🪄 3 Is The Magic Number

July 01, 2022

Welcome to this week’s edition of The Fight With Teddy Atlas Newsletter, your one stop shop for all things combat sports related, brought to you by Teddy and The Fight team.

Dave Portnoy of Barstool Sports joins Teddy Atlas and co-host Ken Rideout for a conversation about the rise of Barstool Sports, Portnoy's interest in boxing and the UFC, Barstool's Rough N Rowdy fights, Portnoy's interview with Donald Trump, the now legendary "One Bite" pizza reviews, the many contr…

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  • A combat sports news digest with all the headlines you need to know from Boxing and Mixed Martial Arts.

  • Highlights from the podcast and across the fight world.

  • Fight times and information you need to know ahead of time.

  • How to’s and tips for Boxing from Teddy himself.

Dave Portnoy of Barstool Sports joins Teddy Atlas and co-host Ken Rideout for a conversation about the rise of Barstool Sports, Portnoy's interest in boxing and the UFC, Barstool's Rough N Rowdy fights, Portnoy's interview with Donald Trump, the now legendary "One Bite" pizza reviews, the many contr…

Fight News From Around The 🌍

The Top Dog Does Down Under

The cruiserweight division has always been somewhat in the shadow of the heavier, flashier heavyweight division. It's great champions, such as Evander Holyfield, David Haye and most recently Oleksandr Usyk, use the division as a stepping stone to greater things at heavyweight.

That doesn't mean it's not a talented division in it's own right, and arguably it's best fighter right now fights this weekend on Australia's Gold Coast: Mairis Briedis.

His bizarre obsession with Jake Paul aside, IBF & The Ring champion Briedis is a real force to be reckoned with at 200lbs, and has a pedigree that is very hard to match.

He's a 3x champion at the weight, having beaten the likes of Marco Huck, Krzysztof Głowacki and Yuniel Dorticos (who were all champions at the time he beat them).

His only loss a professional was a very close majority decision loss to none other than the current unified heavyweight champ Oleksandr Usyk, back in 2018.

Despite his undeniable pedigree, Briedis hasn't really faced a competitive threat since he beat Dorticos back in 2020. His opponent Jai Opetaia is somewhat of a wild card, but he's not without strong attributes of his own.

He's a big, strong southpaw who is 10 years younger than Briedis. Skill wise he is not to be overlooked, as he qualified as Australia’s youngest-ever Olympic boxer at London 2012 and was a distinguished amateur, albeit in a region where the talent pool is considerably worse than in Europe.

That jump in talent that Opetaia is taking could be the key factor here. He hasn't faced anyone on Briedis' level yet, and whilst that doesn't mean that he can't make the jump, he'll be asked serious questions by the veteran champion that he's going to have to answer.

A win for the Aussie would shake up a fairly competitive division even further, and propel him towards great things by becoming only the second man to beat the Latvian as a professional.

Should Briedis retain his titles, it's likely that he'll pursue a long awaited unification with undefeated WBO champion Lawrence Okolie, with the winner being firmly considered THE man of the post-Usyk cruiserweight class.

But before that, he'll have to do the business down under.

UFC 276 Has Landed

Now this'll be good.

The UFC returns with another phenomenal PPV card, with middleweight king Israel Adesanya looking to make his 5th defence of his crown against the #1 contender Jared Cannonier in the main event.

The challenger faces a real uphill task in this one, and he'll have to find a way to compensate for the disparity in striking ability. The knockout is always a threat from a heavy hitter like Cannonier going for the knockout against an experienced striker like Izzy is a one way ticket to getting knocked out yourself.

Robert Whittaker and Marvin Vettori both scored four takedowns on Adesanya in separate middleweight title fights, and despite both of these being losing efforts, they were somewhat successful in highlighting how you don't need to be a particularly distinguished wrestler to be able to take Adesanya down.

Doing something with the takedown is a different matter however, and Cannonier will need to be productive and mix in some good grappling and/or ground strikes to be able to effectively score against the champ.

Having said all that, it's difficult to bet against a middleweight champion who has swatted away just about any challenge brought to him at the weight.

At 32, just entering the prime of his powers, Adesanya will feel he still has more to offer, not just at 185 lbs but perhaps even with another attempt at gold at the weight above (light heavyweight).

Cannonier is older (38), and hasn't displayed a particular skillset that could really trouble the champ, meaning this should be a successful defence of the title for "The Last Stylebender".

A title defence that is anything but straightforward is Alex Volkanovski's 4th of his featherweight crown, as he takes on former champion Max Holloway in the co-main event.

The fight will (possibly) conclude the trilogy between both men that has spanned back as far as 2019 when Volkanovski snatched the title from the then dominant Holloway, whose only loss in his 16 fights before that had been to Dustin Poirier at 155 lbs.

It's not Post-Volkanovski Holloway has been any less impressive. He's put on striking clinics in back to back fights against high level strikers Calvin Kattar and Yair Rodriguez. In both cases, there were elements where he was tested, but overall they served as showcases for just how good Holloway is compared to the rest of the division.

That is except for the champion.

Volkanovski will feel confident enough in his performance from the first two fights to be able to continue making the necessary adjustments needed to win decisively on Saturday.

In their previous two meetings, Holloway was out-struck by Volkanovski across significant strikes, total strikes, and striking accuracy, as well as being able to land more takedowns in the second fight.

He knows that another close fight, especially if he wins, will potentially lead to a further fight with Holloway, and he won't be in any mood to be leaving any more question marks over his reign as champion.

Max Holloway will also be looking to make adjustments in order to win his title back. He showed in the second fight that he can outperform Volkanovski for long stretches of the fight, and the template is there to hurt the champion on the feet.

However, he'll need to avoid the pitfalls of the inevitable takedowns attempts from Volk, as well as the dangerous inside striking and one punch power, if he's got any chance of "writing the wrongs" of their second meeting and making the trilogy 2-1 as opposed to a 3-0 three-peat.

Whatever happens, whether Volkanovski establishes himself as one of the best fighters in the world, or Max Holloway makes his long related await back to UFC glory, the fans are all in for a treat as this fight promises to live up to it's extraordinary expectations.

Greatest trilogy in UFC history incoming?

Fight ⏰ for this weekend

Boxing: Briedis vs Opetaia (Saturday 2nd/Sunday 3rd)

  • 🇺🇸 Full Card: 4:30am Eastern/ 1:30am Pacific | Main Event: 7am Eastern/ 4am Pacific

  • 🇬🇧 Full Card: 9:30am | Main Event: 12pm

  • 🇦🇺 Full Card: 6:30pm Eastern/ 4:30pm Western | Main Event: 9pm Eastern/ 7pm Western

UFC 276: Adesanya vs Cannonier (Saturday 2nd/Sunday 3rd)

  • 🇺🇸 Full Card: 10pm Eastern/ 7pm Pacific | Main Event: 12:30am Eastern/ 9:30pm Pacific

  • 🇬🇧 Full Card: 3am | Main Event: 5:30am

  • 🇦🇺 Full Card: 12pm Eastern/ 10am Western | Main Event: 2:30pm Eastern/ 12:30pm Western

Don't forget to tune in to the latest episode 🎧

Thanks for being with us and see you next week #BANG💥