Another fight weekend is here, baby, and you love to see it. The main attraction of the next couple days is Saturday’s UFC Fight Island card on ESPN+. Bellator has started running shows on Thursday on CBS Sports Network, so I may change which day I run this feature some weeks so I can cover that too – although the only fight I was really into from last night’s event, a lightweight bout between Patricky “Pitbull” Freire and Jaleel Willis, was called off the day of.
A shame. But the UFC show has some interesting matchups on it, and as usual, here are looks at the three I’ll be watching closest:
Brian Ortega vs. Chan Sung Jung
You have to love a fight that has some real-life beef. Brian Ortega and the “Korean Zombie” Chan Sung Jung are two of the UFC’s top featherweights, and both are angling for the next shot at champion Alexander Volkanovski – earlier this week, UFC president Dana White confirmed that the winner would get the next chance at the belt.
It’s not undeserved. Ortega was 14-0 before his defeat against Max Holloway in a title fight two years ago, while Jung has long been one of the most beloved action stars in the UFC. Both are fighters who could give Volkanovski a real run for his Australian dollars. But Ortega and Jung have taken their enmity outside the cage over the last several months – in March, Ortega and Jung were at the same nightclub when Ortega slapped Jung’s friend and sometimes translater, rapper Jay Park, when Jung had gone to the bathroom.
Jung responded with a furious call-out of Ortega and an Instagram caption where he used variations of the word “fuck” five times. They’ve oddly seemed relatively buddy-buddy during the lead-up to the fight this week, but I’m not buying it. Ortega tried to punk Jung’s buddy, and this is his chance at revenge.
Like many, I’ve counted the Zombie as one of my favorite fighters for many years. Jung was one of the top featherweights in the world in the early 2010s, earning a title shot at dominant champ Jose Aldo in 2013, but losing in the fourth round. We then had to wait three and a half years to see Jung again, as he had to go back home to South Korea to serve a mandatory term of military service.
Upon his return, he wasted little time re-establishing himself as one of the 145-pound division’s very best. He’s 3-1 since his re-introduction to the UFC, with that one defeat coming to fellow top contender Yair Rodriguez – in one of the craziest KOs in UFC history, Rodriguez caught Jung with an absurd reverse elbow as the horn sounded to end the fifth and final round of a fight the Zombie was otherwise winning.
A loss is a loss, but not all losses are made the same. Nicknamed the “Korean Zombie” for his ability to take massive blows and keep shambling forward, Jung was most recently seen completely battering Frankie Edgar in Busan, sending the veteran scrambling down to the bantamweight division and sending the Korean fans into complete rapture.
Jung’s striking isn’t always technical, but it’s powerful, and he can absorb a ton of punishment. He’s also underrated for his submission skill – he’s got eight subs on his record, including an unforgettable twister submission of Leonard Garcia in 2011. His power and toughness on the feet may tip the scales against Ortega, whom we haven’t seen since his loss to Holloway almost two full years ago.
Ortega is most well-known for his BJJ skill on the ground, but he’s got some pop in his strikes. In his last victory to date, in March 2018, he blasted Edgar completely up in the air with a vicious uppercut for a knockout win.
After 14 straight wins to start his pro career, Ortega finally met a stumbling block against Holloway, one of the division’s all-time greats. Although Ortega has some natural ability on the feet and had some nice moments early, Holloway was an absolute different level in the striking game, fighting circles around Ortega with his movement, accuracy, striking diversity, and pressure. Holloway battered him, and Ortega could never get it to the ground. The champ bloodied his face until the doctor stopped it after the fourth round.
It exposed just how far Ortega had to go. Ortega’s taken some time away since, changing his training setup and hoping to find a new lease on his career. Those around him are optimistic, but his longtime trainer and BJJ coach, Rener Gracie, will not be at Ortega’s side on Saturday after testing positive for COVID-19.
It’s been almost two full years since we saw Ortega in the Octagon. Has he actually taken the strides he needs to make on the feet to become a champion? One thing’s for sure: a date with the Korean Zombie will answer that question.
Modestas Bukauskas vs. Jimmy Crute
With a new champion in Jan Blachowicz, there’s a new lease on life in the UFC light heavyweight division, and plenty of opportunity to go around. And Saturday could prove a big platform for two of the 205-pound division’s best prospects, Lithuanian Modestas Bukauskas and 24-year-old Aussie Jimmy Crute.
Crute is one of the youngest fighters in the UFC, and he’s already been through some tough names: Paul Craig, Misha Cirkunov, Michal Oleksiejczuk. None of them champions by any means, but tall asks for a young kid just breaking in. He’s responded by going 3-1, with the only loss coming against Cirkunov – after being outmuscled in some early grappling exchanges, Crute managed to get on top and nearly put Cirkunov away with some hard ground-and-pound before being swept and caught in a Peruvian necktie.
Crute rebounded against Oleksiejczuk in February, earning a tidy first-round finish when he took the Pole down and locked in a kimura. The Aussie is a dangerous ground fighter, and while Cirkunov exposed some weaknesses – lack of strength to stop a really powerful wrestler and a tendency to get overeager and sometimes lose position – he’s only 24, and still getting better.
When a fighter is that young, you watch him every time he’s in the cage specifically to see where he’s improved. This time, he’ll have another young guy on the other side of the cage. Modestas Bukauskas is 26 years old, having debuted in the UFC with a win over fellow debutant Andreas Michailidis during the first series of Fight Island shows in July.
He certainly made a distinctive mark in his first fight: Bukauskas defended a takedown against the cage in the closing moments of the first round and then unleashed a violent series of elbows to the side of Michailidis’ head, forcing the referee to stop the bout when Michailidis couldn’t get back to his corner.
Bukauskas is a fun and powerful striker who will look to challenge Crute standing up, while you expect Crute to want the fight on the mat. Crute may have the advantage, not only with his greater experience on the UFC stage, but with Bukauskas’ past issues consistently stopping takedowns. One way or another, you’ll see two interesting young fighters have their development tested. That’s what you love to see.
Mateusz Gamrot vs. Guram Kutateladze
It’s not often that I preview a fight where both fighters are making their UFC debut, but it’s not often the UFC pits two young prospects this talented up against one another. Mateusz Gamrot is the second former KSW champion to debut in the UFC in as many weeks – welterweight Dricus du Plessis put Markus Perez‘s lights out with a left hook on last week’s show.
It was a great result for du Plessis, but I wasn’t impressed by what I saw overall: he looked extremely stiff and awkward on the feet before the knockout, which I thought came mainly from Perez’s absolutely shambolic defense. I expect a better overall performance, if not result, from Gamrot, a skilled all-around fighter who at 17-0 has one of the best overall talents yet to see the Octagon.
I’ve written about Gamrot before, a day before what turned out to be his final KSW fight against Marian Ziolkowski in August. Gamrot won a unanimous decision over the veteran, and afterward, everyone knew he was soon heading to the UFC. It’s about time: he’s ready. Gamrot really established himself as a top talent with his trilogy of fights with UFC veteran Norman Parke, which ended when Gamrot beat the hell out of him in July.
It was the best performance of Gamrot’s career, against a very credible opponent. His boxing just looked ridiculously good, as he bloodied up Parke’s face without receiving so much as a mark on his own. The fact that he’s not really regarded as a striker made it even more impressive: he’s more known for his excellent wrestling, top-control ground-and-pound and grappling ability.
His opponent on Saturday, the Georgian-born Kutateladze, hasn’t garnered the same profile as Gamrot, but he’s dangerous nonetheless. He has thunderous one-punch power, which has been a major equalizer in the past – we last saw him a year ago, when he managed to knock UFC veteran Felipe Silva with a left while on wobbly legs himself.
Kuteladze has killer pop in his hands, and he’s become one of the most fun young fighters to watch emerge in Europe over the past few years. I’m fascinated to see how Gamrot approaches him – does he look to display the strides he’s made on the feet against a guy who can knock him out, or does he play it safe and try to take him to the ground?
Either way, a very talented prospect is going to start his UFC career off with a bang on Saturday.
The Big Fight 