On Friday and Saturday, fight fans will get their fill of MMA as the sport's three biggest promotions will be in action.
The PFL begins Friday (4:30 p.m. ET on ESPN/ESPN+) in Salt Lake City, Utah, with the lightweights and light heavyweights continuing their regular season. On Saturday afternoon, UFC Fight Night begins in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia (noon ET on ESPN/ABC) with a main event between former middleweight champion Robert Whittaker and Ikram Aliskerov. 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 fights available on three cards, there is intrigue and curiosity everywhere. Andreas Hale, Brett Okamoto and Jeff Wagenheim came up with the stories to focus on during a packed fight weekend.
How good is Ikram Aliskerov?
Healthy: Aliskerov will have a chance to move up the middleweight rankings by moving up on short notice to face Robert Whittaker after the only man he lost to, Khamzat Chimaev, was forced out of the fight due to being “violently ill.” ” according to UFC. President Dana White. There's not much to know about the Russian other than his two UFC wins via first-round knockout against Phil Hawes and Warlley Alves. Whittaker is levels above Hawes and Alves, and it could be a case of Aliskerov simply biting off more than he can chew with little time to prepare.
But what if it isn't? What happens if Aliskerov defeats the former middleweight champion in Saudi Arabia? It would be one of the most significant jumps in UFC history when a rising fighter defeats the UFC's No. 3 middleweight. He would likely immediately find himself in pole position for a title shot after just his third UFC fight. Worst case scenario, he would face Sean Strickland in a title eliminator.
If Aliskerov falls short, he could still move up the rankings if it is a competitive fight. Aliskerov really has nothing to lose and everything to gain on Saturday night. And in a division that could certainly use some new blood in the title fight, the Dagestani sambo fighter could shake up the 185-pound division in a big way.
Jason Jackson seeks recognition in Bellator title defense
Wagenheim: If you're a mixed martial artist competing inside a cage that doesn't have eight sides, you're fighting an uphill battle. The UFC is the big show and gives its athletes an advantage in their quest for stardom. Fighters in Bellator, PFL, and other second-tier promotions often only play supporting 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 riding an eight-match 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 his November knockout of Yaroslav Amosov, who entered the title fight with a 27-0 record.
Jackson's opponent this weekend is also undefeated. However, Ramazan Kuramagomedov (12-0) does not have the public profile or combat experience of Amosov and has never faced an opponent of Jackson's caliber. So this fight represents a necessary proving ground for the Dagestani challenger, while also putting Jackson in position to break another perfect record in his second title defense. Who will notify the sport?
Is Sergei Pavlovich the 2024 version of Shane Carwin?
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Sergei Pavlovich makes quick work of Tai Tuivasa
Sergei Pavlovich needs less than 60 seconds to finish off Tai Tuivasa in front of a disappointed Orlando crowd.
Healthy: Do you remember Carwin? The heavyweight with lunchboxes for hands who destroyed everyone in front of him in a single 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 would only see him one more time, in a losing effort against Junior dos Santos, before injuries derailed his career and sent him into retirement.
Pavlovich's career path has been eerily similar to Carwin's. Aside from his knockout loss to Alistair Overeem, Pavlovich had crushed his opponents and scored six consecutive first-round knockouts in the UFC before being defeated by Tom Aspinall for the interim heavyweight title in November. He will face the beefy Alexander Volkov in the UFC co-main event in Saudi Arabia and will need to win in impressive fashion if he wants to stay in the title fight. That's not a given, considering Volkov combines effective hitting with an underrated running game.
If Pavlovich wins, he will find himself back in the thick of things, and Aspinall's loss could just be a blip on the radar. But if he loses? You can't help but wonder if he'll end up like Carwin, remembered as a savage knockout artist who saw his once-promising career unravel surprisingly quickly.
How much will a first-round KO affect PFL light heavyweight matchups?
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Impa Kasanganay dominates with technical knockout in the first round
Impa Kasnganay gains six points in the PFL light heavyweight rankings with a quick victory over Alex Polizzi.
Okamoto: If there was ever a case study on the impact the PFL's regular-season format has on fighter strategy, it would be this week.
The 205-pound classification couldn't be more lopsided. Five athletes (Rob Wilkinson, Josh Silveira, Dovletdzhan Yagshimuradov, Impa Kasanganay and Antonio Carlos Jr.) finished the first round two months ago with the maximum six points. The other five, of course, were left with zero. If any of these bottom five hopes to make the playoffs, he must finish in the first round to have a chance. And at least one of the fighters who already have six points will be on the outside looking in.
How aggressive will these first rounds be? Will any of the five who already have six points choose to play with relative safety? This scenario is only seen in the PFL format and I honestly can't say for sure exactly how it will play out. Of course, every fighter in every fight looks for a finish at all times, but knowing that he has to come in the first round is unique.
Khamzat Chimaev is the absentee we will miss the most
Wagenheim: A lot of attention has been paid to Conor McGregor's withdrawal from UFC 303, and rightly so.
He is by far the biggest star MMA has ever seen. However, another upcoming absence announced around the same time will be a bigger loss for the sport in a competitive sense. Chimaev's withdrawal from Saturday's main event is just the latest in a series of setbacks for the 30-year-old Chechen, halting what once seemed destined to be an unimpeded rise to the top. Chimaev arrived at the UFC in 2020 like a tornado, destroying everything in his path. In his first two fights, both finals, he built an 83-1 advantage in significant strikes. He didn't add much to that total in his third outing, because he scored a knockout in 17 seconds.
But Chimaev has competed only four times since 2020, with injuries, illnesses and visa issues slowing his career. When he competed against increasingly tough opposition, Chimaev was not as dominant as before. But he still won every fight, raising his record to 13-0 with October's majority decision in a middleweight fight with former UFC welterweight champion Kamaru Usman. This scheduled meeting with Whittaker, a former middleweight champion, could have set Chimaev up for a long-awaited title shot. But now his future is back to where he was 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 disruptor and influencer Saudi Arabia has become in recent years. The UFC is relatively late to the party, as the region has already taken control of top-tier heavyweight boxing, with rumors of plans to widely expand its reach in the near future. The PFL signed agreements with Saudi Arabia and brought its main event PFL vs. Bellator MMA Champs to the Kingdom Arena in Riyadh in February. There is already a PFL MENA league that focuses on Middle Eastern talent. That division made its debut in Riyadh in May. It was only a matter of time before the UFC participated in the Saudi investment.
This will be the first UFC event there, and Saudi Arabia's Riyadh Season has already agreed to sponsor the historic UFC event at The Sphere in Las Vegas in September. Saudi Arabia is a potential partner of any fight promoter right now, and the scale of any future deal between this country and the UFC could have far-reaching effects on the combat sports calendar and certain fight locations.
