7/4/24: Andrei Arlovski's UFC Run Comes To An End
Also: Revisiting our five questions heading into 2024
Welcome to a Thursday edition of the Knockdown Daily. Today’s issue has a catch-up on the few MMA stories that have broken this week, plus a check-in on some thoughts we wrote before the start of this year. Let’s dig in!
UFC Parts Ways With Former Heavyweight Champion Andrei Arlovski, Ending A Record-Setting Run
One of the most extensive UFC careers has come to an end.
UFC has parted ways with Andrei Arlovski following his loss last weekend in Las Vegas, ending a promotional run that set records and spanned decades.
45-year-old Arlovski first joined the UFC roster in 2000, back when there were just four fights to his name. He gained momentum during major growth years for the then still-new UFC promotion, putting together five consecutive finish wins, which brought him to an interim title fight against Paul Buentello in 2005.
Arlovski ran through Buentello in just 15 seconds at UFC 55, earning him gold for the first time in his MMA career. After main champ Frank Mir was stripped of his belt, Arlovski was moved up to undisputed champ status and became the 11th-ever heavyweight titleholder in the promotion’s history.
However, his period at the top was short-lived. Arlovski lost to returning former champ Tim Sylvia in 2006, getting put away in the first round with strikes. A rematch between them three months later went Sylvia’s way via unanimous decision.
Arlovski exited the UFC roster in 2008, allowing him to test out an MMA market which had growing competitor promotions like Affliction, EliteXC, and Strikeforce. In 2009 he notably was paid one-and-a-half million dollars to challenge Fedor Emelianenko for the Affliction Heavyweight Championship in a fight where he ultimately was stopped in the first round due to strikes.
The Belarusian-born fighter continued to bounce around MMA promotions for years, including brief runs in ONE Championship and WSOF (now known as the PFL). He eventually returned to the UFC in 2014, kicking off a decade-long stint that just came to a close last weekend.
The second run of UFC appearances included three main event fights and 13 wins overall. Arlovski remained active late into his time with the promotion, making as many as four appearances within a year. His career in the promotion came to an end on Saturday when he suffered a fourth consecutive loss, dropping a slow-paced split decision to Martin Buday.
The lengthy career of Arlovski is reflected in the record books. He currently has the most fights in UFC heavyweight history (42), most wins at heavyweight (23), and longest total fight time at heavyweight (six hours, 49 minutes and 58 seconds).
In the grand UFC picture, Arlovski has the second-most wins and appearances, just trailing behind lightweight veteran Jim Miller.
Arlovski confirmed his UFC departure in a social media post on Monday.
“My chapter in the UFC is closed, by my book is not finished yet,” he wrote on Instagram. “We’ll see what’s around the corner... It’s more stories to tell.”
Zygimantas Ramaska Out-Lands Bekhzod Usmonov In Two-Round War To Win on ‘The Ultimate Fighter’
Lithuanian featherweight Zygimantas Ramaska prevailed in one of the most noteworthy fights on this year’s “The Ultimate Fighter” season so far, getting the decision win after a two-round brawl against Bekhzod Usmonov. The win moved him onto the 145-pound bracket’s semi-finals on Tuesday’s episode of the show.
Ramaska landed a high volume of shots against an incredibly tough Usmonov through two rounds, earning him the scorecard win. However, he had to endure damaging returning shots from Usmonov in the back-and-forth battle to walk away with the win.
The first round of the fight was incredibly close, with a knockdown by Usmonov making the frame hard to score. A right hand from Usmonov got Ramaska to the canvas briefly, although the Lithuanian prospect was quick to recover and get back to piecing together combinations. In the end, the striking of Ramaska did enough to overshadow the impactful moment that Usmonov generated with his right hand.
Ramaska continued to land the better shots in the second round, allowing him to walk away with a decision win without enacting an “overtime” third round, which is only utilized if the bout ends in a draw after 10 minutes of action.
The win puts Ramaska alongside Roedi Roets and Kaan Ofli in the semi-final portion of the reality TV show. He entered this season following many years on the European regional scene, putting together a record of nine wins and two losses. He attained together a trio of finishes in Lithuania last year prior to joining this season of “TUF.”
Usmonov, a fighter who trains at the notable New Mexico-based Jackson Wink gym, was returning to MMA for the first time since late 2022 on this year’s season of “TUF.” The 28-year-old has recently fought under boxing and bare-knuckle boxing rules on the regional scene, taking time away from his the sport of MMA where he has prevailed in 11 encounters.
A third middleweight semi-finalist will be determined when Tom Theocharis and Ryan Loder meet on next week’s episode. Loder has strung together six wins in the U.S. regional scene since his late 2021 debut, with a pair of victories from 2023 before entering this season. Canada’s Theocharis joined this season of “TUF” following two sub-minute wins over the past year in Alberta-based promotion Unified MMA.
The winner next week will sit alongside Robert Valentin and Omran Chaaban in the middleweight semi-finals.
Analysis: Revisiting The Questions We Came Into This Year With
Just before the start of 2024, I wrote down a series of questions which were on my mind ahead of the new year. Now that we’re past the halfway point this year, I’ve decided to check in with the topics I was curious to learn about. Let’s see where we’re at.
If you want to read the full reasoning behind the questions I wrote about in December, check out the post here.
Question: Which UFC Division Will Be The Most Consistent?
After more than half of the 2023 UFC title fights saw the belt change hands, I was curious to know where consistency would exist this year.
Answer: The title results from last year were night and day compared to how 2024 has gone so far. Seriously: Only two titles have changed hands out of eight fights featuring a defending champ facing a challenger this year. Six of the 12 current champs earned their titles in 2023, with 2024 being the year where they have just started to settle into the position.
Light heavyweight is seeing Alex Pereira settle into his champ role, defending his belt twice this year and being on track to have the most successful reign since Jon Jones left the division.
Islam Makhachev has now defended his lightweight title three times, including a stellar victory over Dustin Poirier at UFC 302. Strawweight’s Zhang Weili, flyweight’s Alexandre Pantoja, and bantamweight’s Sean O’Malley have all extended their title reigns this year as well. This is to say, it’s easier to talk about who hasn’t been consistent than who has, which is quite the 180 from last year.
If there’s a division that looks like it could continue to be a hot potato class, it’s middleweight. Dricus Du Plessis won the division’s title in January with a fight against Sean Strickland. He’ll now face Israel Adesanya, a former long-time champ who has a fair shot at grabbing back the belt. Bookies have placed close odds on the bout, with Adesanya being a slight favorite. If a title changes hands at UFC 305, middleweight will have gone three consecutive champion reigns without the defending titleholder successfully putting their belt on the line once.
Question: How Many Champions Will Heavyweight Have At The End of the Year?
After the sudden departure of Jon Jones from last year’s Madison Square Garden UFC card and the crowning of interim champ Tom Aspinall, I was curious if the promotion would sort out their two-champ dilemma at heavyweight before the end of the year.
Answer: So far, it looks like heavyweight will remain a two-belt division. Tom Aspinall is booked this month for a rare instance of a fighter defending their interim belt, meeting Curtis Blaydes in the main event of a card from Manchester. This booking certainly calls into question whether a title unification fight can be made this year.
Look at it this way: Let’s say Aspinall (or Blaydes, if successful) wins. Assuming they aren’t going to fight in August or September as that would be a quick turnaround for a high-stakes fight (and a turnaround that is almost never seen at a championship level), that gives the promotion three months to book a unification bout this year. It could land on their Madison Square Garden show, their December PPV, or maybe even UFC 308 in Abu Dhabi. But the options are limited.
Is it possible that an undisputed champ will exist at heavyweight by the time it’s 2025? Definitely. For now, however, we have two champs. And it looks like we’re going to continue to have two champs at least until the fourth quarter of the year at least.
Question: Will UFC 300 Live Up To The Hype?
At the start of the year, we knew nothing about how UFC 300 would play out. However, we heard the nonstop hype from Dana White about how great it would be. Did his huge expectations for the event deliver?
Answer: Yes and no. It was funny to read my description from December on UFC 300, back when we knew basically nothing about who logistically could fight on the card. I wondered if they’ll score a name for Conor McGregor and—hilariously—pondered if that would be enough for the sky-high hopes that they set for the card.
I think many, myself included, thought in late 2023 that UFC 300 would have numerous PPV main event-worthy fights on it, similar to what UFC 200 attempted. As we moved through the early months of this year, it became obvious that the UFC actually had limited options for headliner-worthy fights on the card. Many of the champions weren’t available either because they had just fought, were about to fight, or couldn’t appear due to other logistical issues.
UFC had the smart approach of not top-loading the card, but instead trying to make it a consistent show from start to finish. UFC 300 didn’t have the massive super fights that the promotion has been known to put on in the past, but it still presented one of the best cards in recent years and delivered as much as it logistically could. This might be the best way to sum it up: UFC 300 didn’t live up to the lofty expectations from 2023 that didn’t weigh the actual circumstances it would surround. But did it live up to the actual expectation that became more adjusted in recent months? I’d say so.
Question: How Will PFL’s 2024 Actually Go?
PFL came into 2024 with high hopes: Launching their Super Fight PPV series, debuting a league in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, and taking over Bellator, all the while maintaining their top regular season, PFL Europe, and their Challenger Series. How have they juggled all of this?
Answer: With the amount of balls that PFL has been tasked to juggle in 2024, it’s not surprising that some of it hasn’t been spectacular. They passed on doing their “Challenger Series,” this year, although there’s a possibility it could return in 2025. They have yet to deliver on their super fight series, which would include fights from Jake Paul and most importantly Francis Ngannou, who they made huge headlines by signing last year but have yet to book for a fight. They have run Bellator shows, but the programming has so far either gone head-to-head with UFC or run on Friday afternoons during U.S. hours, causing the product to be widely overlooked.
PFL has continued to run their main tour while delivering on the continuation of a Europe brand and the launch of shows in MENA. But between not delivering on some projects yet and not getting much attention for many of the shows they do, they have yet to make a splash this year.
Question: Where Will ONE Championship Be A Year From Now?
After concerning reports about ONE Championship’s financial situation, including the detail that they needed to secure funding in 2024 to essentially remain running, I wondered if ONE would even make it to the end of the year.
Answer: Obviously, we cannot yet answer where ONE Championship will be a year from now. However, here’s what we can say now: Recent reports from Kristie Neo have illustrated that ONE is expecting further investment from Qatar, potentially giving them funds to keep running into 2025.
It’s clear that ONE runs a much tighter operation than before. They have set up shop in Thailand and run nearly all of their events in the country. They have pivoted away from frequently booking top talent in MMA, instead focusing more on kickboxing and Muay Thai. They continue to make cuts to their staff and roster, including reportedly downsizing their Singapore office. As revealed by a 2022 financial report, ONE has been slowly cutting costs for years. It will be interesting to see what the promotion looks like by the end of this year after they might have earned a crucial cash injection.
Two More Questions…
Halfway through the year, here are two more questions that we can come back to at the end of 2024.
Will Conor McGregor fight? “The Notorious” withdrew from his “International Fight Week” booking against Michael Chandler last month, pushing back a return that would end what has already been a three-year absence from the cage. McGregor has talked about wanting to fight soon, but then again he has also talked about that since early 2023. Will we actually see McGregor fight before the year comes to a close, and if so who will it be against? Michael Chandler has seemingly started to entertain facing others as well, possibly taking him out of the running for a McGregor fight after targeting the Irish talent for more than a year. And if we don’t see McGregor, will we ever see him again?
Are we in for another “Fighter of the Year” going to Alex Pereira? In 2022, I made the call of crowning Alex Pereira the Knockdown News Fighter of the Year. His rookie year in the UFC, which culminated with a dramatic fifth-round stoppage of Israel Adesanya to become the middleweight champ, was bigger than anyone else’s 2022, in my view at least. Is it possible that he is destined to win the award again? Look, Fighter of the Year is impossible to call in July. But, if you had to, Pereira isn’t a bad one to nominate. He has won back-to-back title fights via early finish, and most likely has another fight set for later this year. We don’t know yet as to who will be in the discussion for the award. However, it feels like Pereira is currently lined up as at least a frontrunner in the discussion.
Notes On: UFC, Boxing, ONE Championship, KSW & Cage Warriors
UFC
A trio of fights have recently been announced for UFC’s July 13th show in Denver, Colorado:
Middleweights Josh Fremd (11-5) and Andre Petroski (10-3) are set to collide, with one of the fighters getting back into the win column. Fremd had a two-fight run of wins broken last year when Roman Kopylov put him away with a liver punch. Petroski took his second consecutive loss in March after an awkward collision allowed opponent Jacob Malkoun to stop him in the second round.
In a booking that will hopefully end his months-long bad luck featuring numerous cancelled bouts, Joshua Van (10-1) is matched against Charles Johnson (15-6). Van has struggled to find a fight since earning his third UFC win early this year, with four different bookings in recent months falling through. The former Fury FC champ’s last win was a finish against Felipe Bunes in January. Johnson is on the hunt for his third win this year after getting past Azat Maksum and Jake Hadley.
Returning after more than a year out of the cage, Montel Jackson (13-2) will fight Da’Mon Blackshear (14-6-1). Jackson has slowly accrued four consecutive UFC wins since 2021, with his latest victory coming against Rani Yahya. Blackshear had a two-fight streak of wins stopped last summer by Mario Bautista.
In a rematch from “Dana White’s Contender Series,” Brazilian prospects Stephanie Luciano (5-1-1) and Talita Alencar (5-0-1) have been matched up for UFC’s August 10th show, per AgFight. When Alencar and Luciano met in 2023, their fight ended via unanimous draw. Alencar has since won her UFC debut, beating former Invicta FC champ Rayanne Amanda on scorecards. After a pair of cancelled fights earlier this year, Luciano will be making her debut on the August card.
More fights have been confirmed for UFC 305 on August 17th, including appearances from four more Australians.
Fighting for the first time since losing a flyweight title shot, Steve Erceg (12-2) will fight Kai Kara-France (24-11). Erceg went five rounds against Alexandre Pantoja in May, losing via unanimous decision at UFC 301. He had three UFC wins before then, including a March stoppage win over Matt Schnell. Kara-France is coming off a pair of high-profile losses in the division, suffering defeats to Brandon Moreno and Amir Albazi in recent years.
Junior Tafa (5-2) is expected to face Valter Walker (11-1) in a heavyweight clash. Tafa took his second UFC loss in February, losing a short-notice appearance to Marcos Rogerio de Lima. He’ll now face Valter, the brother of Johnny Walker, who lost his UFC debut in April to Lukasz Brzeski.
Jack Jenkins (12-3) will return against Canada’s Gavin Tucker (13-3). Jenkins had his run of two UFC wins put to an end last year when he lost to Chepe Mariscal at UFC 293. Tucker has gone winless since 2020 due to back-to-back losses against Dan Ige and Diego Lopes, two names who are considered highly ranked at featherweight.
Both trying to get back into the win column, Joshua Culibao (11-3-1) and Ricardo Ramos (16-6) will face off at featherweight. Culibao has dropped a pair of decisions since 2023, including a loss to undefeated Lerone Murphy. Ramos has gone through a rough past year, getting submitted by Charles Jourdain and Julian Erosa.
Two more fights have joined UFC’s August 24th card, including a solid tilt at middleweight:
Rising 185-pound fighter Brunno Ferreira (12-1) will meet Roman Kopylov (13-3), per AgFight. Ferreira has finished all of his 12 pro wins in the first round, including three since he joined the UFC roster in 2023. He mostly recently put away Dustin Stoltzfus in just under five minutes and is now chasing his third win of the year. Kopylov returned to the win column in June with a victory against experienced kickboxer Cesar Almeida.
Former LFA Bantamweight Champion Jacqueline Cavalcanti (6-1) will hunt for her second UFC win when she takes on Josiane Nunes (10-2), as first reported by AgFight. Cavalcanti won her promotional debut last year with a decision over Zarah Fairn. Nunes is returning after her three-fight UFC streak of wins was put to an end in March by Chelsea Chandler, who won via decision.
UFC’s September 7th show has received a pair of solid matchups:
Former strawweight champ Jessica Andrade (26-12) is booked to face Natalia Silva (17-5-1) at flyweight, per AgFight. After a run of losses against some of the top names at both 115 and 125 pounds, Andrade put together a pair of wins over the past year that gave her some momentum back. Silva has yet to lose in the UFC, with the rising Brazilian looking for her sixth win in September. She scored a big victory in February, overcoming Viviane Araujo on scorecards.
Alessandro Costa’s (14-4) management team says he will face Matt Schnell (16-8) at flyweight. Costa evened his UFC record at two wins and two losses in May with a stoppage victory over Kevin Borjas. Schnell, the 12th-ranked flyweight currently, will be trying to come back from back-to-back finish losses against some of the more elite names in the division.
The first fights for this year’s UFC Noche card are starting to get reported.
Winning streaks will collide at middleweight when Michel Pereira (31-11) and Anthony Hernandez (12-2) face off, as first reported by Danny Segura and Farah Hannoun of MMA Junkie. Pereira has gone undefeated since 2020, having stopped four of his eight opponents since then. He’ll receive a significant step-up in challenge when he faces Hernandez, a fighter who has strung together five wins since 2021, including notable wins over Roman Kopylov and Rodolfo Vieira.
Former Amanda Nunes opponent Irene Aldana (15-7) is expected to meet Norma Dumont (11-2) in a bantamweight fight. The fighters are currently negotiating a contract and are finalizing details for the fight, per AgFight. Aldana bounced back from her unsuccessful 2023 title fight against Nunes late last year with a scorecard win over Karol Rosa. Dumont has attained four wins since 2022, putting together three at featherweight before dropping down to bantamweight in April for a win against Germaine de Randamie.
Boxing
After losing out on a boxing match against Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., Darren Till appears to be scheduled for a short-notice boxing bout this weekend in Dublin, Ireland. Till has been promoted to face Mohammad Mutie in a boxing fight at Social Knockout 3. Mutie has an MMA record of two wins, two losses and one draw since his pro debut in 2020. If the fight ends up happening, it will be Till’s first combat sports appearance since the end of his UFC run in 2022.
ONE Championship
Following a rough ONE debut, Aaron Canarte (10-1) will return at the promotion’s August 2nd card against Shamil Gasanov (14-1). Canarte had his undefeated 10-fight pro run broken when he made his ONE debut last year, getting stopped in 41 seconds by Akbar Abdullaev. Gasanov bounced back from his first pro defeat in January, going the distance against Oh Ho Taek for a decision win.
KSW
Fresh off his impressive KSW debut, Isai Ramos (8-1) will meet Michal Domin (6-3) at the promotion’s July 20th card. After mainly competing on the Brazilian regional scene before, Ramos caught Ramzan Jembiev with an armbar in 47 seconds to win his first KSW fight in January. Domin is a Polish fighter who has won three of his five KSW fights and will easily be getting his biggest matchup yet when he faces Ramos.
Cage Warriors
Two more fights have joined Cage Warriors’ July 20th show in London, England:
After winning his pro debut in Cage Warriors earlier this year, Tommy Brunning (1-0) will return against Gheorghe Grozav (1-0). Brunning, who went undefeated through five fights as an amateur, stopped Cesari Simon Kevin in the first round earlier this year for his first pro win. Grozav is coming off a submission victory from a debut in Ireland-based regional Cage Legacy earlier this year.
Eiemear Darcy (1-0) will try for her second win when she faces pro newcomer Camilla Bergstrom (0-0). Darcy needed just 58 seconds to win her pro debut in April, putting away Jenny Line with strikes. Bergstrom had a highly unsuccessful amateur career, winning just one of her eight fights.