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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.
Every Friday We Bring You:
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.
Fight News From Around The 🌍
The Best Against The Best
Fights in the lower weight classes often suffer from under-promotion, with promoters and media focusing on the more lucrative heavier divisions and neglecting “the little guys”.
The buildup for Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez vs Sunny “Showtime” Edwards has been a welcome exception.
In one of the most highly anticipated fights of the year, both Rodriguez and Edwards will hope to unify the WBO and IBF flyweight titles tomorrow.
Less than 9 months after vacating his WBC super flyweight title, Bam was thrown into a firefight against Cristian Gonzalez for the vacant WBO flyweight title, which he won via decision this past April.
The Texan showed true fighting spirit, fighting through a broken jaw to become one of the youngest two division champions in recent history at only 23 year old.
Sunny Edwards won’t be awed by Bam’s rising stock over the last few years.
Since capturing the IBF title in 2021, the Brit has barely lost a round during his 4 successful defenses and he’s not lacking in confidence in his ability to continue to dominate the division.
Now he’s making his big splash across the pond, he’ll be eager to show American audience’s what his version of “Showtime” looks like.
Whilst he may not have the punching power, he definitely has the talent to entertain and rise to the level of his opposition in front of him.
Two undefeated champions who are both under 30 and willing to put it all on the line for a shot at greatness.
This is the very best of elite championship boxing, and we can’t wait to see which one of these super talented fighters comes out on top tomorrow night.
What to look for in the fight:
Cut it out. Edwards may be the better boxer overall, but he shouldn’t underestimate how patient and calculating Bam is with his footwork. He’s a master at cutting off angles and moving his opponents gradually to where he wants them.
Power. Sunny’s 4 KOs in 20 fights indicate a distinct lack of power. Bam on the other hand, is a natural super flyweight and holds more than respectable power. In a real 50/50 match up talent wise, power could be the edge.
Fight Odds
Time To Wrap Things Up
The UFC closes out another successful year with one of the most talent heavy cards in recent times, headlined by a welterweight title fight between Leon “Rocky” Edwards and Colby “Chaos” Covington.
Edwards is coming into his second title defense off the back of yet another victory against Kamaru Usman.
The first time around he showed the world that he had the resilience to hang on until the very end, pulling off one of the most dramatic late knockouts in recent memory.
In his last outing, he dug deep and matched Usman across all 5 rounds, doing enough on the judges scorecards to remain champion and close out their trilogy 2-1.
He cemented himself as the champ, and a victory against a challenger like Covington could kickstart a real title reign.
Whilst he hasn’t enjoyed the success Leon has against the former champ, Covington will still be confident that now, on his third attempt at UFC gold, he has what it takes to get the welterweight title to change hands yet again.
He’s brought his usual brand of trash talk to fight week, bringing eyeballs to a contest that is already interesting from a fight perspective, but now also has a personal element to it.
Away from trash talk, Covington remains a very dangerous welterweight. His constant forward pressure and takedown threats will keep Leon guessing, and at 35 years old, time isn’t exactly on his side here if he’s to finally become a fully fledged champ.
Whatever you think of Covington’s “persona”, there’s no publicity like bad publicity, and UFC 296 as a card will benefit from all of this hype, as well as the fact that it’s a really high quality card in terms of match ups.
Also On The Card:
Alexandre Pantoja vs. Brandon Royval 125 lbs title fight
Shavkat Rakhmonov vs. Stephen Thompson 170 lbs
Tony Ferguson vs. Paddy Pimblett 155 lbs
Josh Emmett vs Bryce Mitchell 145 lbs
Don’t Take Our Word For It
Check out the clip below from this weeks episode to get Teddy’s prediction for the main event.
Fight Odds
Fight ⏰ for this weekend
Boxing: Rodriguez vs Edwards (Saturday 16th/Sunday 17th)
🇺🇸 Full Card: 9pm Eastern/ 6pm Pacific | Main Event: 11pm Eastern/ 8pm Pacific
🇬🇧 Full Card: 2am | Main Event: 4am
🇦🇺 Full Card: 11am Eastern/ 9am Western | Main event: 1pm Eastern/ 11am Western
MMA: UFC 296 (Saturday 16th/Sunday 17th)
🇺🇸 Full Card: 10pm Eastern/ 7pm Pacific | Main Event: 12am Eastern/ 9pm Pacific
🇬🇧 Full Card: 3am | Main Event: 5am
🇦🇺 Full Card: 2pm Eastern/ 12pm Western | Main event: 4pm Eastern/ 2pm Western