After becoming the fastest rising sport, maybe of all time, some may have considered the UFC to have flattened out, over the past few year.
Although still maintaining its very high standards and quality of fights. But every so often, those high standards get even higher with an event that exceeds all expectations, and UFC did it again with UFC275.
This was the UFC’s fourth event at Singapore’s beautiful indoor stadium in Kallang and the first since 2019. It was arguably the biggest of the four events that have been staged there, and over 10,000 rambunctious fans who attended, were treated to an absolute legendary event.
And the new….
The main event was a classic story of a young, fresh, strong, powerful punching, but inexperienced challenger Jiri Procházka. Coming up against Glover Teixeira, the strong grappling, wily old pro, who is full of experience.
The miracle worker who became the light heavyweight champion at 42, the second oldest in the company’s history.
I was predicting Procházka to win via a stoppage within the first two rounds. However, I did say, if it went further, Teixeira would have a better chance at retaining his title.
But I didn’t expect a five-round war of attrition. Naturally, Teixeira came out looking to grapple and got Procházka down early. For a second, I thought Glover’s experience would overwhelm Procházka for an early victory.
But the young unorthodox Czech fighter showed his strength to withstand the early barrage. He then went to work on the feet and was getting the better of the exchanges, until Glover would use his experience to catch a knee to take it to the ground.
Both fighters had success standing and on the ground with submission attempts. The fight was constantly swaying from one to the other, which had the crowd on the edge of their seats.
Going into the fifth, you had no idea how the fight would end.
Following a great start by Glover, who showed unbelievable stamina and desire at 42, to still be pushing the fight in the fifth. However, he made a mistake that cost him.
Procházka’s youthful age and strength came into play, he capitalised to take Teixeira’s back and choked him, forcing the Brazilian to tap, making Jiri Procházka Czech Republic’s first UFC champion in a memorable title fight.
A convincing but emotional end
After Weili Zhang and Joanna Jedrzejczyk’s first epic five-round encounter in 2020 that Weili won via a split decision to retain her then strawweight title.
A fight that then went on to be inducted into the UFC hall of fame. Naturally, everyone was full of anticipation for the rematch, especially as this fight was three rounds.
Joanna had not fought since that brutal battle in 2020, Weili had lost two fights to Rose Namajunas in that time.
So not that it needed anything extra, but a lot was riding on this fight. The first round felt like round six from their first encounter as they both came out swinging and kicking.
But Weili seemed to get the better and the fight changed when she took Joanna down and began to drop some heavy elbows.
Joanna battled her way through it and did end the round on her feet, even connecting with some good right hands, but it was a clear Weili round.
Knowing she lost the first round, Joanna tried to push the pace in the second. Midway through, as Weili was against the cage, she caught Joanna with an instinctive and devastating spinning back fist.
This shut down Joanna, sending her to the canvas for a convincing and definitive victory.
After the fight, an emotional Joanna announced after a long 20-year career, she was calling it a day and retiring from the sport.
Everyone paid tribute to the legendary Polish fighter who ended her career with numerous records in the UFC, including most significant strikes and longest average fight time.
And still…..(Just)
Russian flyweight champion Valentina Shevchenko came into her seventh title defence with an air of invincibility about her.
She had taken on all comers at flyweight and nobody had come close to defeating her. That was the task ahead of Brazilian Taila Santos, a rough and rugged stand-up fighter on a four-fight win streak. But with that said, not many were predicting an upset.
However, Santos proved a tough nut to crack as she surprised everyone by using her grappling. In the early rounds Santos took Shevchenko down numerous times and had several submission attempts.
To Shevchenko’s credit, she defended them well and tried some offence off her back. But Santos, although wasn’t exactly doing damage, had the better ground control and the crowd sensed an upset. Going into the fourth round, I felt Santos had the better of the three rounds, with maybe one debatable.
You sensed a bit of desperation in Shevchenko in the fourth round as she started to push the pace. The fight then changed with a clash of heads where Santos came out much the worse, as her right eye began to swell badly.
Valentina took full advantage as and she went to work on the feet. She won the fourth with her striking and then the fifth as she took Santos down and won the last round.
I still felt Santos had done enough to win it.
Admittedly, I did say when she had Valentina down, apart from a few submission attempts, she did not do enough damage and to win the title you have to take it from the champion convincingly.
In the end, the judges gave it to Shevchenko, with two giving it to her 48-47 and one dubiously scoring it 49-46 for Valentina, to just about hold onto her flyweight belt. Rematch anyone?
The rest of the card
Before these three thrilling and intriguing fights. Australia’s Jake Matthews treated the crowd to a superb display of striking, as he stopped Portugal’s André Fialho in the second round.
Matthews was coming off a tough defeat in March. Fialho had momentum behind him as he was coming off two highlight reel, first-round defeats in April and May.
Matthews looked great as he put his punches together in the first round, as it seemed he couldn’t miss.
But Fialho survived. However, he wasn’t so lucky in the second. Matthews picked up the pace and finished the fight with a lovely right hook that left Fiahlho crumpled against the cage after he had been backed up with a left hook and overhand right.
This was Fialho’s fourth fight of the year already, after this defeat he is 2-2 for the year.
Before that, contender series fighter, New Zealand’s Jake Della Maddalena impressively opened the main card and gave the crowd a sign of things to come.
He stopped experienced Russian grappler Ramazan Emeev by showing his power with a beautiful body shot. He then followed with shots to the head to take his winning streak to 12.
On the undercard, Hayisaer got a performance of the night bonus thanks to his devastating first round, one punch, right hook ko, that saw the hapless Steve Garcia face plant into the canvas, which got the crowd off their feet.
Silvana Gómez Juárez also got a bonus as she stopped Liang Na in the early preliminary fight, with a lovely overhand right that shut out the lights to massive cheers from the fans.
All in all, it was a superb night for the UFC as the Singapore crowd certainly went home feeling entertained and satisfied.
Hopefully, it bodes well for the future, but halfway through the year, if we get cards that rival this one, we are all in for a real treat in the second half of the year. Fingers crossed.
