MMA storyline watch: Can Ikram Aliskerov upset Robert Whittaker?

On Friday and Saturday, combat followers will get their fill of MMA because the three largest promotions of the game can be in motion.

PFL kicks issues off on Friday (4:30 p.m. E.T. on ESPN/ESPN+) in Salt Lake Metropolis, Utah, with the lightweights and lightweight heavyweights persevering with their common season. On Saturday afternoon, UFC Struggle Night time commences in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia (Midday E.T. on ESPN/ABC), that includes a essential occasion between former middleweight champion Robert Whittaker and Ikram Aliskerov. Additionally within the afternoon, Bellator’s Champions Collection (Midday on HBO Max) touches down in Dublin, Eire, as Jason Jackson prepares to defend his welterweight title in opposition to Ramazan Kuramagomedov.

With 35 fights on faucet throughout three playing cards, there’s intrigue and curiosity throughout. Andreas Hale, Brett Okamoto and Jeff Wagenheim hit on the storylines to deal with throughout a jam-packed combat weekend.

How good is Ikram Aliskerov?

Hale: Aliskerov could have a possibility to race up the middleweight rankings by stepping up on brief discover to face Robert Whittaker after the one man he has ever misplaced to, Khamzat Chimaev, was pressured out of the combat as a consequence of being “violently unwell” in response to UFC president Dana White. There’s not a lot to know in regards to the Russian exterior of his two UFC wins coming by first-round stoppage in opposition to Phil Hawes and Warlley Alves. Whittaker is ranges above Hawes and Alves, and it might be a case of Aliskerov merely biting off greater than he can chew with little time to arrange.

However what if he is not? What if Aliskerov defeats the previous middleweight champion in Saudi Arabia? It might be one of the crucial vital leaps in UFC historical past when a fighter on the rise defeats the UFC’s No. 3-ranked middleweight. He’d probably instantly discover himself in pole place for a title alternative after simply his third UFC combat. At worst, he’d sq. off with Sean Strickland in a title eliminator.

If Aliskerov comes up brief, he might nonetheless rocket up the rankings if it is a aggressive combat. Aliskerov really has nothing to lose and every part to achieve on Saturday night time. And in a division that might definitely use some new blood within the title image, the Dagestani sambo fighter might shake up the 185-pound division in a significant approach.

Jason Jackson searching for recognition in Bellator title protection

Wagenheim: In case you’re a blended martial artist who competes inside a cage that doesn’t have eight sides, you’re combating an uphill battle. The UFC is the large present, giving its athletes a head begin in pursuing stardom. Fighters in Bellator, PFL and different second-tier promotions usually simply play bit elements till they placed on performances that make them unattainable to disregard.

Jackson has been doing a few of that. The Bellator welterweight champion will enter Saturday’s essential occasion in Dublin on an eight-fight profitable streak, together with victories over Benson Henderson and Douglas Lima, each former champions. However Jackson’s most spectacular outing throughout that run of success was November’s dethroning knockout of Yaroslav Amosov, who got here into the title bout at 27-0.

Jackson’s opponent this weekend can be undefeated. Nevertheless, Ramazan Kuramagomedov (12-0) doesn’t have the general public profile or fight expertise of Amosov and has by no means confronted an opponent of Jackson’s caliber. So this combat represents a mandatory proving floor for the Dagestani challenger, whereas concurrently placing Jackson in place to conquer one other good document in his second title protection. Who’ll put the game on discover?

Is Sergei Pavlovich the 2024 model of Shane Carwin?

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Sergei Pavlovich makes fast work of Tai Tuivasa

Sergei Pavlovich wants lower than 60 seconds to complete off Tai Tuivasa in entrance of a disillusioned Orlando crowd.

Hale: Keep in mind Carwin? The heavyweight with lunch bins for arms who obliterated everybody in entrance of him in a single spherical earlier than shedding to Brock Lesnar for the UFC heavyweight championship in 2010? And when Carwin lastly misplaced for the primary time in 13 MMA fights, we might solely see him as soon as extra, in a shedding effort to Junior dos Santos, earlier than accidents derailed his profession and despatched him into retirement.

Pavlovich’s profession arc has been eerily much like Carwin’s. Except for his knockout loss to Alistair Overeem, Pavlovich had steamrolled the opposition and scored six consecutive first-round knockouts within the UFC earlier than being upended by Tom Aspinall for the interim heavyweight title in November. He is matched up with the sturdy Alexander Volkov within the UFC’s co-main occasion in Saudi Arabia and might want to win impressively if he desires to stay within the title image. It is not a given, contemplating that Volkov pairs efficient placing with an underrated floor sport.

If Pavlovich wins, he’ll discover himself proper again within the thick of issues, and the Aspinall loss might simply be a mere blip on the radar. But when he loses? You possibly can’t assist however surprise if he’ll find yourself like Carwin, remembered as a savage knockout artist who noticed the wheels come off of his once-promising profession in astonishingly fast vogue.

How a lot will a first-round KO have an effect on the PFL mild heavyweight matchups?

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Impa Kasanganay dominates with 1st-round TKO

Impa Kasnganay earns six factors within the PFL Mild Heavyweight standings with a fast win over Alex Polizzi.

Okamoto: If there have been ever going to be a case research on how a lot of an impression the PFL’s regular-season format has on fighter technique, it might be this week.

The 205-pound standings couldn’t be extra lopsided. 5 athletes (Rob Wilkinson, Josh Silveira, Dovletdzhan Yagshimuradov, Impa Kasanganay and Antonio Carlos Jr.) all ended the opening spherical two months in the past with the utmost of six factors. The opposite 5, in fact, left with zero. If any of these latter 5 hope to make the playoffs, they have to get a first-round end to have an opportunity. And at the least one of many fighters who have already got six factors can be on the skin trying in.

How aggressive will these first rounds look? Will any of the 5 who have already got six factors select to play it comparatively protected? This state of affairs is just seen within the PFL format, and truthfully, I am unable to confidently say precisely the way it will play out. In fact, each fighter in each combat is searching for a end always, however to comprehend it has to come back within the first spherical is exclusive.

Khamzat Chimaev is the absentee who’ll be missed essentially the most

Wagenheim: A lot consideration has been paid to Conor McGregor’s withdrawal from UFC 303, with good motive.

He is by far the most important star MMA has ever seen. Nevertheless, one other upcoming absence introduced across the similar time can be a much bigger loss to the game in a aggressive sense. Chimaev’s withdrawal from Saturday’s essential occasion is simply the newest in a string of setbacks for the 30-year-old from Chechnya, stalling what as soon as appeared destined to be an unimpeded ascent to the highest. Chimaev arrived within the UFC in 2020 like a twister, wrecking every part in his path. In his first two fights, each finishes, he constructed an 83-1 edge in vital strikes. He did not add a lot to that complete in his third outing — as a result of he scored a knockout in 17 seconds.

However Chimaev has competed simply 4 instances since 2020, with harm, sickness and visa points slowing his roll. When he competed in opposition to more and more more durable opposition, Chimaev was not as dominant as he as soon as had been. However he nonetheless gained each combat, operating his document to 13-0 with October’s majority resolution in a middleweight bout with former UFC welterweight champ Kamaru Usman. This scheduled assembly with Whittaker, a former middleweight titlist, might have arrange Chimaev for a long-anticipated title shot. However now his future is true again the place it has been for the previous few years: unsure.

Maintaining a tally of UFC’s relationship with Saudi Arabia

Okamoto: Anybody following fight sports activities — and leisure normally — is aware of what a disruptor and influencer Saudi Arabia has grow to be in recent times. The UFC was comparatively late to the get together, because the area has already taken a stranglehold on premier heavyweight boxing, with rumored plans of broadly increasing its attain within the close to future. The PFL has signed offers with Saudi Arabia and took its marquee PFL vs. Bellator MMA Champs occasion to the Kingdom Enviornment in Riyadh in February. There’s already a PFL MENA league that focuses on Center Jap expertise. That division made its debut in Riyadh in Might. It was solely a matter of time earlier than the UFC acquired in on the Saudi funding.

This may mark the primary UFC occasion there, and Saudi Arabia’s Riyadh Season has already agreed to sponsor the UFC’s landmark occasion at The Sphere in Las Vegas in September. Saudi Arabia is a possible associate with any combat promoter in the meanwhile, and the size of any future deal between it and the UFC might have far-reaching results on the fight sports activities calendar and sure combat placements.