Another fight weekend is here, baby, and we love to see it. This week’s MMA action starts early with ONE on TNT 4 on Wednesday night – we’ve also got a UFC Fight Night card on ESPN+ Saturday night with a big light heavyweight headliner, along with the PFL’s second show of the season on Thursday, set to air on ESPN 2.
The UFC show has some really under-the-radar interesting fights, and there’s plenty of great action elsewhere throughout the week. So, as usual, here’s a look at the three bouts I’ll be watching closest over the next few days:
Dominick Reyes vs. Jiri Prochazka, UFC Vegas 25
After the unbelievable energy a roaring crowd brought to the Octagon last week, it’s going to be hard to go back to an empty, sterile UFC Apex on Saturday. But this main event more than makes up for it. I started scribbling away on this blog around August, and I’ve been waiting all that time to write of my love for Jiri Prochazka, the Czech wild man who may, in just a few days, find himself as the next top contender at light heavyweight.
Long and strong at 6-foot-3 and an 80-inch reach, Prochazka earned himself some notoriety with his four-year run in RIZIN, winning the promotion’s light heavyweight title in 2019 and finishing his time with the Japanese promotion on a streak of seven consecutive knockout wins. He signed with the UFC last year, and they wasted no time throwing him right into the fire. In July, the UFC debuted him against Volkan Oezdemir, an established contender with all kinds of knockout power.
The six minutes of action that we got could not have been a more perfect introduction to the Jiri Prochazka experience. Prochazka fought with his hands down, threw punches from odd angles, talked shit, and nearly got his head taken off a few times. But early in the second round, he landed that big right hand with full, concussive force, and Oezdemir went limp.
There is no one in the light heavyweight division more consistently fun to watch than Prochazka. His fighting style reminds one a tad of Michael “Venom” Page, except bigger, stronger, and proven against better fighters. Prochazka is so entertaining because he doesn’t seem to have very much concern about not getting hit – he gets away with so many defensive mistakes because he has a strong chin, and he trusts his power.
Fighting Jiri Prochazka is a different experience from almost everyone else, because he’s completely insane, and mixes that insanity with tremendous durability and power. It’s not a Jiri Prochazka fight until he gets in some trouble. The trouble just activates his full strength. There are few fighters more dangerous than someone like him: a hard-headed asshole with power who keeps coming at you. And it could be bad news for Dominick Reyes, who’s trying to rebuild his stock after going 0-2 in light heavyweight title fights in 2020.
After falling agonizingly short of dethroning Jon Jones for the belt last February – many, including myself, thought he won the first three rounds – Reyes received a reprieve when Jones vacated the title to move up to heavyweight. He faced Jan Blachowicz for the vacant title in September, and entered as the favorite. But Reyes became the latest to feel the Legendary Polish Power: Blachowicz hurt him early, Reyes never got comfortable, and Blachowicz ultimately knocked him flat with his demon fists in the second round.
But it wasn’t long ago that Reyes was considered the brightest young star at light heavyweight, a 6-foot-4 southpaw who’s very athletic – he was a star college football player at the FCS level – throws thumping kicks, and has some real zip and power in his hands. Reyes rolled out a record of 12-0 before that razor-close fight with Jones, where he set a blistering pace for the first half of the fight but faded late. When he’s at his best, however, he’s a deadly stand-up fighter.
The big questions are thus: how does Reyes bounce back mentally and physically from the KO loss to Blachowicz, the first stoppage loss of his career? And is the power that he has enough to do away with Prochazka, who seemingly thrives even more when he’s getting hit hard? I fear that the answers may provide very bad news for Reyes.
But goddamn, this should be a fun matchup, and I’d be shocked if it goes the distance. And, even better, it has some stakes: the winner will likely be first in line for the next title shot after Blachowicz defends his belt against Glover Teixeira later this year. Blachowicz vs. Prochazka, maybe? Sign me the hell up.
Cub Swanson vs. Giga Chikadze, UFC Vegas 25
There aren’t many fighters left from the old WEC days, but of the group, I’m glad that Cub Swanson is still kicking. Few fighters have been more consistently entertaining over the last decade-plus than Swanson, a creative and powerful striker who loves to just get down in the weeds and just throw the hell down.
Swanson once ranked as one of the best 145-pounders in the world, but despite his success, never received a world title shot in either the WEC or UFC. Now, he’s become a gatekeeper, tasked with safeguarding the upper reaches of the featherweight totem pole from everyone except the truly worthy. Giga Chikadze, one of the breakout UFC stars of 2020, is the next to try and pass through that gate.
But take heed, Mr. Chikadze. Cub may have lost a few fights in recent years, but that doesn’t mean he can’t knock your ass out. Just ask Daniel Pineda, who felt Cub’s still-potent power at the end of last year.
Swanson has 11 losses on his record, but since he reached a national stage in 2007, the only people to beat him have stars. Swanson lost four in a row between 2017-19, but all to acclaimed fighters: Brian Ortega, Frankie Edgar, Renato Moicano, Shane Burgos. Bums don’t beat this guy. He’s too tough and experienced on the feet, and his hands and feet still have too much zip. Pineda, a much more built fighter, thought he could come in, walk Swanson down, batter him with kicks and beat him up. He learned otherwise.
We’ll see if he can teach the same lesson to Chikadze, a terrific kickboxer whose momentum surged throughout the pandemic. Quite simply, Giga can absolutely crack. Sound technically and defensively, Chikadze has one of the highest knockdown rates in the UFC featherweight division, but started his UFC career off with four straight decision wins – you could tell he really wanted to get his first stoppage, bad. He finally got it in November, knocking the debuting Jamey Simmons out in the first round with a head kick after landing a particularly vicious iteration of his trademark “Giga Kick,” his name for a thumping left body kick to the liver.
We haven’t seen Giga directly finish anyone yet with the Giga Kick, but he did it a few times during his successful career as a pro kickboxer. His striking pedigree and his skillset are quite appealing, and he’s looked very much like a future featherweight star. The one issue: he hasn’t proven it against name opposition. And while Swanson is 37 years old and has been in more wars than you can count, he’s shown that he has plenty of juice left, he’s the perfect kind of scrapper who can screw up your day.
It’s the perfect test for Chikadze, difficult but still winnable. Can’t wait to see this one.
Aung La N Sang vs. Reinier de Ridder, ONE on TNT 4
If you’re just getting into ONE now that it’s on American television, Wednesday night’s ONE on TNT 4 is the perfect introduction to how weird things can get here. On this week’s show, Eddie Alvarez is fighting just three weeks after his controversial disqualification loss (since ruled a no contest) to Iuri Lapicus, against a guy in Rae Yoon Ok who literally fought last week. They even did a “Winner Gets Eddie” promotion and everything.
Rampaging Senegalese wrestler Oumar “Reug Reug” Kane is also back in action three weeks after he squashed a kickboxer with no MMA experience. And in the main event, we get something so rare that it probably shouldn’t even exist: a SURPRISE champion vs. champion match.
One of the preeminent stars of ONE, light heavyweight champion Aung La N Sang was scheduled for months for a title defense against Vitaly Bigdash, in what promised to be a very entertaining watch. But when Bigdash tested positive for COVID-19 last weekend, ONE was sent scrambling for a replacement. So they called in their middleweight champion, ace grappler Reinier de Ridder, who can pull off a feat that I don’t think has ever been achieved in the history of this sport: winning two world titles, off of the same guy, in two different weight classes, within the same year.
You read that right. Up until October, Aung La was actually a double champ, having defended both the middleweight and light heavyweight titles concurrently since 2018. Then he met de Ridder, who needed just over three minutes to tap Aung La with a rear-naked choke and take the lighter of the two belts.
It wasn’t even really much of a fight: de Ridder, who specializes in doing just this very thing, took Aung La down early, got his back, and locked in the choke. Aung La is a loose, easy and entertaining striker with a tough chin and a habit of getting in firefights, but he barely even got to throw a punch. De Ridder did exactly what he wanted, almost immediately.
That was about six months ago. Reinier de Ridder’s gameplan has, presumably, not changed. In that intervening time, has Aung La figured out a way to do something about it? Can he defend that first takedown, keep it standing, and put de Ridder in his office? Can he prevent lightning from striking twice? Because man, losing to the same guy back-to-back, for both your belts, that would be pretty damn humiliating.
Expect Aung La to come out with some urgency on Wednesday night. And as it happens, few things are more entertaining than Aung La N Sang with some urgency.
Honorable mentions: Ion Cutelaba vs. Dustin Jacoby, Sean Strickland vs. Krzysztof Jotko, Cody Stamann vs. Merab Dvalishvili, UFC Vegas 25; Eddie Alvarez vs. Rae Yoon Ok, Reug Reug vs. Kirill Grishenko, Shinya Aoki vs. Eduard Folayang, ONE on TNT 4; Rory MacDonald vs. Curtis Millender, Antonio Carlos Junior vs. Tom Lawlor, PFL 2021 Week 2
The Big Fight 