Few in the sport can match
Jiri
Prochazka when it comes to sheer horsepower. It still might not
be enough to get past his latest obstacle.
Prochazka will take on
Alex
Pereira for the vacant
Ultimate Fighting Championship light heavyweight crown in the
UFC 295 headliner on Saturday at Madison Square Garden in New
York. The winner replaces
Jamahal
Hill—he relinquished the title after he ruptured his Achilles
tendon—at the top of the 205-pound totem pole. Prochazka enters the
Octagon on the strength of a remarkable 13-fight winning streak
that now spans nearly eight years. However, his confrontation with
Pereira represents his first appearance in 517 days. Prochazka has
not competed since he laid claim to the undisputed light
heavyweight title with a fifth-round submission of
Glover
Teixeira—Pereira’s mentor—at UFC 275 on June 12, 2022. A
shoulder injury forced the dynamic Czech Republic native to vacate
the throne soon after. Now, Prochazka steps back into the spotlight
in a bid to capture what was once his.
A lengthy layoff and its potential impact on one of the UFC’s most
charismatic and compelling characters is but one storyline to watch
at UFC 295. Here are four more:
Heirs Apparent
A generational power shift could be unfolding in the UFC’s
perpetually tumultuous heavyweight division, though much of it
depends on
Jon Jones. The
pound-for-pound mainstay was originally slated to defend his
undisputed championship opposite
Stipe
Miocic in the original main event, but a torn pectoral muscle
suffered in training put Jones on the shelf and clouded the futures
of both men. Into the void step
Sergei
Pavlovich and
Tom
Aspinall, as they are set to do battle for interim gold in the
reshuffled co-headliner. Pavlovich, 31, has rattled off six
consecutive victories, all of them finishes inside one round. The
Eagles MMA export last appeared at UFC Fight Night 222, where he
buried
Curtis
Blaydes with punches a little more than three minutes into
their April 22 encounter. On the other side of the equation,
Aspinall won nine of his past 10 bouts. The 30-year-old Team Kaobon
rep last competed on July 22, when he returned from a serious knee
injury to stop former
M-1 Global
champion
Marcin
Tybura with an elbow and follow-up punches in the first round
of their UFC Fight Night 224 pairing. Which young heavyweight will
step forward in Jones’ stead?
Opportunity Knocks
The opening
Mackenzie
Dern has long sought now stares her straight in the eye. The
2015 Abu Dhabi Combat Club Submission Fighting World Championship
gold medalist will confront
Jessica
Andrade in a three-round women’s strawweight showcase that
figures to determine future courses of action for both
participants. Though she has alternated wins and losses in each of
her past four outings, Dern heads into the most significant
opportunity of her mixed martial arts career with an 8-3 record in
the UFC. The longtime Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt last suited up
on May 20, when she leaned on an all-terrain game in taking a
five-round unanimous decision from former
Invicta Fighting Championships titleholder
Angela Hill
atop UFC Fight Night 223. Andrade, meanwhile, finds herself in a
tailspin. The onetime women’s strawweight champion has suffered
consecutive defeats to
Erin
Blanchfield,
Xiaonan Yan
and
Tatiana
Suarez. Can Dern capitalize on the moment and finally climb
into contention at 115 pounds?
Collision Course
No one in the lightweight division was in a hurry to face
Benoit St.
Denis, a French special forces paratrooper who has found the
MMA scene to his liking. With that said,
Matt
Frevola has never shied away from contact at 155 pounds. Their
featured attraction helps anchor the main card and should provide
some clarity for the Top 15. St. Denis moves back into view with
the wind of a four-fight winning streak in his sails. The
27-year-old last appeared at UFC Fight Night 226, where he cut down
American Top Team’s
Thiago
Moises with punches in the second round of their Sept. 2 clash.
All 12 of St. Denis’ victories have resulted in finishes. In the
other corner, Frevola looks to have finally hit his stride. The
Dana White’s Contender Series graduate has rebounded from a
seven-second knockout loss to
Terrance
McKinney with wins against
Genaro
Valdez,
Ottman
Azaitar and
Drew Dober.
None of the three made it out of the first round against Frevola.
Which lightweight hopeful will emerge with his hand raised in The
Big Apple?
A Prelim in Name Only
In the only undercard scrap featuring two ranked combatants,
Tabatha
Ricci will put her four-fight winning streak on the line
against
Lupita
Godinez at 115 pounds. Neither woman can afford a misstep at
this stage. A judo and Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt, Ricci has
never lost as a strawweight, having suffered her only pro defeat
against
Manon
Fiorot in her ill-fated promotional debut at 125 pounds
two-plus years ago. She has since beaten
Maria
Oliveira,
Polyana
Viana,
Jessica
Penne and
Gillian
Robertson in succession, establishing herself as a Top 10
contender at the age of 28. Godinez now plots her own rise to
relevance. A Lobo Gym stablemate of current strawweight champion
Alexa
Grasso, “Loopy” has compiled a 6-3 record across nine
assignments in the UFC. Godinez last appeared on Sept. 16, when she
submitted
Elise Reed
with a rear-naked choke in the second round of their UFC Fight
Night 227 affair. Will the Ricci-Godinez prelim give rise to a new
threat at 115 pounds?