Instagram that she is “pretty upset” with the move and will “talk about it soon enough.” Budd fought five times for the PFL from 2021 to 2023, attaining two wins and three losses.
Dylan Hazan (9-1) has been given a new opponent for Cage Warriors 164 on November 25th from Newcastle, England. While he was originally booked to face Stipe Brcic (11-4) at flyweight, he is now being matched against Amir Malekpour (5-2), who won his Cage Warriors debut earlier this year over Florian Doskja.
Some changes have come to next week’s LFA 172 card, which will take place at the Arizona Financial Theatre in Phoenix, Arizona, USA.
Keyth Dawson (4-4) announced via social media that his fight against Ray Waters (3-0) has been removed from the lineup. Dawson has already received a new assignment, being matched against Mirafzal Akhtamov (5-0-1).
Eric Fimbres (2-0) announced on social media that he is out of his middleweight bout against Lydell Poag (2-2).
An amateur heavyweight fight between Leon Mackey Jr. (1-0) and Tyler Gates (1-1) has been added to the card as well.
A pair of bouts have been added to CFFC 128, which will go down on December 15th from Atlantic City, New Jersey, USA.
Competing for the first time since appearing on Season 31 of “The Ultimate Fighter,” Carlos Vera (11-3) will take on former CFFC Bantamweight Champion Vilson Ndregjoni (8-3). Ndregjoni earned the CFFC title in April with a stoppage win over Ashiek Ajim, but dropped the title later that year after missing weight for a title defense. He enters December on a three-fight winning streak.
Robert Wusstig (8-15) has been given a new matchup, as original opponent Eddy Torres (4-1) had to pull out of their fight due to an injury in training. Taking his place will be Frank Wells (4-3), who snapped a two-fight skid in September with a second-round finish over Unterio Gladney.
Two MMA bouts happened during ONE Championship’s “Friday Fights 40” card from Lumpinee Boxing Stadium in Bangkok, Thailand this weekend.
In his return to ONE, Ben Royle (7-2) went the distance against Ivan Parshikov (11-4) to earn a unanimous decision victory.
Undefeated Coopar Royal (4-0) earned his first ONE victory, submitting Ely Malinis Fernandez (6-3) in just under two minutes with a rear naked choke.