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🇬🇧 The Brits Are Back
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.
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Fight times and information you need to know ahead of time.
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Derek’s Last Dance?
Tomorrow night in London, heavyweight veteran and fan favourite Derek “War” Chisora will take what is likely one final roll of the dice when he squares off against former WBO interim champion and Olympic silver medallist Joe Joyce over 12 rounds.
Chisora’s blown hot and cold in these twilight years of his career, with victories over Gerald Washington and Kubrat Pulev showing the quality he still has even at his advanced age. These wins though, have also been accompanied by decisive losses scattered throughout, such as a recent KO loss to Tyson Fury and a comprehensive beatdown at the hands of Joseph Parker.
Whilst not many will dispute that his time as a contender is very much over, Chisora remains one of the most popular fighters on the scene thanks to his all-action style and commitment to always give 100%. Fans and promoters alike love him for this, and as long as he decides to remain active, there will always be fights for him, winnable or not.
Whether this coming fight is winnable is a very interesting question.
On the face of it Joyce, whilst only 2 years younger than Chisora, is the bigger and fresher fighter of the two, understandably placing him as the favourite.
Like Chisora, he’s coming into the fight fresh off of a win, a 10th-round stoppage of UK heavyweight Kash Ali.
Despite getting the win, he looked a far cry away from the destructive Joe Joyce that powered his way to touching distance of a heavyweight world title, before a certain Zhilei Zhang got in the way (twice).
Chisora is not the sort of fighter you want to face with any sort of confidence issues, so it’ll be interesting to see whether we get a return to the version of Joe Joyce that was steamrolling through the division or if we see a version that is starting to hit his ceiling as a professional heavyweight.
In the case of the former, Joyce should have enough quality and power to see off a tough but very war-torn Chisora.
If it’s the latter, we could see Derek Chisora spring up an upset and have a fairy tale ending to a long career.
Better Late Than Never
The UFC returns to the UK tomorrow night, as Leon Edwards and Belal Muhammed meet in a rematch for Edward’s welterweight championship, live from Manchester.
Their first meeting back in March 2021 ended prematurely due to an accidental eye poke from Edwards in the second round.
An immediate rematch never materialised, and in the 3 years since each man has worked their way up to the top of the pile at 170 lbs.
Edwards has now defended his championship on multiple occasions, showing no signs of slowing down as he continues his march towards his ultimate aim: GOAT status at welterweight.
Considering the stiff competition for that title, he can’t afford a slip-up against Belal, who has been one of the most in-form fighters across any weight class in the last few years.
He comes into this fight having not lost since January 2019, winning 9 on the bounce since that loss to Geoff Neal. He will feel that no one has more of a right to challenge Edwards for the crown than he does, and he’ll need that attitude to work alongside his undeniable talent to dethrone of the UFC’s pound-for-pound best.
The main event isn’t the only rematch of a fight that was cut way too short.
The co-main event will see interim Heavyweight champion Tom Aspinall defend his title against Curtis “Razor” Blaydes over 5 rounds.
Blaydes “technically” holds a TKO win over Aspinall, owing to the Brit suffering a devastating knee injury 15 seconds into the very first round.
It robbed us of what would have been, and thankfully now promises to be, a great matchup. Aspinall the slick striker with world-class grappling up against one of the most accomplished and effective wrestlers the heavyweight division of the UFC has ever seen.
An interim title win for Blaydes would skyrocket him towards big things in a division where he’s always seemed to be just on the cusp of a shot at the big time but has never quite made the jump (yet).
Aspinall’s two fights since his injury have been quick 1st round stoppages, the second of which (against Sergei Pavlovich) secured him the interim strap. If he can tap into that same devastating effectiveness on the feet, mixed in with his superb finishing instincts, we could be in for another quick night’s work for the Brit.
Rest Of The Card
Bobby Green vs. Paddy Pimblett
Arnold Allen vs. Giga Chikadze
Nathaniel Wood vs. Daniel Pineda
Molly Mccann vs. Bruna Brasil
Teddy’s Top Picks
Fight ⏰ for this weekend
Boxing: Joyce vs Chisora (Saturday 27th/Sunday 28th)
🇺🇸 Full Card: 2pm Eastern/ 11am Pacific | Main Event: 5pm Eastern/ 2pm Pacific
🇬🇧 Full Card: 7pm| Main Event: 10pm
🇦🇺 Full Card: 4am Eastern/ 2am Western | Main event: 7am Eastern/ 5am Western
MMA: UFC 305 (Saturday 27th/Sunday 28th)
🇺🇸 Full Card: 10pm Eastern/7pm Pacific | Main Event: 12am Eastern/9pm Pacific
🇬🇧 Full Card: 3am | Main Event: 5am
🇦🇺 Full Card: 12pm Eastern/ 10am Western | Main event: 2pm Eastern/ 12pm Western