Jiří Procházka was very concerned about the magic and excitement heading into the UFC 303 main event. Perhaps the supernatural force he should have been concerned about was Alex Pereira’s left hook.
Just like in their first meeting last fall, “Poatan” emerged victorious with a knockout in the second round. But this time the UFC light heavyweight champion made everything look easy — and decisive.
After methodically hitting Procházka for most of the first frame, Pereira dropped his opponent with a left hook right on the horn. Procházka managed to get up and stagger to the corner between rounds, but never seemed to fully come to his senses. A kick to the head at the start of the second round put him back on the mat, and some unnecessary punches from Pereira removed all doubts.
For Pereira, it seemed like an easy job. In less than four years in the UFC, he won titles in two different weight classes. He’s defeated just about everyone worth discussing at light heavyweight and has now begun casually discussing a move to heavyweight, where he could very realistically chase an unprecedented third UFC title.
The only problem is the murky waters at the top of this divide. Current champion Jon Jones is recovering from a torn pectoral and has stubbornly refused to consider any title challenger other than former champion Stipe Miocic, who is 41 and has not won a fight in nearly four years. Interim heavyweight champion Tom Aspinall is already scheduled to fight Curtis Blaydes next month at UFC 304 in Manchester, which means we should all pretend it’s not weird to have a guy defending the interim belt while the real belt remains distant. .
Meanwhile, there is Pereira. The only reasonable opponent left for him at 205 pounds is Magomed Ankalaev. And hey, no offense, but I couldn’t even type that last sentence without yawning. It would be a great fight, I’m sure. It would likely provide further testing of Pereira’s overall game. It just wouldn’t be the kind of thing that anyone (outside the Ankalaev family) would be really excited about.
The trajectory that Pereira is following now is truly something of a superstar. The man has been a rocket since he signed with the UFC and, somehow, it seems like he’s still just getting started. It would be a crime to deny this man the opportunity to pursue a whole new stratosphere of greatness. Who knows, a third UFC title might even make him smile.
Some other notes about UFC 303…
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Stop for a moment and appreciate the week Diego Lopes just had. He was overweight and sleeping at four in the morning when his manager woke him up to tell him that Brian Ortega would not gain 145 pounds. So fine, Lopes told him, he’d fight the guy at 155 pounds. Then Ortega dropped out of the fight entirely and Lopes said he would go ahead and face Dan Ige at catchweight. This is a guy who is a wreck. Against whom and with what weight are mere details.
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I know that Mayra Bueno Silva was angry because the referee stopped the fight with Macy Chiasson because of a cut. That’s a hard way to lose. But when you hear an arena full of people gasp at the sight of your facial injury when it’s shown on the big screen, it’s a sign that maybe it’s time to call it a night.
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Roman Dolidze and Anthony Smith almost convinced me that the UFC shouldn’t have tried so hard to keep a light heavyweight elimination fight on this lineup. The original plan was two completely different 205-pounders. Then everything changed and changed again and we ended up with a fight that had no clear risks or much motivation on either side. Sometimes maybe the thing to do when a fight falls apart is to let it go?
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Joe Pyfer needed a big comeback win. He understood, seemingly with ease, and then took aim at enemies that I’m not entirely convinced he actually did. Fans can be fickle. Especially when the fashion train is still leaving the station, it doesn’t take much to convince people to jump on it. Pyfer’s loss to Jack Hermansson could have been a necessary step in his continued growth. There is still room to grow a little more.
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Payton Talbott just showed us what a -2000 favorite really looks like. When you appear as one of the biggest betting favorites in UFC history, it’s hard to do anything that looks worthy of it. Hard but not impossible. Talbott needed 19 seconds to starch Yanis Ghemmouri. And honestly? He really didn’t even need all those 19 seconds. The future is bright, but an increase in difficulty level is likely to occur soon.
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Ian Machado Garry already has eight wins in the UFC, but few recent highlights. He dismissed Michael “Venom” Page as an over-the-top can-crusher before this event, then narrowly failed to beat him. A mean-spirited interpretation of Garry’s trajectory thus far might suggest that he only really looks great when facing lower-tier competition. Which, ironically, is exactly the criticism he leveled at MVP. The difference is that Garry is still only 26 years old, so there is still a lot of time left on the clock. After the last two forgettable decisions come due, however, you can feel that people’s patience is starting to wear thin.
