🥊 UFC 280 Preview

October 21, 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 the past weekend of fights with Claressa Shields beating Savannah Marshall, Devin Haney beating George Kambosos in rematch, Caleb Plant knocking out Anthony Dirrell, and Deontay Wilder returning to the ring with a big knockout of Robert Helenius.

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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 🌍

News curated by Sean Mahendran

Lightweight Legacy & More

On Saturday, the UFC returns to the familiar location of Abu Dhabi for one of the most hotly anticipated PPV events in recent memory.

Charles "Do Bronx" Oliveira looks to reclaim the Lightweight crown he held up until the tail end of last year, before he was stripped for missing weight by half a pound before his 1st round submission of Justin Gaethje.

Islam Makhachev will look to equal his opponents current win streak (11) by beating him for the crown that many have felt he has been destined to hold since the retirement of Khabib, who will be in Islam's corner when the cage doors shut at the Etihad Arena.

Charles is riding an impressive win streak and is only 2 fights away from Andrei Arlovski's record for total wins in the UFC. Adding that to his already record number of submissions and total finishes will make for quite the MMA resume.

Islam on the other hand, will want to live up to the title of Khabib's heir apparent and prove the critics wrong in terms of finally beating a top 5 ranked opponent, giving him a notable scalp to go alongside his undeniable talent.

What to look for in the fight:

  1. Submission geography. Both fighters are exceptional grapplers, but will be looking to submit each other from different vantage points. Oliveira will look for submissions off of Islam's takedown attempts whilst Makhachev will be looking to establish top control and go for Charles' back.

  2. Clinch work. A lot of work is likely to be done up against the cage as Islam looks to maul Oliveira and eventually control him on the mat. Look for inside striking and hand control from the former champion and inside leg trips from the Dagestani challenger.

Odds (Courtesy of MyBookie.Ag)

Oliveira +141

Makhachev -181

After a 2 year long suspension and a razor close comeback win over Cory Sandhagen, TJ Dillashaw looks to make history and become the UFCs first ever 3x bantamweight champion. If he does so, he'd join all time greats GSP and Amanda Nunes as the only other champions to ever do a three-peat of individual title wins.

Standing in his way is current champion Aljamain Sterling, who is fresh off of a career best win against the heavily favoured Petr Yan. It was a calculated performance, as he neutralised the Russians striking advantages and kept the fight where he wanted it for the most part.

A win against TJ will give him a marquee name as his 2nd title defence, but it won't come easy. Dillashaw has been there and done that across 5 rounds since 2014, often at an elite pace. Whilst he may be closer to 40, his talent is undeniable and should Sterling prevail, it'll have to be well earned.

What to look for in the fight:

  1. Takedowns. Dillashaw's takedown defence is phenomenal, with Dominick Cruz being the only person to be able to get him to the mat. Sterlings game relies on him being able to establish his takedown rhythm. Should that get broken, the striking advantage lies firmly with Dillashaw.

  2. Inactivity. Dillashaw came through a very difficult knee injury in the Sandhagen fight. Add that to the fact he hasn't fought for over a year (after 2 years out beforehand) and it could spell trouble for him.

And that's not all when it comes to bantamweights, as former champion Petr Yan takes on Sean O'Malley in a scheduled 3 round fight.

This fight could either be the "Petr Yan comeback fight" on his trail back towards championship gold, or the "Sean O'Malley statement fight" as he looks to make the same push towards gold, shedding his status as an up and comer and becoming an elite bantamweight.

Yan's back to back defeats to Sterling were blips in an otherwise devastatingly effective UFC run which saw him pick up wins against top bantamweights such as Cory Sandhagen, Jose Aldo and Jimmie Rivera.

Even in his first DQ loss to Sterling, there were signs that he was on his way to another stoppage win before his illegal knee.

O'Malley doesn't have the same scalps on his record, with his best wins coming against the likes of Raulian Paiva and Kris Moutinho. However, if you look beyond the resume, stylistically he has the ingredients to score what would be a minor upset against the former champion.

What to look for in the fight:

  1. Reach. O'Malley has a four-inch advantage in height and five-inch advantage in reach over Yan. Should he be able to keep him on the end of his jab and avoid any significant damage from Yan's leg kicks, he could win a decision across the 3 rounds.

  2. Yan's feints. Yan is one of the crispest, most educated boxers on the entire UFC roster, and a lot of his success comes from his use of feints and dummy punches to set up his real power shots. Look for him to lay traps for O'Malley on the feet that could lead to the bigger man falling.

Other great fights to not miss:

  1. Beneil Dariush vs. Mateusz Gamrot

  2. Belal Muhammed vs Sean Brady

  3. Nikita Krylov vs Volkan Oezdemir

Fight ⏰ for this weekend

UFC 280 (Saturday 22nd/Sunday 23rd)

  • 🇺🇸 Full Card: 2pm Eastern/ 11am Pacific | Main Event: 4pm Eastern/ 1pm Pacific

  • 🇬🇧 Full Card: 7pm | Main Event: 9pm

  • 🇦🇺 Full Card: 5am Eastern/ 3am Western | Main Event: 7am Eastern/ 5am Western

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

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