11/11/24: A Look At The Week Ahead

Previewing UFC, KSW, Cage Warriors, RIZIN, and more!

Welcome to a Monday edition of the Knockdown Daily. Today’s issue is a preview of a busy upcoming week in MMA, including UFC’s return to Madison Square Garden, KSW’s 100th show, and the return of RIZIN.

Quick reminder: The newsletter takes Tuesdays off. We’ll be back later in the week for a recap of the latest MMA news.

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A Look At The Week Ahead

Friday

Cage Warriors 180: Gittins vs. Qadrian

In the first of two major lineups presented by the notable European promotion this month, Cage Warriors will stage a pair of title fights from Indigo At The O2 in London, England on Friday night.

Bantamweight champ Liam Gittins will try to score his third title victory within a year’s time when he faces fast-rising Shirzad Qadrian in the main event.

Gittins first became the promotion’s bantamweight champ in late November last year, going five rounds to beat Reece McEwan on scorecards. Four months after that victory, the Southport, England prospect returned to take on rising U.S. talent Roberto Hernandez in a title clash. The impressive showing from Gittins moved into the fifth round before a finish emerged, ending Hernandez’s lengthy winning streak with a late rear naked choke submission.

After two lengthy performances in recent months, Gittins will appear once again this weekend for another tough assignment.

23-year-old Qadrian is getting a title shot after an already impressive year, stringing together four consecutive wins in Cage Warriors. After beating Emanuele Zaccaria and Rory Evans via stoppage in early 2024 and late 2023 respectively, Qadrian was placed in a four-man, one-night “Prizefighter” tournament in June with a grand prize of $50,000.

Going five rounds in one night, Qadrian avenged a 2023 loss to Weslley Maia and got past Alexander Loof to win the bracket. Qadrian has not only showed that he can beat many respected prospects, but also proved that he has the longevity to fight 25 minutes in one night. For those reasons, it only made sense to give the London-based fighter a chance at bantamweight gold this weekend.

Before bantamweight closes out the night, 205-pound champ Andy Clamp will meet James Webb in a title fight.

Clamp captured the Cage Warriors Light Heavyweight Championship earlier this year, stopping Matthew Byfield in the third round of a bout with strikes. He now faces Webb, who returned to the win column earlier this year with a win against Adam Bieganski.

As always, Cage Warriors cards are jam-packed with action from start to finish. While the exact bout order hasn’t yet been revealed, below we have a list of the matchups booked for this weekend. It’s worth noting that some of the fights will take place as part of the prelims, which will begin three hours before the main card (12:30 p.m. ET, 5:30 p.m. local time).

Main Card (3:30PM EST / 8:30PM GMT) (UFC Fight Pass)
Bout 16: Liam Gittins (13-4) vs. Shirzad Qadrian (7-1) (Cage Warriors Bantamweight Championship)
Bout 15: Andy Clamp (13-2) vs. James Webb (10-5-1) (Cage Warriors Light Heavyweight Championship)
Bout 14: Adam Cullen (8-2) vs. Tobias Harila (13-4) (Lightweight)
Bout 13: Weslley Maia (9-6) vs. Alexander Loof (7-2) (Bantamweight)
Bout 12: Jawany Scott (5-1) vs. Davide Scarano (5-2) (Flyweight)
Bout 11: Giovanni Fernandez (2-2) vs. Jimmy Quinn (3-1) (Bantamweight)
Bout 10: Tye Palmer (6-7) vs. Paddy McCorry (4-1) (Middleweight)
Bout 9: Thomas Paull (12-6) vs. Orlando Wilson Prins (5-3) (Featherweight)
Bout 8: Nik Bagley (5-1) vs. Jordy Bakkes (6-2-1) (Featherweight)
Bout 7: Teddy Stringer (4-0) vs. Shaun Fraser (2-0) (Lightweight)
Bout 6: Cameron Stewart (0-0) vs. Yusuf Nazokatov (1-1) (Lightweight)
Bout 5: Tariq Pell (3-1) vs. Danny Blundell (6-2) (Welterweight)
Bout 4: Tommy Brunning (1-1) vs. Richard Kallos (2-2) (Bantamweight)
Bout 3: Eimear Darcy (2-0) vs. Daniela Sanches (1-1) (Catchweight 132 lbs)
Bout 2: Joshua Onwordi (5-5) vs. Joe Ambler (1-2) (Welterweight)
Bout 1: Callum Haughian (0-0) vs. Marko Sarasjarvi (3-2) (Featherweight)

Saturday

KSW 100: Khalidov vs. Bartosinski

Before UFC’s big pay-per-view card on Saturday night, Polish MMA promotion KSW will present one of their strongest lineups ever.

Celebrating their centennial event, KSW will present three title fights and many other high-profile clashes from the Arena Gliwice in Gliwice, Poland.

The headlining bout of the evening will see Mamed Khalidov, one of the most experienced talents in KSW history, taking on undefeated welterweight champ Adrian Bartosinski in a non-title fight up at middleweight.

Khalidov appeared at KSW’s seventh-ever show back in 2007 and has since appeared more than two dozen times for them. His lengthy run in the promotion has seen him put together numerous title reigns, with his most recent coming in 2020 due to a 36-second stoppage victory over rival Scott Askham.

44-year-old Khalidov is going from headlining one major KSW card to another. Earlier this year he was in the main event of “KSW Epic,” a show celebrating the promotion’s 10th anniversary. On that card, he lost a boxing bout to notably Polish heavyweight Tomasz Adamek.

Bartosinski is one of the most accomplished active champions in the promotion. He first captured the KSW Welterweight Championship last year, putting together a quick stoppage win over Artur Szczepaniak. He has since overcome two-division champ Salahdine Parnasse and stopped Igor Michaliszyn over the past year to keep his reign alive.

While Bartosinski’s belt won’t be wagered this weekend, his impressive 16-fight flawless pro record will certainly be on the line.

Earlier in the evening, long-time KSW Heavyweight Champion Phil De Fries will try to defend his title for the 11th (yes, eleventh!) time. In a rematch from 2022, he’ll take on former UFC talent Darko Stosic. The Croatian talent is getting another shot at De Fries after stringing together four consecutive finish wins, including a trio of KSW performances. De Fries will try to go from beating one ex-UFC talent to another, coming back after taking a decision over Augusto Sakai in June.

At light heavyweight, Rafal Haratyk will put his belt up against fellow Polish fighter Marcin Wojcik. Haratyk won the title as part of a one-night, four-man tournament in February, stopping Wojcik in the semi-finals before beating Damian Piwowarczyk later that evening. A few months later, Wojcik is now getting another crack at Haratyk, this time under championship rules.

An interim title fight will also go down at featherweight, as Robert Ruchala will defend his title against Kacper Formela. Ruchala is coming off an impressively quick win from May, putting away Patryk Kaczmarczyk in just 59 seconds with a body kick to start his second run as interim champ at 145 pounds. Former FEN champ Formela is getting a title opportunity after winning his KSW debut in May over Ahmed Vila.

Saturday’s lineup also includes former GLORY Kickboxer turned MMA talent Arkadiusz Wrzosek, undefeated welterweight prospect Wiktor Zalewski, and many others. Here’s the full bout order:

Main Card (1:00PM EST / 7:00PM CET) (KSW PPV)
Bout 10: Mamed Khalidov (37-8-2) vs. Adrian Bartosinski (16-0) (Middleweight)
Bout 9: Phil De Fries (25-6) vs. Darko Stosic (21-6) (KSW Heavyweight Championship)
Bout 8: Rafal Haratyk (19-5-2) vs. Marcin Wojcik (20-9) (KSW Light Heavyweight Championship)
Bout 7: Arkadiusz Wrzosek (5-0) vs. Matheus Scheffel (18-11) (Heavyweight)
Bout 6: Robert Ruchala (10-1) vs. Kacper Formela (18-4) (Interim KSW Featherweight Championship)
Bout 5: Andrzej Grzebyk (21-6) vs. Wiktor Zaleski (7-0) (Welterweight)
Bout 4: Piotr Kuberski (14-1) vs. Damian Janikowski (10-6) (Middleweight)
Bout 3: Igor Michaliszyn (11-3) vs. Madars Fleminas (13-5) (Welterweight)
Bout 2: Dawid Smielowski (11-1) vs. Aymard Guih (18-13-1) (Lightweight)
Bout 1: Adam Brysz (3-1) vs. Nicolae Bivol (4-1) (Lightweight)

UFC 309: Jones vs. Miocic

For better or worse, Jon Jones will make his long-awaited return against Stipe Miocic in a fight for the UFC Heavyweight Championship on Saturday night.

Some see this weekend’s UFC 309 main event as a super-fight, as two of the promotion’s best will share the same cage. But it wouldn’t be fair to say the card has receive unanimous praise. Others have offered fair criticism as to why the clash isn’t as big as some make it out to be.

Let’s start with the pros: This Saturday’s headlining bout from Madison Square Garden in New York City, New York, USA is one of the biggest fights the promotion can make on paper in their heavier weight classes.

Jones is considered by many as one of, if not the greatest MMA fighter of all time. After a career-long dominance at light heavyweight, Jones now sees himself as the top name up at the 265-pound limit. Miocic is, on paper, the most successful heavyweight in UFC history, possessing the most combined days as champion due to his two previous title reigns. The story is simple: Can Jones further cement his legacy as a two-division success story by taking out the most accomplished heavyweight who still remains on the UFC roster?

Jones is one of the most popular MMA fighters of all time, and Miocic carries an impressive following too. When looking at the numbers and the legacy that both of these men have crafted, it’s easy to see why UFC has persisted in making the fight for years.

However, Saturday’s main event is far from a flawless matchup. A clash between Jones and Miocic has been delayed numerous times—including a torn pec to Jones which forced their fight off last year’s Madison Square Garden show—making Saturday a return after years out of the cage for both fighters.

37-year-old Jones hasn’t fought in nearly two years, with his last win being a first-round submission victory over Ciryl Gane in 2023 to capture the heavyweight title. That bout was his first appearance up at heavyweight, moving to the class after vacating his second title run at 205 pounds two-and-a-half years prior.

The delay for the former heavyweight champ is even worse: 42-year-old Miocic hasn’t competed in more than three-and-a-half years. And since his last appearance was a second-round finish loss to Francis Ngannou—ending Miocic’s second reign on top of the division and beginning the brief but notable run of Ngannou as UFC champion—Miocic has gone more than four years without a win. Oddsmakers don’t see many pathways to victory for Miocic, who is listed at nearly +500 underdog odds on some sportsbooks.

On top of the lengthy time out of the cage for both heavyweights, the bout’s multi-year build has also caused a log jam in the division. English knockout artist Tom Aspinall is just a few weeks away from crossing past the one-year mark on his reign as the division’s interim champion, with no clear plan being laid out for when he could possibly unify the belts. Along with Renan Barao and Andrei Arlovski, the Aspinall is just one of three interim champions in UFC history who had to defend their belt before getting a chance to face the division’s top name.

UFC 309, like all previous Madison Square Garden cards, will predictably be a hit. When you put together a matchup with two incredibly decorated and popular fighters like Jones and Miocic, it’s bound to draw a huge gate. An update two weeks ago from WrestleTix showed the event has already cleared 18,000 ticket sales, making the event quite close to a sell-out. The fight will dominate headlines in the build-up this week and will be dissected heavily afterwards. However, it is a bout that has arguably also been marred by constant criticism, both in the quality of the matchup and the greater circumstances for the division it sits atop.

Saturday’s show currently has 12 fights in total, with a five-round showdown between Charles Oliveira and Michael Chandler in the co-main event spot.

The fight sees Chandler step into the cage after moving on from a failed year-and-a-half build to a fight against Conor McGregor. While the ex-Bellator champ hoped to be the man to welcome McGregor back into the cage, he eventually grew impatient with waiting for the Irish star. After their June matchup was cancelled due to an injury on McGregor’s side, Chandler has quickly found a new high-profile matchup in the lightweight division.

Chandler will be appearing for the first time since suffering a submission loss to Dustin Poirier in late 2022. Former champ Oliveira is similarly coming off a pivotal loss, dropping a split decision against Arman Tsarukyan earlier this year.

Notable names lower on the card include rising undefeated middleweight Bo Nickal, flyweight contender Karine Silvam and bantamweight finisher Marcus McGhee. The prelims will also feature the most experienced fighter in UFC history, Jim Miller.

Here’s a breakdown of how the show looks:

Main Card (10:00PM EST) (PPV)
Bout 12: Jon Jones (27-1) vs. Stipe Miocic (20-4) (UFC Heavyweight Championship)
Bout 11: Charles Oliveira (34-10) vs. Michael Chandler (23-8) (Lightweight)
Bout 10: Bo Nickal (6-0) vs. Paul Craig (17-8-1) (Middleweight)
Bout 9: Karine Silva (18-4) vs. Viviane Araujo (12-6) (Flyweight)
Bout 8: Mauricio Ruffy (10-1) vs. James Llontop (14-4) (Lightweight)
Preliminary Card (8:00PM EST) (ESPNews / ESPN+)
Bout 7: Jonathan Martinez (19-5) vs. Marcus McGhee (9-1) (Bantamweight)
Bout 6: Chris Weidman (16-7) vs. Eryk Anders (16-8) (Middleweight)
Bout 5: Jim Miller (37-18) vs. Damon Jackson (23-7-1) (Lightweight)
Bout 4: Marcin Tybura (25-9) vs. Jhonata Diniz (8-0) (Heavyweight)
Early Prelims (6:00PM EST) (ESPN+ / UFC Fight Pass)
Bout 3: Mickey Gall (7-6) vs. Ramiz Brahimaj (10-5) (Welterweight)
Bout 2: Oban Elliott (11-2) vs. Bassil Hafez (9-4-1) (Welterweight)
Bout 1: Veronica Hardy (9-4-1) vs. Eduarda Moura (10-1) (Flyweight)

Sunday

RIZIN LANDMARK 10 in NAGOYA

Around the same time when UFC’s latest Madison Square Garden presentation wraps up, leading Japanese MMA promotion RIZIN will go live from the Port Messe Nagoya in Nagoya.

Presenting the 10th edition of their “LANDMARK” series—a lower-level event below the promotion’s usual numbered card tour, with the most notable distinction being that the fights take place inside a cage instead of a ring—RIZIN will host a busy 16-fight card this week.

Since RIZIN’s massive New Year’s Eve card is right around the corner (with fights already beginning to be announced for the show), this weekend’s card is without any of the promotion’s massive stars. However, this is not to say there aren’t some notable JMMA figures in competition this weekend.

In a fight that is expected to headline the evening, former RIZIN Featherweight Champion Vugar Karamov will meet veteran talent Kazumasa Majima. The fight will be Karamov’s first appearance since dropping the promotion’s 145-pound title to Chihiro Suzuki just over a year ago, getting stopped in just 78 seconds in front of his home supporters in Azerbaijan.

Karamov had an impressive run before then, getting by UFC alum Yoshinori Horie, handing Sora Yamamoto his second RIZIN loss, and earning the vacant title against Mikuru Asakura. He’ll try to get back on track against Majima, a vet of the Japanese regional scene who has fought in RIZIN since 2020. The 33-year-old is coming off a submission win from his last outing, submitting Suguru Nii in July.

Sunday’s card will also see former RIZIN Super Atomweight Champion Ayaka Hamasaki return to action, competing for the first time since September 2022 when she takes on Korean talent Shim Yu-ri.

Lower on the show, names like undefeated light heavyweight grappler Igor Tanabe, Canadian flyweight prospect Tony Laramie, and 18-year-old featherweight Kyouma Akimoto stick out as fighters to watch. Here’s how the full show looks:

Main Card (1:00AM EST / 2:00PM JST) (RIZIN.tv)
Bout 16: Vugar Karamov (19-5) vs. Kazumasa Majima (17-5) (Featherweight)
Bout 15: Shoji Maruyama (19-17-1) vs. Ryusei Ashizawa (1-1) (Bantamweight)
Bout 14: Ayaka Hamasaki (24-6) vs. Shim Yu-ri (6-4) (Super Atomweight)
Bout 13: Igor Tanabe (5-0) vs. Marcos Yoshio de Souza (9-3) (Light Heavyweight)
Bout 12: Yuki Ito (16-5) vs. Lee Jung-hyun (4-2) (Flyweight)
Bout 11: Yuya Shibata (19-7) vs. Hiroya (9-13-1) (Flyweight)
Bout 10: Yutaro Muramoto (12-8-2) vs. Tony Laramie (9-2) (Flyweight)
Bout 9: Daichi Kitakata (20-12-1) vs. Alibek Gadzhammatov (4-0) (Flyweight)
Bout 8: Alan Yamaniha (22-11-4) vs. Seigo Yamamoto (7-11-1) (Bantamweight)
Bout 7: Tsuyoshi Sudario (8-3) vs. Hisaki Kato (8-3) (Heavyweight)
Bout 6: Rikuto Shirakawa (12-10-1) vs. Magerram Gasanzade (10-1) (Bantamweight)
Bout 5: Kim Kyung-pyo (13-5) vs. Daigo Kuramoto (6-1) (Lighweight)
Bout 4: Taito Kubota (14-6) vs. Junya Hibino (7-4) (Bantamweight)
Bout 3: Masahi Inada (3-2) vs. Stephane Coignon (1-2) (Heavyweight)
Bout 2: Daisuke Tatsumi (20-12) vs. Sho Hiramatsu (5-5) (Featherweight)
Bout 1: Hiroaki Suzuki (4-4) vs. Kyouma Akimoto (6-0) (Featherweight)

Some other notable cards to consider this week…

• FFC will return on Wednesday night with a card from Buenos Aires, Argentina. While the lineup has two title fights as part of it, the headlining spot will go to the return of Guido Cannetti (10-7). After becoming the fourth-ever fighter to represent Argentina in the UFC and putting together a 10-fight run in the top promotion, Cannetti will return home for a fight against Marcel Adur (18-7). (Watch: UFC Fight Pass)

• Top South African promotion EFC will present a pair of title fights on Thursday from Sandton. Flyweights will get the top spotlight of the night, as Terence Balelo (6-1) will wager his 125-pound division title against undefeated Edson Machavane (5-0). Bantamweights Dayne Van Wyk (4-0) and Juliet Chukwu will fight for a vacant bout earlier in the evening.

• Regional Canadian MMA promotions BFL and Samourai will come together for a co-promoted card on Friday night from Montreal, Quebec. The show will headlined by a matchup that sees the promotions put their top prospects against each other, as BFL 165-pound champ and Nova Uniao gym member Rodrigo Sezinando (7-1) is expected to take on former Samouri champ Jonathan Ramsay (5-1). The fight gives Ramsay a chance to bounce back from his sole pro loss and arguably score the biggest win of his career thus far. (Watch: UFC Fight Pass)

• Nick Diaz Academy fighter Nick Maximov (9-2) will try to capture a regional belt when he faces Kevem Felipe (10-7) in the main event of Urijah Faber’s A1 Combat on Friday from Wheatland, California. Ex-UFC fighter Maximov returned to the regional scene just three months back with a quick submission win over Elias Urbina on a Fury FC card. (Watch: UFC Fight Pass)

• Former UFC talents Randy Costa and Brandon Davis will battle for the Gamebred Bareknuckle MMA Bantamweight Championship on Friday night, meeting in the main event of a card from the Mississippi Coast Coliseum in Biloxi, Mississippi, USA. Like all of the past Gamebred MMA cards, this weekend’s show includes numerous talents who have previously fought in big organizations. This time around some of the notable appearances include fights with Peter Barrett, Charles Rosa, Chase Sherman, Maurice Greene, Jesse Ronson, and Kevin Lee.

• The week will close out with an Anthony Pettis FC card on Sunday night from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Aiming to pick up his fourth consecutive victory within 12 months in the promotion, Cody Linne (9-1) is booked to face “Dana White’s Contender Series” alum Roybert Echeverria (9-2). (Watch: UFC Fight Pass)

• It’s now time for our weekly check-in on the world of boxing:

  • While not the highest level of boxing, Friday’s card from the AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas will undoubtedly be the most-discussed event in combat sports this weekend. Viral star Jake Paul (10-1) will try to keep his run as a rising boxer alive when he moves up to heavyweight and faces 58-year-old Mike Tyson (50-6), who hasn’t competed in a pro bout in nearly two decades. The show, while built off the back of egregious and questionable matchmaking, will be a big draw. The event is expected to attract tens of thousands of fans to fill a football stadium venue and will be Netflix’s first-ever live boxing broadcast, calling into question whether the service hopes to be a big player for combat sports in the future. Earlier in the evening, a title fight at super lightweight will go down when IBF, IBO, WBC and WBO champ Katie Taylor (23-1) faces Amanda Serrano (47-2-1) in a rematch. (Watch: Netflix)

  • A trio of title fights will take place in Saudi Arabia on Saturday night as part of the tourism board’s “Latino Night.” The main event will see Gilberto Ramirez (46-1) look to snatch the WBO Cruiserweight Championship off British stand-out Chris Billam-Smith (20-1), appearing in his first major title fight after a 2022 loss to Dimitrii Bivol. (Watch: DAZN)