🥊 Small But Mighty

June 24, 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 breakdown Artur Beterbiev's impressive TKO of Joe Smith Jr along with the UFC's Josh Emmett win over Calvin Kattar. They also cover the announced heavyweight title fight of Anthony Joshua vs Oleksandr Usyk rematch set for August 20. Teddy and Ken connect with Boxi…

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 🌍

A Step Up Or A Step Too Far?

Jesse "Bam" Rodriguez was supposed to be in over his head when he faced Carlos Cuadras in February.

When WBC champion Carlos Cuadras’ opponent, Srisaket Sor Rungvisai, had to pull out because of illness, Rodriguez agreed to move up two weight classes to 115 to take on the Mexican veteran.

He tore up the script and dominated the 2x champion, dropping him on the way to winning a unanimous decision, making him boxings youngest active world champion (22).

On Saturday, as the main event of a DAZN Fight Card, Rodriguez faces the man whose injury paved the way for his career defining moment.

In Rungvisai, he is facing a fighter whose pedigree is difficult to match in the lower divisions. He's a multiple time super-flyweight champion, with wins over Chocolatito Gonzalez and Juan Francisco Estrada, whose only loss in the last 8 years was a closely contested rematch with Estrada.

He’s also a very big 115 lbers, which could be a crucial factor against the naturally smaller Rodriguez, who jumped up 2 divisions from light-flyweight to win the WBC strap.

The younger champions fleet footedness and speed could serve him very well against the at times flat-footed Rungvisai, but the power advantage certainly lies with the the former champion, who has 43 knockouts for 50 wins as a professional.

Considering how impressive Bam was against Cuadras at such short notice, it would be foolish to bet against him going into this one with a full camp and analysis of his opponent.

But the quality of opponent has changed, and whilst we may be witnessing the beginning of the rise of a future P4P star, there would be no shame at all in falling short against the Thai veteran.

Youth vs Experience. Speed vs Power.

Who says the smaller divisions aren't exciting?

Unified super bantamweight champion Murodjon Akhmadaliev will be looking to cement his reputation as a dominant world champion when he defends his WBA ‘super’ and IBF super bantamweight titles against Ronny Rios on the undercard.

Akhmadaliev won the belts in a split decision triumph over Daniel Roman in 2019, and has defended twice, stopping Ryosuke Iwasa in five last April, before widely outscoring Jose Velasquez in November.

An undisputed title clash with unified WBC and WBO champion, Stephen Fulton is the ultimate aim, with the winner of that one staking a real claim for pound for pound recognition in what has historically been quite an under-appreciated division.

Lightweight Prospects Clash

In MMA, unlike in boxing, losses rarely end up defining a fighter's career path. In some cases, they even raise your overall stock in the sport and can act as a sign of your quality.

Arman Tsarukyan can count himself amongst this category, after he announced himself as a future lightweight contender on his UFC debut against a certain Islam Makhachev.

Only 21 at the time, he gave can excellent account for himself and even managed to take him esteemed wrestler down. Despite being outpointed and outfought in the end, there is no shame in losing valiantly on your debut against such a high calibre opponent.

Now, in his first UFC main event, he'll be looking to break past the label of prospect and into full blown contender.

Standing in his way is another hungry young lightweight Mateusz Gamrot. He also lost his debut, against the talented Guram Kutateladze, albeit by a much slimmer verdict than Tsarukyan lost his. His comeback trail since has included a submission of Jeremy Stephens, and his streak of finishes since have rewarded him with a #12 ranking in what is arguably the UFC's most competitive division.

Both are high level grapplers, with Tsarukyan being the stronger wrestler and Gamrot being the more accomplished jiu-jitsu practitioner.

Tsarukyan will try and dictate the tempo and range with his wrestling, eventually looking to secure takedowns. As well as being a skilled grappler, Gamrot has 2 knockouts in his last 3 wins, and carries good power in his striking. Should he be able to negate Tsarukyan's wrestling, he could look to out-strike his younger opponent.

These two aren't the highest profile lightweights, but what they lack for in star power, they certainly make up for in talent.

Don't sleep on this one.

Fight ⏰ for this weekend

Boxing: Rodriguez vs Rungvisai (Saturday 25th/Sunday 26th)

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

  • 🇬🇧 Full Card: 1am | Main Event: 4am

  • 🇦🇺 Full Card: 10am Eastern/ 8am Western | Main Event: 1pm Eastern/ 11am Western

UFC: Tsarukyan vs Gamrot (Saturday 25th/Sunday 26th)

  • 🇺🇸 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

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

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