On Friday and Saturday, fight fans will get their share of mixed martial arts action as the sport’s three biggest promotions get underway.
The PFL begins Friday (4:30 p.m. ET on ESPN/ESPN+) in Salt Lake City, Utah, with the lightweight and light heavyweight divisions continuing their regular season. On Saturday afternoon, UFC Fight Night begins in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia (noon ET on ESPN/ABC), featuring a main event between former middleweight champion Robert Whittaker and Ikram Aliskov. Also in the afternoon, the Bellator Champions Series (noon on HBO Max) lands in Dublin, Ireland, as Jason Jackson prepares to defend his welterweight title against Ramazan Kuramagomedov.
With 35 battles available across three cards, there is curiosity and intrigue all around. Andreas Hill, Brett Okamoto, and Jeff Wagenheim began focusing on the story’s events during the action-packed weekend.
How good is Ikram Aliskerov?
cardamom: Aliskov will have a chance to move up the middleweight rankings by stepping up on short notice to face Robert Whittaker after the only man to lose to him, Khamzat Chimaev, was forced out of the fight due to a “severe illness” according to the UFC. President Dana White. There’s not much to know about the Russian outside of his two UFC wins following first-round stoppages against Phil Howes and Warley Alves. Whittaker excels at higher levels than Hawes and Alves, and it may just be a case of Aliskerov biting off more than he can chew with little time to prepare.
But what if it isn’t? What if Aliskov defeated the former middleweight champion in Saudi Arabia? It will be one of the most significant jumps in UFC history when an up-and-coming fighter defeats the No. 3 ranked middleweight in the UFC. He will likely find himself immediately in pole position for a title shot after his third fight in the UFC. At worst, he would have faced Shawn Strickland in a title eliminator.
If Aliskov fails, he can still move up the rankings if it is a competitive fight. Aliskov really has nothing to lose and has everything to gain on Saturday night. And in a division that could definitely use some new blood in the main picture, the Dagestani sambo fighter could shake up the 185-pound division in a big way.
Jason Jackson looks for recognition in Bellator title defense
Wagenheim: If you’re an MMA fighter competing inside a cage that doesn’t have eight sides, you’re fighting an uphill battle. The UFC is the big show, giving athletes a head start in the pursuit of stardom. Fighters in Bellator, the PFL and other second-tier promotions often play small roles until they put on performances that make them impossible to ignore.
Jackson has been doing some of that. The Bellator welterweight champion will enter Saturday’s main event in Dublin on an eight-fight winning streak, including victories over Benson Henderson and Douglas Lima, both former champions. But Jackson’s most impressive outing during that run of success was a knockout of Yaroslav Amosov in November, who entered the title bout at 27-0.
Jackson’s opponent this weekend is also undefeated. However, Ramazan Kuramagomedov (12-0) does not have the public profile or fighting experience that Amosov does and has never faced an opponent of Jackson’s caliber. This fight therefore represents a necessary proving ground for the Dagestani contender, while at the same time putting Jackson in a position to break another perfect record in his second title defense. Who will keep sports in mind?
Is Sergei Pavlovich the 2024 version of Shane Carwin?
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Sergei Pavlovich makes quick work of Tai Tuivasa
Sergei Pavlovich needed less than 60 seconds to finish off Tai Tuivasa in front of a frustrated Orlando crowd.
cardamom: Remember Carwyn? The heavyweight with lunchboxes for hands who obliterated everyone in front of him in one round before losing to Brock Lesnar for the UFC heavyweight championship in 2010? And when Carwin finally lost for the first time in 13 MMA fights, we only saw him one more time, in a losing effort to Junior dos Santos, before injuries derailed his career and sent him into retirement.
Pavlovich’s career arc was eerily similar to Carwin’s. Aside from his knockout loss to Alistair Overeem, Pavlovic had knocked out challengers and scored six straight first-round knockouts in the UFC before capturing the interim heavyweight title from Tom Aspinall in November. He faced the tough Alexander Volkov in the UFC co-main event in Saudi Arabia and will need to win impressively if he wants to stay in the title picture. It’s not a given, considering Volkov combines effective hitting with an underrated ground game.
If Pavlovic wins, he will find himself in the thick of things, and losing Aspinall could be just a blip on the radar. But if he loses? You can’t help but wonder if he’ll end up like Carwin, who is remembered as a brutal knockout artist who saw the wheels come off of his once promising career in stunningly rapid fashion.
How much impact does a first round KO have on light heavyweight bouts in the PFL?
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Emba Kasanganayi dominates with a first-round TKO
Impa Kasnganay picked up six points in the PFL light heavyweight standings with a quick win over Alex Polizzi.
Okamoto: If there was ever a case study in how much the PFL’s regular season format impacts a fighters’ strategy, it would be this week.
The 205-pound ranking couldn’t be more lopsided. Five athletes (Rob Wilkinson, Josh Silveira, Dovlitjan Yagchimuradov, Emba Kasanganay and Antonio Carlos Jr.) finished the opening round two months ago with a maximum of six points. The other five, of course, left zero. If any of these five hope to make the playoffs, they must finish in the first round to have a chance. And at least one of the fighters who already has six points will be on the outside looking in.
How aggressive are these first rounds? Will any of the five who already have six points choose to play it relatively safe? This scenario only appears in PFL format, and frankly, I can’t say with confidence exactly how it will play out. Of course, every fighter in every fight is looking for the finish at all times, but knowing that has to come in the first round is unique.
Khamzat Chimaev is the one absent who we will miss the most
Wagenheim: A lot of attention has been paid to Conor McGregor’s withdrawal from UFC 303, and for good reason.
He is by far the biggest star MMA has ever seen. However, announcing another absence around the same time would be an even greater loss to the sport competitively. Chimaev’s withdrawal from Saturday’s main event is the latest in a series of setbacks for the 30-year-old Chechen, derailing what previously seemed destined to be an unhindered rise to the top. Chimaev arrived at the UFC in 2020 like a hurricane, destroying everything in his path. In his first two fights, both of which he finished, he held an 83-1 advantage in significant strikes. He didn’t add much to that total in his third bout – as he scored a knockdown in 17 seconds.
But Chimaev has featured just four times since 2020, with injury, illness and visa issues slowing his involvement. When competing against tougher opposition, Chimaev was not as dominant as he once was. But he still won every fight, taking his record to 13-0 with a majority decision in October in a middleweight bout with former UFC welterweight champion Kamaru Usman. This scheduled meeting with Whittaker, a former middleweight, could have set Chimaev up for a long-awaited title shot. But his future is now back where it has been for the past few years: in doubt.
Monitoring the UFC’s relationship with Saudi Arabia
Okamoto: Anyone who follows combat sports – and entertainment in general – knows what a disruptive and influential country Saudi Arabia has become in recent years. The UFC has been relatively late to the party, as the region already dominates boxing’s leading heavyweight division, with rumored plans to broadly expand its reach in the near future. The Professional Football League (PFL) has signed deals with Saudi Arabia and taken on the PFL vs. Bellator MMA Champs to Kingdom Arena in Riyadh in February. There is already a PFL MENA league focusing on talent in the Middle East. This section debuted in Riyadh in May. It was only a matter of time before the UFC joined the Saudi investment.
This will be the first UFC event there, and Riyadh Season in Saudi Arabia has already agreed to sponsor the historic UFC event at The Sphere in Las Vegas in September. Saudi Arabia is a potential partner for any fight promoter right now, and the size of any future deal between it and the UFC could have far-reaching impacts on the combat sports calendar and some fight placements.
