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While we are still drunk, high, and completely addicted to the highs that we witnessed last Saturday in what is for now the best event of the year, we have another Fight Night this weekend that will attract some eyes, as the Light Heavyweight division always brings some sparks, Reyes and Prochazka have both something to prove for different reasons. We then have our buddy Cub Swanson from Cali, fighting the Georgian Giga Chikadze, in the Featherweight division, there is absolutely 0 chance of a snoozer. The rest of the card is entertaining if you are a purist, we will dissect the golden nuggets of the event together.

If you have few hours to kill, you can catch up One FC from yesterday, with some really cool matchups.

Main event

Light Heavyweight - Dominick Reyes (12-2-0) vs. Jiří Procházka (27-3-1)

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Not so long ago, Dominick Reyes rose to the top and fought Jon Jones, gave him a run for his money, as the undefeated prospect, a lot was expected from him after knocking out Chris Weidman (bless his soul).

Unfortunately, it wasn't enough for him to beat Jon, some people argue that Reyes won the fight, I can understand that, I also was on the hype train vouching for him to dethrone Jones.
It was so refreshing to see someone that had the physical attributes to compete with the champion, and change the dynamics of a division that Jon "Bone" Jones reigned over for a decade. After his recent loss to the current champ Jan Błachowicz, Dominic admitted having lost confidence:

I don't understand matchmaking. It wouldn't have been a bad idea, to rebuild Dominic's confidence with an easier matchup, that the straight up killer that Jiří Procházka is.

If you haven't heard of him yet, he was already making waves before getting into the UFC, was the Rizin Light Heavyweight (defending) champion, has won most of his fights by TKO, KO or submission, and is expected to become the UFC champion in within the next 2 years. Jiří was actually offered to join the UFC few years ago but refused, claiming not to be ready yet.

Let's see what he did to Vokan Oezdemir, an excellent striker in 8 minutes:

You will notice that he took some shots in the first round, and played a little mind game with Volkan, Jirka (his nickname) is a very charismatic individual, with a great personality, being on his own spiritual journey and mixing his fighting life and philosophy.

Dominic doesn't have the same experience, and it will be interesting to see how he will respond to these weird angles Jirka throws his punches, he is also so lanky, and will probably dominate on the feet.
I would have liked Dominic to rebuild his confidence with another fight, but we know how competitive the division is, and you cannot refuse a fight that could propel you to a title shot.

One way or the other, it will be a star making performance for both fighters. I am gonna go crazy, and predict a knockout in the first round for Jiří Procházka. It saddens me to say that, because I really like Dominic Reyes, but the Rizin champion is on another level.

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Co-main

Featherweight - Giga Chikadze (12-2-0) vs. Cub Swanson (27-11-0)

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SO CAL

Cub Swanson's career wasn't supposed to last that long, and to go as well as it did lately. He was on the verge of being cut by the UFC and just won 2 in a row, to everyone's suprise.
I could show you his win by unanimous decision against Kron Gracie, amazing BJJ specialist that decided to stand up, or his KO win against Daniel Pineda, but the reason why people vouch for Cub is his personality; so let's dive in his post fight interview at UFC 256

How can you not like the guy? Just a very relatable dude, and I wish him all the luck and willpower in the world, because he is facing a special fighter from Georgia, with a very good record and in his prime.
Giga is a kickboxer, fought in GLORY and will be the toughest fight so far for Cub. I really believe that the UFC had enough of Cub's win streak, and they brought the "NINJA" to finish the job.

I don't know what is the answer for the Cali fighter, I have absolutely no idea how they approached their camp, I would imagine focus on some wrestling but still, Giga showed some very good takedown defence against Jamey Simmons, so it's all up in the air. Shall we check the stats?

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Kickboxers have the tendency to do well in MMA if they manage to get their takedown defence on par, it seems to be the case for Giga, and we could imagine him rising in the Featherweight division the same way Adesanya did in the Middleweight. They are both elusive, with a great output, speed and precision:

As expected, Cub Swanson is the underdog, and could bring his A game, surprise everyone once more. I still think Giga is on a path to greatness, and there isn't anyone big enough to stop him.

NINJA is winning in round 1, Cub will give up. I can't believe I am saying this right now, because I am vouching for Cub, but the reality is that this fight is a trap. Cub is supposed to be cut and retired, I don't think the matchmaking will get easier in the future for him. I still think it's gonna be an interesting fight.

Light Heavyweight - Ion Cuțelaba (15-6-0, 1NC) vs. Dustin Jacoby (14-5-0)

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Who is Ion Cuțelaba you're asking me? He is the dude that lost twice against Ankalaev.
The first fight, people complained because the ref stopped the fight too early, and the second fight ended in the exactly same way, this time around the referee let Ankalaev throwing few extra shots to Cutelaba.
A Youtuber called MindSmash has a theory on what happened for the first fight:

Do you think he was pretending to be hurt? That's a good one, it's possible. All I know is that this time around he is facing Dustin Jacoby, a name that might ring a bell for you, as he was in the UFC in 2011 and got cut after 2 straight losses. He fought for WSOF, Titan FC and Bellator before returning to the UFC thanks to Dana White Contender Series, he is clearly showing his resilience and this is gonna be an interesting matchup for sure. it's a pretty close fight, the odds are slightly in favour of Ion.

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Middleweight - Sean Strickland (22-3-0) vs. Krzysztof Jotko (22-4-0)

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Sean Strickland is always fun to watch fighting.

That's a statement, that I can't even guaranty 100% accurate, except when you start thinking that his only losses in the welterweight division are against the current champ Kamaru usman and Elizeu Zaleski dos Santos, you know that his record isn't a padded one, unless you count his win against this amateur:

He will be facing another Polish experienced fighter with legendary Polish Power, Krzysztof Jotko, who has been seen raining down elbows in crucifix position (check the second round).

Bantamweight - Merab Dvalishvili (12-4-0) vs. Cody Stamann (19-3-1)

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A boring fight in the bantamweight division, with Merab facing the experienced Cody Stamann, they both love winning by decision, so don't expect a great spectacle for this one. It might become a technical chess game, which is another word for "putting you to sleep".
Cody got this though 💪

Women Flyweight - Poliana Botelho (8-3-0) vs. Luana Carolina (6-2-0)

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This one, can be skipped, and I won't be mad at you guys. Maybe we got something interesting in the prelims, let's check:

Prelims

Women Strawweight - Randa Markos (10-11-1) vs. Luana Pinheiro (8-1-0)
Featherweight - Gabriel Benítez (22-9-0) vs. Jonathan Pearce (10-4-0)
Featherweight - Kai Kamaka (8-3-0) vs. TJ Brown (14-8-0)
Women Strawweight - Loma Lookboonme (5-2-0) vs. Sam Hughes (5-2-0)
Middleweight - Andreas Michailidis (12-4-0) vs. KB Bhullar (8-1-0)
Featherweight - Luke Sanders (13-4-0) vs. Felipe Colares (9-2-0)

Nope...

Voila, that's it for today, if you also want to write about your favourite sport, don't forget to join our awesome community Sports Talk Social

Let's end up of a high note, with the news of the moment in MMA, the possible fight between Daniel Cormier and Jake Paul, can you believe the world we live in?