👑 King Of The Middleweights

February 11, 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.

Teddy Atlas and co-host Ken Rideout discuss the weekend of fights with UFC Fight Night of Strickland vs Hermansson along with the PBC Fox PPV of Thurman vs Barrios in boxing. They also discuss the current effort to cancel Joe Rogan over racial comments, and the upcoming UFC 271 event with Adesanya v…

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 tos and tips for Boxing from Teddy himself

Fight News From Around The 🌍

The Miracle Man Seeks Another Title

Danny Jacobs wasn't meant to be here.

The "Miracle Man" was told he'd never walk again following a cancer diagnosis early into his career. Fighting was completely off the table.

Fast forward to 2022, and the man has become a 2x world champion in one of boxings most talented divisions (middleweight). He's headlined pay-per-view events and taken the likes of Canelo and GGG the distance, with a few even arguing he did enough to win in both.

Now, he seeks 3x glory in a second weight division, Super Middleweight, where the aforementioned Canelo could soon scatter titles across to be fought for.

The man in front of him won't be familiar to US audiences, but across the pond, boxing fans know John Ryder is a tough night for any top contender at 168 lbs.

In the eyes of many, he did enough to beat then champion and consensus number 1 in the division Callum Smith back in 2019, and this chance against another big name could be his opportunity to claim what was arguably stolen from him that night: a win against a marquee name at Super Middleweight.

At face value, the stakes seem low here. Neither man is the obvious candidate for a title fight next, not least whilst Canelo holds all of the belts.

But when you start to ask the question: what does a loss do to either man?

That's when things get more interesting.

Jacobs has looked lacklustre in his last few outings above 160lbs, against Julio Cesar Chavez Jr and Gabe Rosado. At 35 years of age, this could be his last chance to salvage a run towards a third world title.

A loss against Ryder would likely mean a rebuilding process that father time won't allow him at this stage of his career.

A loss for Ryder wouldn't be anything of note, especially since his stock seemed to rise higher than ever following a loss to Smith.

It would however, send the message that making that jump to world level, is a stretch to far for the London man.

3 of his 5 losses have been against current or former world champions, and if that were to become 4 in 6, it could relegate him back down to domestic level.

Revenge Or Repeat?

Recipients of 2nd round KO losses typically don't get rematches.

Robert Whittaker, over 2020 and 2021, has been impossible to ignore however.

He is riding a 3 fight win streak, each against top contenders in the division. A loss against any of them would have seriously dented his chances of securing a rematch against his Kiwi rival, but the former champ emerged victorious, and perhaps more importantly, looked good in victory.

During Robert Whittaker's rise back up the ranks, Adesanya has made 3 successful defences of the crown he earned by knocking out Whittaker back in October 2019.

With the exception of the KO win against Costa (even that one being very one sided), his defences have been fairly pedestrian, cruising to decisions against Yoel Romero and Marvin Vettori.

His move up to Light Heavyweight was anything but pedestrian.

In moving up to challenge the recently crowned Jan Blachowicz, Adesanya suffered the first defeat of his Mixed Martial Arts career, succumbing to a close but ultimately decisive unanimous decision.

There's been a lot of talk in the build-up of Blachowicz having set the "template" for dethroning Adesanya from his throne.

Being conservative on the feet, then take him down to the mat and keep him there.

Very easy to type out on a keyboard or say in a press conference, very hard to do in practice, especially when size and weight aren't necessarily in your favour.

It'll be fascinating to see if this talk of wrestling has been a form of double bluff, where Whittaker is conning his opponent into expecting a completely different game plan to what he actually delivers.

Given the nature of the knockout last time out, going back to a stand-up first strategy would be brave, but there's a good chance "Bobby Knuckles" knows something we do not.

Fight Companion & Teddy's Prediction

As we alluded to, the key to the fight this weekend could lie back in the first fight, as opposed to looking into Adesanya's performance at Light Heavyweight.

Teddy and Ken take a look at the first fight between the two and what it tells us about what will go down in the rematch.

Fight ⏰ for this weekend

Boxing: (Saturday 12th/Sunday 13th)

  • 🇺🇸 Full Card: 10pm Eastern/ am Pacific | Main Event: 12:15pm Eastern/ 9:15pm Pacific

  • 🇬🇧 Full Card: 7pm | Main Event: 10:15pm 

  • 🇦🇺 Full Card: 6am Eastern/ 3am Western | Main Event: 9:15am Eastern/ 6:15am Western

UFC: Adesanya vs Whittaker (Saturday 12th/Sunday 13th)

  • 🇺🇸 Full Card: 8pm Eastern/ 5pm Pacific | Main Event: 11pm Eastern/ 8pm Pacific

  • 🇬🇧 Full Card: 3am | Main Event: 5:15am 

  • 🇦🇺 Full Card: 2pm Eastern/ 11am Western | Main Event: 4:15pm Eastern/ 1:15pm Western

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

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