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⚔️ Warriors Collide
The Fight Team
November 10, 2023
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 🌍
Jaron Ennis elevated to full IBF welterweight champion as Terence Crawford is stripped of his title.
Midweek World Title Fights
This weekend is quiet boxing wise, but Thursday 17th sees Shakur Stevenson look to become a 3 division champion as he takes on Edwin De Los Santos for the WBC lightweight title.
The co-header pits a former opponent of Stevenson, Robson Conceicao, against Emanuel Navarette for the latter’s WBO super featherweight crown.
Shakur and fellow undefeated lightweight contender Frank Martin were supposedly locked in to fight several months ago, but the two camps failed to come to terms.
In stepped De Los Santos, who despite having a loss on his record, is a very tough and awkward southpaw who many a touting to be Stevenson’s biggest test yet.
Given Shakur rarely loses rounds, it’ll be interesting to see just how much of a test De Los Santos can be for the talented Newark fighter. At a certain point, as all the greats are, he’ll have to be tested in some way.
Time will tell if Thursday will be that first real moment of truth for him, but his generational talent will more than likely be on display for all to see at the T-Mobile Arena in Vegas.
The Naverette - Conceicao fight could be just a bit more interesting as a contest, with Conceicao having the edge when it comes to pure boxing ability, and Navarette being the more aggressive and powerful of the two.
Conceicao will have to really up his game compared to his impressive, but ultimately too conservative approach against Oscar Valdez a couple years in order to come away with a world title on his third attempt.
Navarette, who is very rarely in a boring fight, will be looking to cement his position as the dominant 130 lbs fighter with a win over a very solid contender and Olympic gold medallist.
Fun fact: Shakur Stevenson has the 2nd lowest opponents total connect % in boxing, after Dmitry Bivol. (per Compubox)
Guaranteed Striking Action
On Saturday night, live from Madison Square Garden in New York City, two of the most talented and vicious strikers in the UFC will face off for the vacant Light Heavyweight Championship at UFC 295.
Former champion Jiri Prochazka, who had to vacate due to a shoulder injury, will take on the former middleweight king Alex “Poatan” Pereira, who will be fighting for only the second time at 205 lbs.
Much like when Pereira fought his arch rival Israel Adesanya, there won’t be much ground work to worry about here, as these are two ultra sophisticated strikers with years of experience in kickboxing between them.
Prochazka will be looking to show the world the extent of his talents, given he never actually lost the title in the octagon. A win here would cement him as the top 205 lbs fighter in the organisation and truly kickstart what could be a new dominant title reign in the division formerly dominated by a certain Jon Jones.
Pereira will feel much the same. He handily beat former champion Jan Blachowicz back in the summer, and will back himself to be able to become the first UFC fighter to have won both the middleweight and light heavyweight titles.
Countless fight fans wanted to witness the spectacle of Jon Jones and Stipe Miocic sharing the Octagon together at Madison Square Garden, but Sergei Pavlovich vs Tom Aspinall for the interim title is still a fantastic fight between a pair of great heavyweight talents and another example of fantastic UFC last minute matchmaking.
Pavlovich has largely run through all of his opponents since coming up short in his UFC debut against Alistair Overeem, while Aspinall rebounded nicely from his serious knee injury when he returned to beat Marcin Tybura in July.
A win for either man here makes them the undeniable top contender for Jon Jones when he returns from his chest injury. Where that leaves original opponent and former champ Stipe Miocic isn’t as clear cut, but that’ll be a problem for another night.
Saturday night, a new #1 challenger to the pound for pound king will be crowned, and we’re excited to see who it’ll be.
Fight ⏰ for this weekend
Boxing: Stevenson vs De Los Santos (Thursday 17th/Friday 18th)
🇺🇸 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
MMA: UFC 295 (Saturday 11th/Sunday 12th)
🇺🇸 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