Another fight weekend is here, baby, and we love to see it. Our plates are once again full with violence this week, with UFC back on Saturday night after a one-week layoff, Bellator on Friday, and if you have ESPN+, you can catch the replay of the PFL heavyweight/women’s lightweight semis from Thursday night.

And, as usual, here’s a look at the three bouts I’ll be watching closest this weekend:

Jared Cannonier vs. Kelvin Gastelum, UFC Vegas 34

Ladies and gentlemen, it’s the Guys Who Recently Got Outclassed by Robert Whittaker Bowl! As much as middleweight champion Israel Adesanya may want to deny it – let’s be real, I don’t care if Darren Till wins two fights in a row, what the fuck are you even talking about dude – the pre-emptive UFC title challenger at 185 pounds is Whittaker, who has clearly separated himself from the rest of the pack since losing his belt to Adesanya in 2019.

There’s only one fight to make at middleweight, and it’s an Adesanya-Whittaker rematch. No one, especially not the fans, should accept otherwise. But as we work out the details of a fight that 100 percent needs to happen, everyone else at middleweight is left to jockey for position. And in the main event on Saturday night’s UFC show, Whittaker’s last two victims will be doing the jockeying.

Of the two fights, it was Jared Cannonier who gave Whittaker the much stronger opposition when they met on the undercard of the Khabib Nurmagomedov–Justin Gaethje fight in October. Cannonier has had one of the most fascinating career paths in recent UFC memory, and is one of the best examples of a guy just getting his ass in shape you can find.

The 37-year-old didn’t start fighting until 27 – a relatively advanced age – and did so as a heavyweight, reeling off seven straight finishes on the Alaskan regional scene and getting a shot at the UFC. He had slimmed down from over 300 pounds to around 240, but at 5-foot-11, he wasn’t a good frame for the real big-time. So he worked to get down to 205, where he looked better, but ate notable losses to some top fighters. So he just kept going, all the way down to middleweight, where he’s turned himself into one of the top contenders at his weight class.

The power has followed Cannonier down two weight classes, making him one of only two men in UFC history to score KOs at three different weights. He’s patient, methodical and his leg kicks are bruising. I like him a lot – and while Whittaker was just a bit more mobile and a bit more technically sound in their fight in October, Cannonier landed a knee-buckler of a straight left in the third round and nearly stole the whole thing.

Gastelum, on the other hand, didn’t look like he belonged on the same plane of existence as Whittaker during their fight. It makes one wonder if one of the most beloved action stars in recent middleweight history is past his time, before his time. Gastelum is still just 29, but has been in some wars – none more memorable than the famous bloody showdown with Adesanya for the interim middleweight title in April 2019.

Since then, he’s lost three of four, including a heel hook loss to Jack Hermansson in just over a minute, and the outclassing by Whittaker in April. Gastelum has always been one of my favorite fighters to watch, an absolute tank with incredible toughness, great punching power and an underrated ground game. But he’s done little recently to dispel the narrative that the punishment he absorbed in the Adesanya fight has thrown off his career.

Over time, we may see Gastelum pivot towards his takedown skills, as he did against Ian Heinisch in the one slump-breaking win in February. Cannonier’s takedown defense has been spotty, but it hasn’t been tested as extensively at 185. I have a hunch that it could be crucial on Saturday night.

Alexandre Pantoja vs. Brandon Royval, UFC Vegas 34

The rest of the UFC show is structured kind of weirdly. The co-main is a matchup between a completely washed Clay Guida – who I usually forget is still fighting in the UFC – against former Olympic Greco-Roman medalist Mark O. Madsen. (I’m interested in that fight to see the undefeated Madsen after an 18-month layoff, but I’d rather see him finally fight someone who’s actually good.) Meanwhile, easily the second-best fight on the card is fifth from the top. After all these years, flyweights still can’t get any respect.

Alexandre Pantoja is a grizzled young vet who’s just ready to break out as a star at 125. Brandon Royval is an uber-entertaining hotshot who burst onto the scene last year with some of the year’s best fights. Both are ranked within the top six of a very fun flyweight division, and this one is going to have some real ramifications on the 125-pound pecking order.

I have loved the Brandon Royval Experience ever since he signed with the UFC last year, as one of the newer fighters to make the jump from LFA champion -> UFC fighter. He was part of a stretch of four consecutive LFA flyweight champs to vacate the belt to sign with the UFC – one of them was a fellow you may know by the name of Brandon Moreno. Speaking of, Moreno and Royval clashed at the end of 2020, in Moreno’s last fight before his title fights with Deiveson Figueiredo. Moreno, of course, won the fight, catching Royval underneath him when the Denver native tried to go for a leglock and stopping him with a series of hammerfists.

It was a tough loss for Royval, no less so because Royval visibly dislocated his shoulder in the late stages of the fight. But it came as a product of Royval’s aggression and willing to always be on the move hunting for something. I’ll take the bad with the good, personally. Royval has great submission skills and is at home in a slugfest: his first two UFC fights, both submission wins, won Fight of the Night honors, including a crazy battle with Kai Kara-France that was some of the six most action-packed minutes of 2020.

Meanwhile, Pantoja is not afraid to get in a brawl himself. Still just 31 years old, Pantoja has been fighting for nearly 15 years, and is one of the most battle-tested and experienced contenders in the current-day flyweight division. He’s an accurate striker who’s been there, and done that. He wants to attack, wants to put together combinations, and has a very underrated ground game to lean on as well.

He also, quite notably, finished Brandon Moreno in their first-round matchup on The Ultimate Fighter 24 in 2016, giving the UFC a ready-made marketing angle for a potential title challenge. Quite interesting! For now, at least, I don’t see any way this fight doesn’t end up in fireworks. I’m calling my shot now: Alexandre Pantoja-Brandon Royval is going to be the Fight of the Night on Saturday night.

If you’re not tuning in for the flyweights, what the hell are you even doing?

Cheick Kongo vs. Sergei Kharitonov, Bellator 265

Let me tell you something right off the jump: this Bellator card SUCKS. The co-main matchup of Jay Jay Wilson and Adam Borics was called off because Wilson missed weight by four pounds – even with Wilson, one of my favorite featherweight prospects currently going, on the card, it still wasn’t any good. Seven other fights were booked and canceled for various reasons. And the main event is two heavyweights with a combined age of EIGHTY SEVEN.

But one of them is Sergei fuckin’ Kharitonov, so that’s alright. I have always, and will always, love my Russian Murder Uncle.

Fun fact: in 2021, Bellator has had two straight cards headlined by guys old enough to have fought in Pride! But while Gegard Mousasi only had a few fights in the Pride ring relatively early in his career, Kharitonov was a mainstay of its heavyweight division, although he was pretty young as well – he debuted in the revered Japanese organization at just 23 years old.

As a kickboxer, Kharitonov battled some of the best heavyweights of his day. And as a mixed martial artist, Kharitonov had tangled with guys like Minotauro Nogueira, Alistair Overeem and Fabricio Werdum before he was out of his mid-20s. He emerged as one of the most underrated heavyweights of his generation, one who never had that UFC run that would have put him on the map for most fans, but one who was always worth seeking out if you knew to look for him.

And sometimes, if you squint, you can still see flashes of the guy who’s been so dangerous for so long. You might have to squint pretty hard, considering he’s 41 years old and he has one of the best pure dad bods in the sport. But damn if he doesn’t still hit like a truck:

Heavyweight MMA is great because you can be really old and really slow and still be highly successful if you can punch really hard – and at heavyweight, most guys are able to punch really hard. Even at that level though, Kharitonov’s power still manages to stand out. I love this old man stage of his career. He doesn’t seem like he really trains hard anymore, every time you see him he’s more grizzled, he just throws on a pair of shorts and shows up to the arena when it’s time to knock someone out, and then he does it. I hope he gets to do this forever.

Speaking of doing this forever, here’s Cheick Kongo! The 46-year-old Frenchman is a true pioneer of the sport, the first French MMA star at a time where mixed martial arts was illegal in his homeland. He’s been fighting professionally for over 20 years, and after a long run as a solid upper-mid-tier heavyweight contender in the UFC, he’s had a very successful eight-year period fighting in Bellator. He’s gone 12-3 in the circle cage, including an eight-fight win streak that snapped with an eye poke no contest in a title fight with Ryan Bader in 2019.

Kongo is big, jacked, physically imposing, powerful, and willing to win by getting the dirty work done in the clinch – sometimes a little too dirty, if the old nickname “Cup Check” Kongo still means anything to anyone. He was last seen in October, main-eventing the first ever major MMA show held in Paris – a fantastic full-circle moment for Kongo, who in two decades had never gotten to fight in his home country. However, he couldn’t bring the win home, as top contender Tim Johnson grinded out a split decision.

Kongo fights have occasionally produced fireworks – who could ever forget his fight with Pat Barry, perhaps the single most heart-stopping comeback in MMA history – but as time has gone on, they’ve been more and more likely to be boring clinchfests. With Kharitonov’s declining mobility and declining energy levels, this could be the same. Unless Kharitonov shuts his lights off, which could very well happen, even though Kongo hasn’t been knocked out in eight years.

And given the wretched state of the Bellator heavyweight division, and considering Johnson is coming off an interim title loss to Valentin Moldavsky, it actually seems somewhat likely that the winner of this fight will either get a shot at the interim title, or end up in a title eliminator fight with Johnson, as we wait for full champ Ryan Bader to conclude his participation in the light heavyweight grand prix.

A Sergei Kharitonov fight with stakes? In 2021? It could happen to you!