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👑 Coming For The Great
👑 Coming For The Great
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 Comeback Kid
Texas native O’Shaquie Foster will defend his junior lightweight WBC title against Puerto Rico’s Abraham “Super” Nova tonight at the Theatre at Madison Square Garden, 4 months on from his sensational comeback KO against Rocky Hernandez.
Although it was one of the best fights of 2023 (Round 11 is one of the most entertaining rounds you’ll ever watch), Foster won’t necessarily want a repeat of his performance tonight.
Going into the decisive final round, he was down on 2 of the 3 judge’s scorecards. Had he not pulled the stoppage off, he would have lost his title by split decision in only his first defense.
Nova, in his first world title shot, will want to end Foster’s reign there, staking his claim in a stacked junior lightweight/super-featherweight division.
On paper at least, he’s a tougher opponent than Hernandez was supposed to be, with his only career loss being to 2x Olympic gold medallist and former WBO champion Robeisy Ramirez.
Before running into the hard-hitting Cuban, he was 21-0 and seemingly on track for world title honours, with good wins over Avery Sparrow and Adam Lopez under his belt.
He’s since bounced back with two fairly straightforward wins, but now he’s being propelled back to to world level, he’ll have to step it up and show that the Ramirez loss was just a blip.
The nature of the champ’s last win will have served as a healthy reminder of just how tough it is to keep hold of a world title once you’ve won it, and Nova will look to follow suit with another worthy challenge tonight.
It should be a lot closer than the oddsmakers have it.
Fight Odds
It’s All About Confidence
The UFC heads to Anaheim, California tomorrow for UFC 298, headlined by a featherweight superfight as the dominant champion, Alexander Volkanovski, faces the rising Georgian-Spanish star, Ilia Topuria.
“El Matador” is a perfect 6-0 since crossing over from Brave FC back in 2019, having finished all but 2 opponents throughout his professional career.
His Greco-Roman wrestling background mixed with crisp and effective boxing makes him a well-rounded and dangerous fighter, not too dissimilar to the man that he’ll be facing tomorrow night.
Confidence though, might be his biggest X-factor.
Throughout the buildup and media commitments, he has maintained the belief that he will dethrone Volkanovski to become UFC featherweight champion.
Whether that’s claiming the belt early, or self-proclaiming himself champion even before the fight was announced, it has set off comparisons to a pre-Aldo Conor McGregor, another fight defined by the challengers’ supreme confidence.
But whilst he is very good, is he good enough to become the first featherweight in the UFC to defeat Alexander “The Great” Volkanovski?
Volk is a phenomenal striker, a world-class grappler and can more than rival his challenger on self-belief, having taken not one but two late-notice fights against Islam Makhachev (arguably winning the first one in many people’s eyes).
He has defeated 3 of the current top 5 of his division and has etched his name into not just the history of the featherweight division, but the sport as a whole.
Topuria may have age on his side as well as undeniable talent, but even at 35 years old Volk remains the real deal at 145 lbs, and it will take the performance of a lifetime from the challenger to end his historic run at the top of the division.
Will the younger Matador tame the ageing champion, or will Volkanovski remind us again just how great he is?
We can’t wait to find out.
Fight Odds
Also On The Card
Rob Whittaker vs. Paulo Costa (185 lbs)
Henry Cejudo vs. Merab Dvalishvili (135 lbs)
Ian Garry vs. Geoff Neal (170 lbs)
Anthony Hernandez vs. Roman Kopylov (185 lbs)
Fight ⏰ for this weekend
Boxing: Foster vs Nova (Friday 16th/Saturday 17th)
🇺🇸 Full Card: 9pm Eastern/ 6pm Pacific | Main Event: 11pm Eastern/ 8pm Pacific
🇬🇧 Full Card: 2am | Main Event: 4am
🇦🇺 Full Card: 1pm Eastern/ 10am Western | Main event: 3pm Eastern/ 12pm Western
MMA: UFC 298 (Saturday 17th/Sunday 18th)
🇺🇸 Full Card: 10pm Eastern/7pm Pacific | Main Event: 12am Eastern/9pm Pacific
🇬🇧 Full Card: 3am | Main Event: 5am
🇦🇺 2pm Eastern/ 11am Western | Main event: 4pm Eastern/ 1pm Western