Jiří Procházka was very concerned about magic and ghosts ahead of the UFC 303 main event. Perhaps the supernatural force he should have been concerned about was Alex Pereira’s left hook.
Similar to their first meeting last fall, “Poatan” won with a second-round knockout on Saturday night in Las Vegas. Only this time, the UFC light heavyweight champion made it look easy — and decisive.
After methodically picking off Procházka for most of the first frame, Pereira dropped the challenger with a left hook right at the horn. Procházka managed to get up and wobble to his corner between rounds, but he never seemed to quite regain his sanity. A head kick to start the second round put him back on the mat, and a few mostly unnecessary follow-up punches from Pereira removed any doubt.
For Pereira, it seemed like easy work. In less than four years in the UFC, he’s won titles in two different weight classes. He’s beaten virtually everyone worth talking about at light heavyweight, and has now begun casually discussing a move up to heavyweight, where he could realistically chase an unprecedented third UFC title.
The only problem is the murky waters at the top of that division. Current champion Jon Jones is recovering from a torn pectoral muscle and stubbornly refuses to consider any title contenders other than former champion Stipe Miocic, who is 41 and hasn’t won a fight in almost four years. Interim heavyweight champion Tom Aspinall has already booked a fight with Curtis Blaydes next month at UFC 304 in Manchester, which means we all have to pretend it’s not weird that someone is defending the interim title while the real title is still a long way away.
Meanwhile, there’s 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 fine fight, I’m sure. It would probably provide more testing for Pereira’s game. It just wouldn’t be the kind of thing that anyone (outside of the Ankalaev family) would get all that excited about.
The trajectory Pereira is on right now is superstar stuff. The man has been a rocket since signing with the UFC, and somehow it feels like he’s only just getting started. It would be a crime to deny the man the chance to chase a whole new stratosphere of greatness. Who knows, maybe a third UFC title will even make him smile.
A few more notes on UFC 303…
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Take a moment to pause and appreciate the week Diego Lopes has just had. He was at weight and dead asleep at four in the morning when his manager woke him up to tell him that Brian Ortega wasn’t going to make 145 pounds. So okay, Lopes told him, he’d fight the 155-pound guy. Then Ortega dropped out of the fight altogether and Lopes said he was going to go ahead and fight Dan Ige at a catchweight instead. That’s a man who’s about to be destroyed. Against whom and at what weight are just details.
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I know Mayra Bueno Silva was upset that the referee stopped her fight with Macy Chiasson because of a cut. That’s a tough way to lose. But when you hear an arena full of people gasp at the sight of your facial wound when it’s shown on the big screen, that’s a sign that maybe it’s time to call it quits.
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Roman Dolidze and Anthony Smith almost convinced me that the UFC shouldn’t have tried so hard to have a light heavyweight undercard fight in this lineup. The original plan was two completely different 205-pounders. Then it changed and changed again and we ended up with a fight that had no clear stakes and not much motivation on either side. Sometimes if a fight falls apart, maybe it’s best to let it go?
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Joe Pyfer needed a big rebound win. He got it, seemingly with ease, and then addressed the haters that I’m not entirely convinced he actually has. Fans can be fickle. Especially if the hype train is still pulling out of the station, it doesn’t take much to convince people to jump off. Pyfer’s loss to Jack Hermansson could have been a necessary step in his continued growth. However, there is still room to grow some more.
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Payton Talbott just showed us what a -2000 favorite really looks like. When you emerge as one of the biggest favorites in UFC history, it’s hard to do anything worth that. Difficult, but not impossible. Talbott only needed 19 seconds to make Yanis Ghemmouri shine. And honestly? He didn’t even need all those 19 seconds. The future looks bright, but a step up in difficulty is likely coming soon.
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Ian Machado Garry now has eight wins in the UFC, but not many recent highlights. He dismissed Michael “Venom” Page as an overhyped eye-catcher for this event, but barely held on to beat him. An ungenerous interpretation of Garry’s run thus far might suggest that he only looks good when he’s up against lower-tier competition. Ironically, that’s exactly the criticism he leveled at MVP. The difference is that Garry is only 26, so there’s a lot of time on the clock. After the last few forgettable decision wins, though, you can tell people’s patience is starting to wear thin.
