Another fight weekend is here, baby, and we love to see it. This week’s MMA action features a UFC Fight Night show on Saturday night, along with a pretty stacked Bellator show on Friday night. PFL ran on Thursday as well, and this week’s show was complete madness – I plan on having something this week on just how unpredictable this young PFL season has been so far.

But for now, as usual, here’s a look at the three fights I’ll be watching closest this week:

Juan Archuleta vs. Sergio Pettis, Bellator 258

On Friday night, Bellator gives us one of its most loaded cards in a while, despite the fact that Yoel Romero failed a medical screening and had to cancel his very hotly anticipated fight with fellow debutant Anthony “Rumble” Johnson. But while Rumble-Romero got all the hype heading into this Bellator season, we’ve got ourselves a really good-looking main event, with a fighter considered one of MMA’s can’t-miss young stars going for his first-ever world title.

No, I’m not talking about A.J. McKee vs. Patricio Pitbull. I’m talking about Sergio Pettis, younger brother of Anthony, taking on bantamweight champion Juan Archuleta. Pettis debuted with the UFC at 20, renowned as one of the world’s best 135-pound talents. The hype was real. A drop to flyweight sparked a good run, peaking with a 2018 win over Joseph Benavidez that made him one of the UFC’s top-ranked contenders. At the time, he was still just 24.

He never got that title fight. He lost to Jussier Formiga four months later, moved back up to 135, then lost to Rob Font. He fought once more at 125, his UFC contract expired, and he signed with Bellator. For many MMA fans, one of the most hyped young talents around instantly became out of sight, out of mind.

Of course, much of Sergio’s notoriety came via his brother, a former world champion. But anyone beating fighters like Benavidez, Brandon Moreno and John Moraga in their early 20s deserves a spotlight of their own. And Pettis goes about his business a completely different way than his more famous big brother. While a prime Anthony fought wild and unrestrained, seemingly making things up as he went along and letting his unmatched athleticism and creativity carry him, Sergio doesn’t quite have the same incredible physical gifts as his brother. As such, he’s had to develop a completely different way.

Sergio Pettis actually had to learn how to fight like a technician, and he’s done so. The younger Pettis has developed into a fine counter-striker with strong footwork and vision, good takedown defense, and an ability to bring pressure while drawing out the reactions he wants from his opponents. He may not have the highlight reel or the killer finishing instinct his brother had, but he’s a fighter who wins with smart gameplanning, intelligence, and savvy beyond his years.

20-5 in his pro career and still just 27 years old, Pettis was a fantastic addition to Bellator’s bantamweight division, and he looked excellent in 2020 wins over Alfred Khashakyan and longtime mainstay Ricky Bandejas. That’s earned him a step-up against the division’s new top dog, Juan Archuleta, who dug deep to fend off submission specialist Patchy Mix and win the vacant 135-pound title in September.

Archuleta’s only loss in the Bellator cage came up at 145 against Patricio Pitbull, the best fighter in the world outside of the UFC, by decision in 2019. Archuleta doesn’t have a particularly flashy style, but he’s a winner: a skilled, tough and strong wrestle-boxer who’s just as effective grinding out a decision as he is sparking a guy with his fists.

Archuleta may not be a real next-level talent, but his grit, power, clinch strength and experience have carried him a long way. Both he and Pettis are perfect examples of athletes working within their limitations to build themselves into top-caliber fighters. The fight to come on Friday night may not be an instant classic, but it should be really good mixed martial arts.

Gregor Gillespie vs. Diego Ferreira, UFC Vegas 26

OK, let’s try this again. Once one of the most hyped rising lightweight stars in the world, Gregor Gillespie was scheduled for his first UFC fight in over a year back in March, in a matchup with Brad Riddell that looked like an excellent clash between world-class wrestling and great technical striking. That fight was scrapped, at the last minute, due to COVID-19 protocols stemming from a well-publicized outbreak that affected several fighters at Riddell’s City Kickboxing team.

It was a huge bummer – Gillespie-Riddell was one of the only interesting fights on that card, and I was fascinated to see how Gillespie bounced back from his first career loss, via an explosive head kick knockout from Kevin Lee at the end of 2019. Before that highlight defeat, Gillespie looked sure to be one of the next big things at the UFC’s signature division. He still can be.

Gillespie is one of the best wrestlers you’ll find anywhere in mixed martial arts, both in terms of their success on the mat, and how well they’ve adapted that wrestling skill to MMA. Gillespie was a star at Division I power Edinboro, winning a national title in 2007 and earning All-American honors all four years of his collegiate career. He’s one of the most remarkably skilled chain wrestlers in the sport, with a million little subtle tricks to control opponents and a supreme sense of positional awareness.

And he also finishes dudes. Gillespie rolled into the Lee fight on a five-fight stoppage streak, using that excellent wrestling base to set up punishing ground-and-pound or submissions. Lee exposed the technical flaws in his stand-up game in the most brutal way possible, and Riddell promised to test whatever improvements Gillespie may have made during his subsequent layoff. Diego Ferreira, one of the best jiu-jitsu threats at 155, will test him a different way.

Ferreira was on a six-fight win streak heading into February, when he lost an extremely entertaining split decision to the ascendant Beneil Dariush that won Fight of the Night. Ferreira, a third-degree black belt who has medaled at the world stage, was outfoxed on the ground by Dariush, an action fighter who’s sneakily one of the most well-versed grapplers around. Dariush is one of very few who could pull that trick off – Gillespie may be another.

But the second this fight hits the mat, and it will, Gillespie will face a stiff challenge. Although the current MMA meta has shifted away from ground fighters submitting guys off their back, Ferreira is a bit of a throwback, the possessor of one of the most dangerous and active guards in the game. He will threaten Gillespie constantly, and it should be an absolute joy to watch.

We may be in for some real high-level stuff here. I can’t wait to see it.

Neil Magny vs. Geoff Neal, UFC Vegas 26

IT’S NEIL VS. NEAL. ONLY ONE SPELLING WILL SURVIVE. This week’s UFC card is constructed in an extremely weird fashion. There are quite a few genuinely interesting fights on this show – it’s really not bad for a weekly Fight Night. But the powers that be have elected to headline the show with Michelle Waterson, who should be fighting at 105, flailing kicks into the wind at *125*. The co-main is a washed-up Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone fighting a late replacement. The actual fun fights are buried beneath.

And it’s even weirder, because Neil vs. Neal would be a perfectly valid Fight Night main event, between two good welterweights who have main-evented shows within the last year. Neal is still one of the most exciting talents in the division, and his arrow is still pointing up despite being outclassed on the feet by Stephen “Wonderboy” Thompson in December. And Magny, who was outgrappled in a brilliant Michael Chiesa performance in January, has been one of the division’s toughest outs for a number of years.

We know quite well, at this point, what Neil Magny is. He’ll likely never be a top contender, owing perhaps as much to his unexciting style than to his seeming inability to truly break through against the very best. But Magny is the perfect low-top 10 gatekeeper. He’s very much like a 170-pound Phil Davis, in the sense that he’s very long, a tough grinder, knows how to win fights, and isn’t concerned with giving the fans what they want.

Magny is really freakishly long for 170 pounds – an 80-inch reach, which would be pretty damn good at heavyweight – and he’s developed the ability to use that range and keep opponents at bay with his jab, or grind them up against the fence and frustrate them. Really high-level grapplers like Chiesa, really high-level strikers like Lorenz Larkin (fighting this week in Bellator, and I refuse to ever miss a Larkin fight because he absolutely rules), or really high-level all-around badasses like Rafael dos Anjos can overcome his tricks. But you better be on your game, or Magny can completely shut you down.

We’ll see if Neal is on that level. I suspect that he is, owing to a series of really strong performances leading into his fight with Thompson, who was just on a different level with his movement and counter-striking. (Thompson usually is.) Even so, Neal had a couple of nice moments in the fight, and seemed to be learning in real-time how to cut angles against a karate god. He got shut out on the scorecards, but the talent that carved through the lower levels of the UFC welterweight division is evident.

Neal is a powerful, technical southpaw striker with a razor-sharp straight left and strong finishing instincts, and so far ranks as one of the best talents to come out of Dana White’s Contender Series. He likes to bring pressure, catch his opponents in a tight spot, and let his fists do the talking. It was a extreme challenge doing that against Thompson’s impeccable movement and vision. It’ll be another big challenge achieving that against Magny’s reach.

Another meaningful test for a very good young talent. This is the kind of shit I like to see.

Honorable mentions: Michelle Waterson vs. Marina Rodriguez, Amanda Ribas vs. Angela Hill, UFC Vegas 26; Anthony “Rumble” Johnson vs. Jose Augusto Azevedo, Michael “Venom” Page vs. Derek Anderson, Patricky Pitbull (Patricio’s brother, who’s got a sick highlight reel of his own) vs. Peter Queally, Raufeon Stots vs. Josh Hill, Lorenz Larkin vs. Rafael Carvalho, Bellator 258