UFC 275 Recap

On Saturday night, the Singapore Indoor Stadium hosted the latest UFC PPV instalment as Glover Teixeira defended his light-heavyweight title against Jiri Prochazka in the main event. The Brazilian champion became the oldest first time champion when he defeated Jan Błachowicz in his last outing. Jiri Prochazka, fighting out of Czech Republic, challenges for the 205-pound title after picking up wins over Volkan Oezdemir and Dominick Reyes.

The flyweight title was up for grabs in the as Talia Santos challenged Valentina Shevchenko for the 125-pound strap. Shevchenko looked to defend her title for the seventh time against her Brazilian rival who came into this fight on a four fight win streak.

Top strawweight contenders Joanna Jedrzejczyk and Zhang Weili took part in a rematch with a shot at the title on the line. Both women fought in an all-time great fight in their first encounter with Zhang Weili coming out on top at UFC 268. Here is a full breakdown of all the nights action.

Glover Teixeira put his belt up for grabs with Jiri Prochazka trying dethrone the Brazilian for the light-heavyweight crown. The fight was a rollercoaster, a very exciting affair but marred with a lot of bad decision making from both fighters at times. The major questions before this main event was that if Glover could stand with Prochazka and if the Czech man could hang with Texeira if he was taken down. Well they both answered those questions as Glover won a lot of the exchanges on the feet, Jiri got out of a few tricky situations as Glover managed to get the fight down.

An elbow from Glover opened up a nasty cut on Prochazka while in top control and the fight looked to be slipping away from the Czech challenger. In round four and five the gas tank of Prochazka looked to be all but empty. Teixeira was off his boxing and was hurting a tired Jiri Prochazka who didn’t have the ability to raise his hands in defence and the challenger looked dead on his feet. After hurting Jiri, Glover moved in to secure a guillotine choke but the submission slipped out enroute to the mat and Prochazka ended in top control inside the guard of Texeira. The final moments of this fight was unbelieve to watch, both of these warriors had laid it all on the line for almost 25 minutes. With 0:28 seconds left in the fight Jiri Prochazka snatched the neck of Texiera as the champion was trying to get back to his feet. Without even needing to sink in any hooks or secure the back Prochazka forced the tap to become the first fighter from the Czech Republic to become UFC champion. An absolute classic.

Talia Santos entered her fight with dominant champion Valentina Shevchenko as a massive underdog but the Brazilian fought a very competitive fight. Shevchenko choose to grapple instead strike in the early stages of the fight but the champ started to open up in the final rounds. A nasty clash of heads caused some swelling and opened a cut on Santos which seemed to have an effect on her performance in the latter stages of the co-main event. Shevchenko looked to be finishing the fight the stronger of the two in the latter stages of the fight, the judges were spilt on the cards and the title remained with Shevchenko. The contest was a lot more even that was anticipated but in the end Shevchenko showed her championship quality a deserved the win overall.

The highly anticipated rematch between Weili Zhang and Joanna Jedrzejczyk lived up to all expectations. Both former champions started as they left off and traded shots from the get go. Weili initiated looked strong in the clinch and managed to put Joanna on her back and landing some heavy shots in the process. Both women began the second round exchanged blows on the feet with Zhang landing the heavier and more powerful shots in those exchanges. A spinning back fist from Weili landed on Jedrzejczyk which sent Joanna faceplanting to the canvas and secured the win for the Chinese strawweight.

Jake Matthews put together a standout performance in his middleweight clash against Andre Fialho. It was the fourth fight in as many months for Fialho, he failed to get a read on Matthews who really hit the ground running from the starting bell. The Australian won almost all the striking exchanges and hurt Fialho on multiple occasions before putting him out towards the end of round one. A truly tremendous performance from Matthews who takes all the recent shine that Fialho has garnered in his recent winning streak.

Jack Della Maddalena faced his toughest challenge to date in facing tough Russian grappler Ramazan Emeev in the lightweight division. Emeev jumped on an anaconda choke and Della Maddalena really looked in trouble. The Australian stripped off the hand of Emeev from the choke and managed to scramble back to his feet. Della Maddalena pushed back his Russian adversary against the cage and off loaded a barrage of body shots which folded Emeev and the ref stepped in a the very first round. A truly impressive performance and Della Maddalena looks like someone that could cause a lot of issues in the 155-pound division.

In the featured preliminary fight Seung Woo Choi and Joshua Culibao went to war a in a fascinating back and forth battle. Alan Philpott was in the corner of Culibao and helped guide him to a split decision victory on the scorecards. Both Cuibao and Choi made an case for a performance bonus, the crowd got frustrated during the feeling out process but the fight burst into life after Culibao dropped Choi in the middle of round one. Choi stormed back and hurt Culibao in the boxing exchanges in response and the fight was at a knife edge right until the final bell. The decision could have went either way, the judges were spilt on the cards but two out tof the three gave the fight to Culibao.

Chinese lightweight Maheshate made his UFC debut in the lightweight division against Steve Garcia and it was a debut to remember. After being awarded a contract as a winner on last years Dana White’s Contender Series, Maheshate didn’t waste his opportunity in making an impact on his debut. While moving on the back foot Maheshate landed a sweet overhand right on Garcia which sent him crashing to the mat. Referee Marc Goddard immediately stepped in and called the the as Garcia was left unconscious after running into the well place shot from his Chinese counterpart.

Brendan Allen picked up his second win on the bounce when he picked up a decision win over Jacob Malkoun in the middleweight division. Malkoun initiated his usual gameplan of trying to take the fight down but the Australian was unable to land any damage whilst Allen was able to get off the better work overall and the judges scorecards were justified.

South Korean bantamweight Kang Kyung Ho picked up a unanimous decision win over Batgerel Danaa in what was a decent over and back contest. Kang established his jab from the early stages and Danaa had no answer and the damage was clearly visible and the end of the fight. Kang picked up his seventh win inside the octagon and moves to 7-2 inside the UFC.

Silvana Gómez Juárez stopped Na Liang with a beautiful combination in the strawweight division. The Argentinian uncorked an overhand right which dropped her Chinese opponent to one knee. As Liang was getting back to her feet Juárez landed a flurry of punches and knocked out Liang in the very first round for her first UFC win. A really good performance.

Joselyne Edwards and Ramona Pascual fought to the scorecards in the opening fight of the night. Edwards snapped a two-fight losing streak as she took home the unanimous decision win in the featherweight division.

Main Card

Light Heavyweight: Glover Teixeira (c) vs. Jiří Procházka [a]
Women’s Flyweight: Valentina Shevchenko (c) vs. Taila Santos [b]
Women’s Strawweight: Zhang Weili vs. Joanna Jędrzejczyk
Welterweight: Jake Matthews vs. André Fialho
Welterweight: Jack Della Maddalena vs. Ramazan Emeev

Preliminary Card

Featherweight: Seung Woo Choi vs. Joshua Culibao
Lightweight: Steve Garcia vs. Hayisaer Maheshate
Middleweight: Jacob Malkoun vs. Brendan Allen
Bantamweight: Kang Kyung-ho vs. Danaa Batgerel

Early Preliminary Card

Women’s Strawweight: Liang Na vs. Silvana Gómez Juárez
Women’s Featherweight: Ramona Pascual vs. Joselyne Edwards