The substances making Saturday’s UFC 314 the early frontrunner for card of the yr are straightforward to identify.
The assure of a brand new champion in a essential occasion between a fan favorite trying to increase an already hall-of-fame-worthy profession, Alexander Volkanovski, and an out-of-nowhere grinder who’s overcome the percentages at each step of his underdog journey, Diego Lopes.
A five-round co-main grudge match between name-brand motion fighters — Michael Chandler and Paddy Pimblett — who seldom fail to entertain each on the mic and on the mat.
And a sequence of down-card matchups with legit stakes at hand that might dramatically increase or decrease shares through statements made or alternatives squandered. Listed here are three fighters coming into Saturday with lots to show — and many to lose — in compelling matchups main as much as the highest of the cardboard.
Brazilian prospect manufacturing facility Combating Nerds was unquestionably 2024’s health club of the yr, producing a gentle stream of up-and-coming motion fighters from Caio Borralho to Carlos Prates to Mauricio Ruffy. However not one of the above had been as lively as their teammate Jean Silva, the 28-year-old featherweight who will step into the octagon Saturday for the fourth time in lower than 10 months.
Silva has constructed an immense spotlight reel alongside the best way, knocking out Westin Wilson in his UFC debut, stopping veterans Charles Jourdain and Drew Dober inside the span of 15 days, and lighting up Melsik Baghdasaryan within the first spherical earlier this yr.
Mixing sound, well-drilled approach with aptitude and unpredictability, Silva has confirmed harmful wherever and anytime in a struggle. And the change he flips, from respectful sportsman practically tearing up throughout his introduction and providing double handshakes earlier than rounds, to cold-blooded murderer calmly stalking opponents whereas trying to find openings to use with one-punch energy after fights start, makes him as entertaining a watch as you’ll discover within the sport immediately.
But Saturday’s matchup with Bryce Mitchell, an undeniably expert grappling artist whose public persona is just like the web’s most imbecilic remark part come to life, must be his hardest take a look at but. Mitchell is the primary ranked UFC opponent Silva has confronted; the primary floor specialist, too. Earlier than Silva dropped him repeatedly, Jourdain scored a number of takedowns throughout their struggle, exposing a gap within the Brazilian’s sport that Mitchell will undoubtedly search to use.
In fact, that presents loads of risk for Silva to do the issues that make him so enjoyable. Bursting ahead with punishing mixtures earlier than darting out of vary; leaning on his athleticism and velocity to blow up out of clinches and off the cage; letting his opponent lead whereas on the lookout for alternatives to circulate from defence into offence with robust counters, knees and spinning assaults.
Beating Mitchell will instantly insert Silva into the featherweight rankings and place him to face a top-10 opponent his subsequent outing. And scoring one other highlight-reel knockout within the course of will ignite afterburners beneath his already hovering inventory. It’s robust to decide on who’s essentially the most promising prospect from Combating Nerds’ secure of younger killers. But when he retains doing what he’s been doing, Silva’s going to be robust to prime.
Feb. 8, 2020, gave the impression to be an inflection level in Dominik Reyes’s profession. That was the evening he dropped a five-round resolution to then light-heavyweight champion Jon Jones in a razor-thin struggle many believed Reyes ought to have gained.
Reyes out-struck Jones, 119-107, in accordance with UFC Stats. He defended seven of 9 takedown makes an attempt and allowed Jones fewer than two minutes of management time. Of the 21 media members who submitted scorecards to MMA Decisions, 14 scored the struggle for Reyes.
“Man, I do really feel disrespected,” Reyes stated afterward. “I do know I gained that struggle — I know I gained that struggle.”
That loss didn’t solely halt Reyes’s undefeated stand up UFC’s light-heavyweight ladder — it despatched his profession right into a tailspin. He was knocked out in his subsequent three fights — by Jan Blachowicz, Jiri Prochazka and Ryan Spann — throwing his future with the corporate into query.
However after sitting out for practically two years, Reyes returned final June to decisively cease Dustin Jacoby within the first spherical earlier than ending an emotionally distracted Anthony Smith (the veteran’s coach and shut pal, Scott Morton, suffered a coronary heart assault weeks earlier than the struggle) in December.
Placing the discomfort of the Smith struggle apart, Reyes has halted his freefall and created momentum in the wrong way. On Saturday, he’ll face No. 8-ranked Nikita Krylov who’s getting back from a two-year layoff of his personal. That inactivity places Krylov’s three-fight successful streak in a unique context, as does the very fact a type of victories came visiting Alexander Gustafsson, who left the UFC practically three years in the past.
But, with light-heavyweight being as shallow as it’s, it doesn’t take a lot to succeed in the highest 10 and enter the championship-contender dialog. And that’s precisely the place Reyes can place himself with a win Saturday, which might have been a tricky storyline to promote after he was dropped by Spann — a low-volume submission artist — two-and-a-half years in the past.
At 35, that is doubtless Reyes’s ultimate run up the rankings in pursuit of one other title shot. And lengthening his streak in opposition to Krylov — who’s nonetheless solely 32 and poses threats each on the toes and the mat — might depart Reyes needing just one extra win over a name-brand opponent to problem whoever’s holding the belt at yr’s finish. That provides Reyes as a lot to struggle for Saturday as anybody on the cardboard.
Saturday’s strawweight No. 1-contender struggle with Chinese language veteran Yan Xiaonan is just not one Virna Jandiroba ought to have wanted to take.
Just a few months in the past, Jandiroba was already booked right into a No. 1-contender struggle in opposition to then-undefeated Tatiana Suarez at UFC 310, with the winner in line to problem strawweight champion Zhang Weili. However that struggle was instantly cancelled after the oft-injured Suarez withdrew on account of what the UFC cited as an unspecified well being difficulty.
But these waters had been muddied when Suarez challenged a report she was injured in a since-deleted social media publish. And so they grew much more opaque when Suarez was shortly rebooked straight right into a struggle with Zhang in February. And the water turned to sand when Suarez said, “I simply assume the UFC needed this struggle as a substitute.”
Left with out her alternative to earn that title shot, Jandiroba described the circumstances as “confusing” and “obscure.” Robust guilty her when she boasted two wins over top-10 strawweights in 2024 whereas Suarez hadn’t fought for the reason that center of 2023.
Regardless, Jandiroba remained positioned to struggle the winner contemplating her a number of bookings with Suarez (the pair had been first matched up in August 2023, however Jandiroba blew out her knee whereas coaching) and the very fact she was the one remaining strawweight contender Zhang hadn’t confronted. All she needed to do was wait.
So, in fact, she took to social media and repeatedly referred to as for a struggle with Yan, who was outclassed by Zhang a yr in the past. Turned out Jandiroba vs. Yan was a struggle the UFC had no reservations over.
What’s the potential reward for Jandiroba right here? Reinforcing past all doubt the No. 1-contender standing she must already maintain. What’s the danger? Shedding all of it whereas Yan will get booked right into a rematch with Zhang; or watching the UFC fast-track somebody outdoors the highest 5 right into a title shot.
It’s not a terrific cost-benefit proposition. However fighters corresponding to Jandiroba — a Portuguese speaker and grappling specialist whose 10 UFC fights have all ended through submission or resolution — should pad their resumes to an completely simple diploma to beat the difficulties they’ll face breaking by means of on the leisure aspect of the sport.
Prior setbacks in opposition to Mackenzie Dern and Amanda Ribas have disrupted that pursuit, however Jandiroba enters Saturday on a four-fight successful streak, together with a efficiency of the evening bonus following her slick armbar of Amanda Lemos final July. Simply as Zhang has principally cleaned out the strawweight division, stringing collectively three straight dominant title defences since reclaiming the belt late in 2022, Jandiroba has been swatting away all contenders who’ve tried to leap her within the rankings.
A date with Zhang must be computerized if Jandiroba will get by means of Yan Saturday evening. Ought to she have already got that title shot while not having one other win? In all probability. Is the struggle sport unfair? Undoubtedly. Jandiroba indicated her understanding of that in calling for this struggle fairly than sitting on the sidelines. And with one other win on Saturday, she’ll have performed all she will be able to to go away UFC’s matchmakers nowhere else to show.
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