GDT: UFC 275: Teixeira vs. Prochazka

[MMC]

Date: June 11, 2022
Venue: Singapore Indoor Stadium
City: Kallang, Singapore
Time: 10 pm ET/7 pm PT
Viewing: PPV

MAIN CARD (PPV)

Light Heavyweight Championship bout: Glover Teixeira (c) vs. Jiri Prochazka
Women's Flyweight Championship bout: Valentina Shevchenko (c) vs. Taila Santos
Women's Strawweight bout: Zhang Weili vs. Joanna Jedrzejczyk
Flyweight bout: Rogerio Bontorin vs. Manel Kape
Welterweight bout: Jack Della Maddalena vs. Ramazan Emeev

PRELIMINARY CARD (ESPN, TSN 5)

Middleweight bout: Jacob Malkoun vs. Brendan Allen
Featherweight bout: Seung Woo Choi vs. Joshua Culibao
Lightweight bout: Steve Garcia vs. Hayisaer Maheshate
Welterweight bout: Jake Matthews vs. Andre Fialho

EARLY PRELIMINARY CARD (ESPN+, UFC Fight Pass)

Bantamweight bout: Kang Kyung-ho vs. Danaa Batgerel
Woman's Strawweight bout: Liang Na vs. Silvana Gomez Juarez
Women's Featherweight bout: Ramona Pascual vs. Joselyne Edwards​

Click to read more...

 

[m9]

I know UFC 274 was only a month ago, but we've had 3 straight ESPN cards that have all been fairly weak so it feels like forever to me since we've had some relevant MMA. Unfortunately I won't be able to catch all of this live. Don't think I'm missing much on those early prelims, but Matthews/Fialho is a good fight on the prelims.

Bontorin/Kape then Weili/Joanna is as action-packed as you'll see in back-to-back fights.

I was pretty excited when Shevchenko/Santos got announced because I've liked what I've seen from Santos so far. As we get closer though. I'm sure it will be another systematic win for the champ.

On the opposite side, originally I thought Jiri would just smash Glover. I've kind of warmed to the possibility of Glover winning though. There's an obvious path to him winning either on the ground or against the cage.

To me though, the fight I can't get of my head is Glover v Gus. Glover looked so slow and unable to do anything against Gus's varied footwork & angles and I think Jiri should be able to do the same. And sure that fight was 5 years ago.. but I'm not sure that's a selling point in Glover's favor as he's into his 40s.

 

[pistolpete11]

Glover-Jiri - I don't see it going the distance. I think Jiri puts his lights out or Glover finds his back. It's remarkable that Glover was able to get back to a title fight let alone win it at his age, but at some point, Father Time is going to win. Heart says Glover, head says Jiri.

Valentina-Santos - I think Santos is Valetina's best competition since JJ, but I think she is probably getting rushed a little too much. She really hasn't beat anybody. (Calder)Wood and Roxy (if she was still fighting) are her only ranked wins and sorry to say it but (Calder)Wood just sucks.

Weili-JJ - Who f***ing knows with JJ. Not only the layoff, but watching a little of the Countdown, she's out there, as Dana put it, "living her best life". Of course she says she's been in the gym that whole time, too, but we've seen that song and dance before. When fighters start focusing on stuff that's not fighting, it usually doesn't go well. I'll take Weili, but hopefully it's another great fight.

Kape-Bontorin is a solid fight and I'm still interested in Brenden Allen, but I don't know the guy he's fighting. Not much else for me.

 

[pistolpete11]

On the opposite side, originally I thought Jiri would just smash Glover. I've kind of warmed to the possibility of Glover winning though. There's an obvious path to him winning either on the ground or against the cage.

To me though, the fight I can't get of my head is Glover v Gus. Glover looked so slow and unable to do anything against Gus's varied footwork & angles and I think Jiri should be able to do the same. And sure that fight was 5 years ago.. but I'm not sure that's a selling point in Glover's favor as he's into his 40s.

I think Gus is more measured and more straight forward boxing than Jiri. All it takes is Glover ducking under some of Jiri's spinny shit and getting his back and it's probably over. That's of course assuming Jiri doesn't catch him with some of that stuff first, but there's a path for Glover.

 

[CDJ]

I think Jiri wins but the fight reminds me of Thiago-Glover and we saw what happened there. Glover got hurt bad but he was able to capitalize on Thiago’s wildness and get it to the ground and that’s all it took. Same shit here. I do think Jiri is a better athlete at this point in time than Thiago was then coming off of double knee surgery, so I do think Jiri puts Glovers lights out. I don’t think it will be as easy as some believe it will be though, he’s still in a lot of danger. Glover may have the best top game relative to his weight class in the entire sport

 

[I am not exposed]

I'm predicting a Teixeira victory.

 

[Neutrinos]

Jiri has all the makings of a UFC star, and this will essentially be his coming out party for most casual fans

Rather than have them headline a weak card, I think it would've made more sense that he and Teixeira co-main a stacked PPV

What's the over/under on the number of PPV buys for this one?

 

[Taytro]

Jiri has all the makings of a UFC star, and this will essentially be his coming out party for most casual fans

Rather than have them headline a weak card, I think it would've made more sense that he and Teixeira co-main a stacked PPV

What's the over/under on the number of PPV buys for this one?

I don't agree that Jiri has all the makings of a star. He has all the makings/skills of a champion but the UFC fans don't really value that when it comes to PPV buys/becoming a star. If he can make fun call outs and have quirky personality or create beefs, then sure. But so far, to me at least, he's shown a very standard traditional martial artist personality which doesn't become stars in this sport.

 

[m9]

Jiri has all the makings of a UFC star, and this will essentially be his coming out party for most casual fans

Rather than have them headline a weak card, I think it would've made more sense that he and Teixeira co-main a stacked PPV

What's the over/under on the number of PPV buys for this one?

The problem is that there aren't enough big fights where a fight like this could co-headline. I guess they could have had this fight co-headline for Adesanya, but it didn't seem like Max/Volk was ready to headline this card so then you've got nothing here for this one.

As for buys, it's tough to know with how little is released these days. It won't do great though - under the old formula I would have had it as a 300k-400k buy card.

I don't agree that Jiri has all the makings of a star. He has all the makings/skills of a champion but the UFC fans don't really value that when it comes to PPV buys/becoming a star. If he can make fun call outs and have quirky personality or create beefs, then sure. But so far, to me at least, he's shown a very standard traditional martial artist personality which doesn't become stars in this sport.

Agreed.. at least as of now. Issue is that he debuted (on an undercard, albeit a big one) in 2020 and has fought one time since then. He can become a star but it has to be the Anderson Silva way of going out there and winning big fights in exciting fashion. As of now we don't know if a) he's good enough to be that kind of guy or b) is a guy that fans will pay to see headline cards.

This slow-roll here with him has really hurt him. You needed him in a co-main or third fight on one of these big Conor/Masvidal/Colby/Nate PPVs over the last two years.

 

[Taytro]

The problem is that there aren't enough big fights where a fight like this could co-headline. I guess they could have had this fight co-headline for Adesanya, but it didn't seem like Max/Volk was ready to headline this card so then you've got nothing here for this one.

As for buys, it's tough to know with how little is released these days. It won't do great though - under the old formula I would have had it as a 300k-400k buy card.



Agreed.. at least as of now. Issue is that he debuted (on an undercard, albeit a big one) in 2020 and has fought one time since then. He can become a star but it has to be the Anderson Silva way of going out there and winning big fights in exciting fashion. As of now we don't know if a) he's good enough to be that kind of guy or b) is a guy that fans will pay to see headline cards.

This slow-roll here with him has really hurt him. You needed him in a co-main or third fight on one of these big Conor/Masvidal/Colby/Nate PPVs over the last two years.

He needs to win the fight with a flying knee, spit on Texiera, slap Paul Felder in the face, piss on DC, call out McGregor, and not let Dana White put a belt on him. Then he might become a star but until then the UFC needs to find a way to market this guy because so far he hasn't done it himself.

 

[pistolpete11]

I was going to say, if things go very well for Jiri, his ceiling for being a star is Tony Ferguson. Oddball weirdos who put on fun fights that fight fans love but never really crossover. But that's probably overstating it. Tony's more of shit talker and had the whole Khabib rivalry which helped his star power, too. Maybe more of a Stipe level would be his max.

 

[Taytro]

I was going to say, if things go very well for Jiri, his ceiling for being a star is Tony Ferguson. Oddball weirdos who put on fun fights that fight fans love but never really crossover. But that's probably overstating it. Tony's more of shit talker and had the whole Khabib rivalry which helped his star power, too. Maybe more of a Stipe level would be his max.

It all depends on how he handles his opportunities on the mic and his platforms. Not a ton of people are talking trash after 2 fights in the UFC, which is where Jiri is. Maybe as he gets more comfortable we get to see some personality or something interesting. Maybe someone will coach him/take him under their wing with the selling side of the business but as of yet, he seems like a great fighter who lacks substance outside of that.

 

[pistolpete11]

It all depends on how he handles his opportunities on the mic and his platforms. Not a ton of people are talking trash after 2 fights in the UFC, which is where Jiri is. Maybe as he gets more comfortable we get to see some personality or something interesting. Maybe someone will coach him/take him under their wing with the selling side of the business but as of yet, he seems like a great fighter who lacks substance outside of that.

He plays up the whole traditional Japanese-style respectful martial artist thing, so I'd be pretty surprised to see him turn into some massive shit talker.

 

[Bunk Moreland]

Jack Della Maddalena has looked pretty solid on his feet in his contender series and his first ufc fight. Looking forward to see him open the main card.

 

[Neutrinos]

I was going to say, if things go very well for Jiri, his ceiling for being a star is Tony Ferguson. Oddball weirdos who put on fun fights that fight fans love but never really crossover. But that's probably overstating it. Tony's more of shit talker and had the whole Khabib rivalry which helped his star power, too. Maybe more of a Stipe level would be his max.

Part of what leads to a great fighter becoming a star is having a marketable look, which is something Ferguson didn't have

Jiri has a look and fighting style that should endear him to hardcore and casual fans alike regardless of how well he does on the mic afterwards

Maybe McGregor has forever changed the game, but it wasn't too long ago that the biggest stars in the sport were GSP, Silva, and Fedor, who between the 3 of them have yet to say anything remotely interesting in their post-fight interviews

I don't even know what Fedor's voice actually sounds like!


From a marketing perspective, male stars are generally someone that men wanna be, and women wanna be with

I think the rugged viking look that Jiri has going would check both boxes

 

[pistolpete11]

Part of what leads to a great fighter becoming a star is having a marketable look, which is something Ferguson didn't have

Jiri has a look and fighting style that should endear him to hardcore and casual fans alike regardless of how well he does on the mic afterwards

Maybe McGregor has forever changed the game, but it wasn't too long ago that the biggest stars in the sport were GSP, Silva, and Fedor, who between the 3 of them have yet to say anything remotely interesting in their post-fight interviews

I don't even know what Fedor's voice actually sounds like!


From a marketing perspective, male stars are generally someone that men wanna be, and women wanna be with

I think the rugged viking look that Jiri has going would check both boxes

Saying MMA has changed from the mid-2000's to now would be one of the biggest understatements you could make.

But yes, if Jiri goes undefeated for 10 years like GSP (excluding the Serra fight obviously), Anderson, or Fedor, he'll be a star.

 

[Neutrinos]

Saying MMA has changed from the mid-2000's to now would be one of the biggest understatements you could make.

But yes, if Jiri goes undefeated for 10 years like GSP (excluding the Serra fight obviously), Anderson, or Fedor, he'll be a star.

Is that how you remember things? That GSP and Silva went undefeated for a decade before they became stars?

 

[m9]

I was going to say, if things go very well for Jiri, his ceiling for being a star is Tony Ferguson. Oddball weirdos who put on fun fights that fight fans love but never really crossover. But that's probably overstating it. Tony's more of shit talker and had the whole Khabib rivalry which helped his star power, too. Maybe more of a Stipe level would be his max.

I think this is just wrong though. We're talking ceiling. Ferguson was never a consistent PPV headliner or long-term champion and those are both things that are very attainable for Jiri given where he is right now and will definitely help his star power. His ceiling is definitely higher than Tony Ferguson.

Part of what leads to a great fighter becoming a star is having a marketable look, which is something Ferguson didn't have

Jiri has a look and fighting style that should endear him to hardcore and casual fans alike regardless of how well he does on the mic afterwards

Maybe McGregor has forever changed the game, but it wasn't too long ago that the biggest stars in the sport were GSP, Silva, and Fedor, who between the 3 of them have yet to say anything remotely interesting in their post-fight interviews

I don't even know what Fedor's voice actually sounds like!


From a marketing perspective, male stars are generally someone that men wanna be, and women wanna be with

I think the rugged viking look that Jiri has going would check both boxes

The reason I brought up Anderson Silva above is because it's literally the exact same situation. Both guys were extremely experienced outside of the UFC before coming over and because of that experience were put in very high-profile fights (and basically the title mix) immediately. They both also have extremely exciting fight style and have shown that excitement right away in the UFC.

Silva also wasn't an immediate star. He was winning title fights and headlining PPVs but wasn't marketable or a huge draw until the Sonnen rivalry. That is also the path that Jiri would have to go, especially because I don't see a marketable "rival" at 205 right now.

GSP was a completely different situation. Basically walked into the rivalries with the biggest established stars like Matt Hughes & BJ Penn.

Obviously we're getting a bit ahead of ourselves here though. When Glover takes him down and subs him in 97 seconds on Saturday night then maybe we can all relax a bit.

 

[pistolpete11]

Is that how you remember things? That GSP and Silva went undefeated for a decade before they became stars?

No, what I'm saying is that what was a star in mid-2000's is different than a star today. Today, you need to be a McGregor, Nate, Masvidal type of big personality or a long reigning champion. Anderson might be a star now even without the championship reign because of his insane highlight reel KO's, but no I don't think GSP or Fedor would be. Not until they put together a championship reign.

I think this is just wrong though. We're talking ceiling. Ferguson was never a consistent PPV headliner or long-term champion and those are both things that are very attainable for Jiri given where he is right now and will definitely help his star power. His ceiling is definitely higher than Tony Ferguson.

I think Tony is/was a pretty big star. He didn't get much of a chance to prove being a PPV draw for reasons partially in and partially out of his control. The 2 he did headline, 1 was bad (200k vs. Lee which was largely because Khabib fell out at the last minute) and 1 was great (700k vs. Gaethje which was during the pandemic when people were starved for live sports). He's also consistently added to PPV's in the co-main or featured spot when they need some added punch to the PPV (Chandler, Dariush, Oliveira, Cowboy, Pettis). Average it all out and that's a pretty solid star in the UFC IMO.

Becoming a champ isn't enough to be a star and I don't see the star power with Jiri unless like I said above, he goes on a long championship reign.

Also like I said, Stipe might be a better comparison. Consistently headlining and selling 300-500k PPV's based on opponent. If you think he's a 500k+ PPV draw regardless of opponent, we'll have to agree to disagree.

 

[m9]

No, what I'm saying is that what was a star in mid-2000's is different than a star today. Today, you need to be a McGregor, Nate, Masvidal type of big personality or a long reigning champion. Anderson might be a star now even without the championship reign because of his insane highlight reel KO's, but no I don't think GSP or Fedor would be. Not until they put together a championship reign.



I think Tony is/was a pretty big star. He didn't get much of a chance to prove being a PPV draw for reasons partially in and partially out of his control. The 2 he did headline, 1 was bad (200k vs. Lee which was largely because Khabib fell out at the last minute) and 1 was great (700k vs. Gaethje which was during the pandemic when people were starved for live sports). He's also consistently added to PPV's in the co-main or featured spot when they need some added punch to the PPV (Chandler, Dariush, Oliveira, Cowboy, Pettis). Average it all out and that's a pretty solid star in the UFC IMO.

Becoming a champ isn't enough to be a star and I don't see the star power with Jiri unless like I said above, he goes on a long championship reign.

Also like I said, Stipe might be a better comparison. Consistently headlining and selling 300-500k PPV's based on opponent. If you think he's a 500k+ PPV draw regardless of opponent, we'll have to agree to disagree.

It's definitely really early to be making lofty comparisons which is why I will temper things a bit here. And hey, maybe we are getting bogged in "ceiling" semantics but whatever.

I think where Jiri is right now is pretty similar to where Tony was heading into that Lee interim fight. Now Ferguson took a bit longer to get to that point and had the longer UFC resume.. but I think think they are around the same in terms of being a top ranked guy in the division/excitement/etc. That Ferguson/Lee PPV didn't sell.. and probably neither will this one.

The reason I don't like Ferguson as a ceiling is that I think Ferguson never quite hit his ceiling. He didn't win the actual title. He never got the Khabib or Conor fights which could have made him a PPV draw to at least the Poirier level. I think Ferguson is a comparable if Jiri has a good-to-great career. Not ceiling.

Here's where I will stop tempering the expectations:

There's actually a really quick path to Jiri being a big PPV star. Beat Glover, beat Jan, and beat Izzy. Obviously a tough road..but not that crazy either.

I like the Miocic comp. I think that's a reasonable ceiling for most elite guys. Headline PPVs, win belts, sell 400-500k, lock in a key rivalry or two to bump a few PPV numbers up. I will say than Jiri has the style to maybe hit higher peaks, but who knows at this point. Go win a title fight this weekend and then we'll see where we're at.

 

[Neutrinos]

No, what I'm saying is that what was a star in mid-2000's is different than a star today. Today, you need to be a McGregor, Nate, Masvidal type of big personality or a long reigning champion. Anderson might be a star now even without the championship reign because of his insane highlight reel KO's, but no I don't think GSP or Fedor would be. Not until they put together a championship reign.

I think Masvidal's 15 minutes are up, and quite honestly, I never bought into him being a superstar of the sport. or that his fights were a must-see-TV event

I also disagree that you need a big personality or a long title reign to become a star

At the end of the day, fans want to be entertained during a fight, so fighters that consistently give the fans what they want will become stars

Gaethje has neither a big personality or a long championship reign, yet, I would think he's more popular than Masvidal. Oliveira is another fairly quiet fighter who I would think has surpassed Masvidal, not because he runs his mouth,, but because fans appreciate the work he does inside the cage

 

[pistolpete11]

It's definitely really early to be making lofty comparisons which is why I will temper things a bit here. And hey, maybe we are getting bogged in "ceiling" semantics but whatever.

I think where Jiri is right now is pretty similar to where Tony was heading into that Lee interim fight. Now Ferguson took a bit longer to get to that point and had the longer UFC resume.. but I think think they are around the same in terms of being a top ranked guy in the division/excitement/etc. That Ferguson/Lee PPV didn't sell.. and probably neither will this one.

The reason I don't like Ferguson as a ceiling is that I think Ferguson never quite hit his ceiling. He didn't win the actual title. He never got the Khabib or Conor fights which could have made him a PPV draw to at least the Poirier level. I think Ferguson is a comparable if Jiri has a good-to-great career. Not ceiling.

Here's where I will stop tempering the expectations:

There's actually a really quick path to Jiri being a big PPV star. Beat Glover, beat Jan, and beat Izzy. Obviously a tough road..but not that crazy either.

I like the Miocic comp. I think that's a reasonable ceiling for most elite guys. Headline PPVs, win belts, sell 400-500k, lock in a key rivalry or two to bump a few PPV numbers up. I will say than Jiri has the style to maybe hit higher peaks, but who knows at this point. Go win a title fight this weekend and then we'll see where we're at.

I think Tony was a bigger star at the time of the Lee fight. Not only did he have the Khabib stuff, but he had been in the UFC (and mostly winning) for 13 fights, he won TUF back when at least more people cared about TUF, he had been on a few PPVs, headlined/co-headlined some Fight Nights, etc. This will only be Jiri's 3rd fight in the UFC and one of those he was on the prelims (granted it was UFC 251). I bet there are a decent number of fans that don't know anything about him.

Although, Jiri will have more time to build his star power, for sure. I think Tony was already 33 when he fought Lee. Jiri is only 28.

I think one of the reasons holding him back in my mind is that I am not that big of a believer in him going on a crazy run. Could he beat Glover? Yes. Could he beat Jan? Yes. Could he beat Izzy? Maybe. I think he's very good and incredibly dangerous, but I think he's too wild to consistently beat top end guys. I think it's a matter of time until someone like Glover (or Ankalaev) takes him down. Or a guy like Jan catches him. Or a guy like Izzy picks him apart.

I think Masvidal's 15 minutes are up, and quite honestly, I never bought into him being a superstar of the sport. or that his fights were a must-see-TV event

I also disagree that you need a big personality or a long title reign to become a star

At the end of the day, fans want to be entertained during a fight, so fighters that consistently give the fans what they want will become stars

Gaethje has neither a big personality or a long championship reign, yet, I would think he's more popular than Masvidal. Oliveira is another fairly quiet fighter who I would think has surpassed Masvidal, not because he runs his mouth,, but because fans appreciate the work he does inside the cage

Masvidal was absolutely a superstar of the sport. If he was a championship caliber fighter is another discussion, but in terms of star power? The only people bigger than him for that time were Conor and probably Nate. Even after losing 3 in a row, he's still one of the bigger stars now.

I'd say Gaethje has a pretty big personality. It's a different flavor than say Conor, but he's up there. We'll see on Oliveira. His PPV's have sold well, but I think those cards were carried by Poirier who got the Conor bump (twice) and Gaethje. We'll see how well it sells if he ends up fighting Dariush or someone like that.

 

[Neutrinos]

Masvidal was absolutely a superstar of the sport. If he was a championship caliber fighter is another discussion, but in terms of star power? The only people bigger than him for that time were Conor and probably Nate. Even after losing 3 in a row, he's still one of the bigger stars now.

I'd say Gaethje has a pretty big personality. It's a different flavor than say Conor, but he's up there. We'll see on Oliveira. His PPV's have sold well, but I think those cards were carried by Poirier who got the Conor bump (twice) and Gaethje. We'll see how well it sells if he ends up fighting Dariush or someone like that.

GSP, Rhonda Rousey, and Conor McGregor were superstars. Masvidal was never on their level


Superstar GSP fighting Captain America on the big screen


Superstar Rhonda Rousey guest starring in the Entourage movie


Superstar Conor McGregor starring in a nationwide Burger King commercial


Superstar Jorge Masvidal starring in this



One of these things is not like the other

 

[m9]

You've got Conor. Then you've got GSP, Brock, Rousey.

I think it's a pretty big drop to the rest of the guys, but Masvidal would be in there. Diaz ,Cormier, Jones, Chuck, Tito, Silva, Penn, Rampage, etc. Bunch more too. I'd have Masvidal pretty close to the bottom of that group though.

To me, if you can headline a big PPV as the A-side with no title on the line (or at least have a split like Masvidal/Diaz) then you're a star. Some stars shine longer (and I think Masvidal's star will have flamed out pretty quick) but he was obviously a star for a period.

 

[16Skippy]

It kinda sucks that Weili-JJ is only 3 rounds but I guess they can't risk 75 minutes of decisions in row even if Glover-Jiri will probably be a finish.

I'll be away so I will probably miss it live unless I can convince my group to watch at a bar. I just hope I can avoid spoilers until Monday lol