UFC 295 went down Saturday night at the UFC’s annual high profile November event at Madison Square Garden in New York City. All five main card fights ended with spectacular finishes. Alex Periera, the former middleweight champion, captured the vacant light heavyweight belt and in the process became the UFC’s ninth two-weight champion in just his seventh UFC fight. In the co-main event, Tom Aspinall claimed the interim UFC heavyweight championship with a brilliant knockout of Sergei Pavlovich. Read on for a recap of the main card fights.
Alex Pereira finishes Jiri Prochazka to claim vacant light heavyweight title
Alex Pereira has become a two-weight UFC champion in just his eleventh MMA fight. Pereira, the former middleweight champion, captured the vacant light heavyweight title against Jiri Prochazka.
In the first round, Periera landed several nasty leg kicks that clearly had badly damaged Prochazka’s leg. In fact, the first hard leg kick Pereira landed, one minute into the opening round, sent Prochazka to the mat.
Prochazka put Periera on his back with two minutes left in the round when he converted a single leg takedown. Pereira defended well by controlling posture and limiting damage as Prochazka was unable to get off much ground and pound.
Pereria was able to work his way back to the feet with twenty seconds left in the round. He then landed a right hand off the clinch break before Prochazka closed the round with an uppercut.
A minute into the second round, Prochazka’s entertaining and unorthodox striking was on display as he landed a nifty jumping front kick to the body. Prochazka was moving forward applying heavy pressure early in the round.
Prochazka had Pereira hurt midway through the round as he landed a big right that backed “Poatan” up to the fence. Prochazka then landed several big punches against the fence. Pereira, however, did well to defend by tying up his foe briefly with an overhook before separating and creating distance.
The beginning of the end actually started with Prochazka landing a big right hand that had Pereria backing up to the fence. With Prochazka pressing the attack Pereira cracked his foe with a powerful short left hook that dropped Prochazka to his knees.
Prochazka immediately tried to survive by looking for a double leg but Pereira kept his posture upright against the fence and landed a barrage of nasty elbows to the side of Prochazka’s head that caused him to go limp and fall backward to the canvas.
Referee Marc Goddard immediately waved off the bout as Prochazka fell backward. It seemed initially like it may have been an early stoppage but Prochazka confirmed after the fight that he was finished and that it was a good stoppage. The end came at 4:08 of Round 2.
After the fight Pereira called out Israel Adesanya to come up to light heavyweight to challenge for the belt. The two have a long history with Pereira twice defeating Adesanya in kickboxing and the pair splitting UFC middleweight championship bouts.
Tom Aspinall knocks out Sergei Pavlovich to become Interim Heavyweight Champion
In just 69 seconds Tom Aspinall took out Sergei Pavlovich with two big right hands to the temple to secure the interim heavyweight belt.
It was Pavlovich who landed the first big shot of the fight with a clean left hook that had Aspinall backing up. Aspinall recovered quickly, showing good head movement and footwork to reset.
It was just moments later when Aspinall landed a straight right hand to the temple that wobbled Pavlovich. Aspinall immediately followed up with another right hand that sent the Russian falling backward to the mat unconscious. Aspinall followed up with three hammerfists before the referee could step in to stop the fight.
It will be interesting to see what the UFC does with the heavyweight division. UFC CEO Dana White has already said that the fight that was supposed to headline this event, current heavyweight champion Jon Jones versus former two-time heavyweight champion Stipe Miocic, is still set to take place.
The problem is Jones is unlikely to be ready to fight before next summer and Aspinall has indicated a desire to be active. It doesn’t make sense to have Aspinall defend an interim title so we’ll have to wait to see if Aspinall is forced to wait for the Jones-Miocic fight to happen.
If Jones and Miocic do fight it seems very possible both will retire after that bout. It may be a while before there is any clarity in the heavyweight title picture.
Jessica Andrade dominates Mackenzie Dern with four knockdowns to secure second-round TKO
Jessica Andrade won a classic striker versus grappler matchup against Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu ace Mackenzie Dern. Andrade was able to keep the fight standing as Dern was 0 for 4 on takedown attempts.
Dern was more than willing to trade on the feet as she repeatedly threw caution to the wind in several wild and entertaining striking exchanges. That was a mistake because Andrade, a dangerous power striker, finished the fight via TKO at 3:15 of Round 2.
Andrade became the first woman in UFC history to score four knockdowns in a fight. The first knockdown came at the end of the first round after Andrade backed Dern up to the fence and landed a huge right hand. With only five seconds remaining in the round Dern was able to survive.
The beginning of the end came with a wild sequence of events in the second round. Andrade scored the second knockdown of the fight midway through the round with a huge left hook as Dern was advancing. Dern waited for Andrade to engage on the ground, but “Bate Estaca” wisely motioned for Dern to re-start on the feet.
Moments later Dern landed a stiff jab and followed with a big right hand that landed clean, but as Dern once more advanced, Andrade ripped her with a left-right combination that sent Dern crashing forward onto the canvas.
Seconds later Andrade backed Dern up to the fence and dropped Dern for the fourth and final time as Keith Peterson waved off the fight via TKO.
Benoit Saint-Denis lands brutal head kick to knock out Matt Frevola
Benoit Saint-Denis further cemented himself as one of the most dangerous lightweights with his fifth consecutive UFC finish by landing a vicious head kick knockout against Matt Frevola.
Saint-Denis showed some high-level defensive grappling skills early in the fight by executing a beautiful sweep after he ended up in bottom position off of a failed guillotine attempt. Frevola did well to escape by rolling through Saint-Denis’s side control, eventually lifting Saint-Denis into the air for a slam takedown.
Saint-Denis once more showed great grappling defense by wasting no time in getting to a hip and standing up. After breaking from the clinch, Frevola began to retreat.
Saint-Denis pursued and unleashed a devastating left head kick that landed flush to the temple. Frevola immediately fell backward to the canvas and Saint-Denis pounced to attack with punches. The referee stopped the bout by knockout at 1:31 of Round 1.
In his post-fight interview, Saint-Denis called out top lightweights Mateusz Gamrot, Justin Gaethje and Dustin Poirier.
Diego Lopes smashes Pat Sabatini in first-round TKO
Diego Lopes, one of the UFC’s breakout stars of 2023, put an exclamation point on his first year in the UFC with his second consecutive first round finish. Lopes is known as a high-level jiu-jitsu black belt, but in this fight showed he can be just as dangerous on the feet.
Pat Sabatini had some success with strikes early in the bout, catching Lopes with a hard right hand thirty seconds in. Sabatini also landed some solid body kicks. But Lopes quickly turned the tables after stuffing a Sabatini takedown attempt. Lopes then landed a solid knee from the clinch followed by a hard right hand that caused Sabatini to shoot for another takedown attempt.
Lopes easily defended, using an overhook to throw Sabatini to the mat. As Sabatini stood up, Lopes hammered his foe with a right hand over the top that had the American retreating before Lopes landed a left hand that sent Sabatini crashing into the fence and onto the canvas.
Lopes immediately jumped on Sabatini and landed several hard right hands that forced referee Keith Peterson to stop the bout at 1:30 of Round 1.
Lopes improved his UFC record to 2-1. At 23-6 overall, this was Lopes’s fourteenth first round finish.