🥊 Someone's "0" Has To Go

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 the past weekend of fights with the full UFC277 main card and the Showtime card with Danny Garcia vs. Jose Benavidez as the headliner. Teddy and Ken also discuss the cancelled fight of Jake Paul vs Hasim Rahman Jr.

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  • 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 🌍

Dallas...Do We Have A Problem?

Vergil Ortiz is one of the only boxers in the world to have a 100% KO ratio.

The powerful welterweight will be looking to extend his career-long knockout streak even further by knocking out British contender Mikey McKinson on Saturday night.

Almost exactly a year ago, the 24 year old Texan was in action against "Mean Machine" Kavaliauskas, stopping him in 8 rounds in what was, up to then, his toughest test on paper.

McKinson presents a very different type of proposition to anyone Ortiz has faced up to now, and as his "Problem" nickname suggests, it may involve a lot of thinking and calibration.

A natural southpaw, McKinson boasts good movement and use of angles to land punches, as well as educated footwork to get in and out of the danger zone.

It's quite hard to land flush punches on him and he's one of those fighters that it's hard to "look" good against. Evidently, since he is also undefeated, he's never really had anyone look that good against him anyway.

As Ortiz himself will no well, undefeated status comes with pressure, and McKinson harbours title aspirations of his own, meaning he will be in no mood to come and elevate Ortiz's profile and send him on his way to a title shot.

The fight was originally scheduled to happen in March, but Ortiz had to pull out due to a serious rhabdomyolysis diagnosis during camp.

The gap in time between his last outing and now will mean he will have been out of the ring for a year, which at his age is far from ideal.

Having said this, you get the feeling, that despite the potential banana peel in front of him, Ortiz Jr should have enough in the locker to see this one out.

His forward pressure and ability to cut the ring off has developed hugely in the last 2 years, and even though it could take him longer to get going against a well prepared McKinson, his freak power will certainly play a factor as the fight drags on.

One thing is outboxing domestic level competitors, another is outboxing a young, strong prospect contender who has knocked out every man he's been in the ring with. Combine that with the fact that McKinson lacks the kind of power to gain Ortiz's respect (2 KOs in 22 wins), and the writing could be on the wall for the Brit come the second half of the fight.

A victory here for either man creates a prime opportunity to fight for a welterweight title, especially as it seems that win or lose, both Spence vs Crawford parties will be departing the division following their superfight.

That makes this fight a tremendous opportunity to assert dominance and the definitive next generation 147 lbs fighter, and Ortiz Jr has all the ingredients to slot nicely into that role and eventually challenge for complete dominance of the weight class.

Sweet Dreams For Santos?

Thiago Santos and Jamahal Hill meet at the intersection of the UFC light heavyweight top 10 on Saturday night as they headline a UFC Fight Night at the Apex in Las Vegas.

It was only three years ago (time flies) that Thiago Santos nearly dethroned the seemingly unbeatable Jon Jones for the UFC light heavyweight championship. The Brazilian tore ligaments in both his knees that night and required a long layoff and recovery.

The split decision loss to then champion Jones snapped a four-fight winning streak that included a TKO win over former champ Jan Blachowicz and Jimi Manuwa, and instead kickstarted the 1-4 run he now finds himself on, with losses to top contenders like Rakic and Ankalaev.

A quick glance at their recent history presents the view that Hill is on the rise and Santos is on his way out, but the UFC just doesn't do guarantees when it comes to fighter narratives.

Santos's 4 losses in the last three years are against two world champions (Jones and Glover Teixeira) and two bona fide title challengers (Rakic and Ankalaev). The Jones fight was the last time we really saw the destructive and dangerous Santos that had powered his way into the top 5 all time UFC Knockouts list across 2 different weight classes.

Since then, he's been a shadow of his former self, even in his sole recent victory against Johnny Walker last year.

Hill, by contrast, is explosive and throws caution to the wind when he enters the octagon. Both light heavyweights wield fight-ending power, but Hill is the one who has really put it to use in recent outings, such as in his sickening KO of the aforementioned Walker in February.

Having knocked out all but 1 of his UFC opponents in his wins, it looks like Hill is being placed to move on to bigger and better things, whilst Santos gets ushered into retirement.

He's physically a very light 205 pounder, and has a very unorthodox yet fluid striking style that is hard to prepare for, especially for a less mobile fighter like Santos at this stage of his career.

But the Brazilian's losses have come up against high level opposition, and Hill is by no means infallible, having been TKO'd by the tricky but limited Paul Craig as recently as 2021.

This is a noticeable step up in competition for Hill, and any overlooking of Santos could prove costly for any title ambitions he may have in the next 12-18 months.

As fellow Brazilian veteran Glover Teixeira showed, you can never count out an older Light Heavyweight, and Thiago Santos will be looking to tap into his compatriots storyline to be able to get back in the W column and back towards one last shot at gold.

Fight ⏰ for this weekend

Boxing: Ortiz Jr vs McKinson (Saturday 6th/Sunday 7th)

  • 🇺🇸 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

UFC: Santos vs Hill (Saturday 6th/Sunday 7th)

  • 🇺🇸 Full Card: 10pm Eastern/ 7pm Pacific | Main Event: 12am Eastern/ 10pm Pacific

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

  • 🇦🇺 Full Card: 12pm Eastern/ 10am Western | Main Event: 2pm Eastern/ 12pm Western

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