1. What is your blurb review of UFC 320?
Heck: Showed that when you give us a bit of a breather — like six weeks between PPV cards — it makes people miss you. Overdelivered.
Lee: Two of the best pound-for-pound fighters of this era reminded us why they’re two of the best pound-for-pound fighters of this era. Oh, and JIRI F’ING PROCHAZKA.
Meshew: Alex Pereira defies convention. Merab Dvalishvili defies physics. Jiri Prochazka defies all logic and reason.
Martin: Chama!
2. What is next for Alex Pereira?
Heck: Whatever the hell he wants!
While this fight built in anticipation for
me the closer we got to Saturday, I, at no point, felt there wasn’t a single ounce of pressure on Pereira heading into this rematch with Ankalaev. If he won, he got revenge and could move to heavyweight. If he lost, so what? He can move up to heavyweight and have fun fights. Very few fighters have that luxury.
Pereira running over Ankalaev was so impressive, and didn’t even break an ounce of sweat doing it. “Poatan” is done with 205, in my opinion, and now he can fight Jon Jones, or Tom Aspinall, or go to Zuffa Boxing for a cup of coffee. He is truly in a unique position, one we haven’t seen anything close to since Conor McGregor.
Lee: A long-awaited title defense against Carlos Ulberg!
OK, that’s probably not even in the top 5 of Pereira’s most desired options, which the UFC is likely to give some weight to, given Pereira’s spectacular performance and star power. But if it were up to ol’ AK Lee, then Pereira would stick around at 205 pounds for at least one more title defense against the clear-cut No. 1 contender.
Even though Ulberg isn’t a household name, the same could be said of Khalil Rountree, and when he got his shot at Pereira, all he did was give us one of the most brutal fights of 2024. Doesn’t Ulberg deserve a chance to have that kind of moment?
Martin: It sure sounds like the UFC wants to keep Pereira at light heavyweight, and considering he already has two finishes over Jiri Prochazka, it’s looking more and more like Carlos Ulberg might actually get his opportunity at becoming champion.
Now, as impressive as Ulberg has been since suffering his lone loss in the UFC, he’s primarily a striker, and that’s like playing in traffic on a highway going against Pereira. Sure, he might survive or even cause a crash or two, but there’s a good chance he ends up as road kill.
But the real question becomes how much time Pereira might miss with his foot injury. If he actually sits out for a while, Pereira might find himself in a position where he could finally test the waters at heavyweight. Whether that’s Jon Jones or Tom Aspinall, Pereira is probably a far more enticing option than the current crop of contenders out there vying for the same opportunity.
Meshew: Jon Jones and the White House. Any other answer is ludicrous.
I’m on the record that I thought the Pereira-Ankalaev rematch was silly, because the outcome didn’t matter. If Alex won, he should move to heavyweight, and if he lost, he should move to heavyweight. But the UFC went ahead with it anyway, and Alex won, reestablishing his aura. Now the only reasonable use of that aura is not to fight Carlos Ulberg, but to bring the appropriate level of spectacle to the UFC White House card.
UFC White House is going to be the most outlandish spectacle in the history of the sport, and it needs fights commensurate with its stature. That doesn’t mean title fights, it means superfights. Outrageous, bizarre, megafights that will attract all levels of fandom. Sure, Ilia Topuria vs. Islam Makhachev is the kind of fight that MMA fans will love. But Jon Jones vs. Alex Pereira is the kind of fight that your mom and her book club will even hear about.
For well over a year, Jones has been trying to fight Alex Pereira, and now the path is clear. Jones is no longer the heavyweight champion — so no issue with him not fighting Aspinall — and Pereira can simply vacate his belt and let Jiri and Ulberg square off for it. Everybody wins.
3. Can anyone dethrone Merab Dvalishvili?
Lee: Umar!
Skill for skill, I still see Umar Nurmagomedov as the most complete fighter in the bantamweight division, and even his loss to Dvalishvili this past January hasn’t changed that. He was simply outpaced and outworked by a guy who we’re pretty sure is not human; it happens. Now, there’s no magical elixir that’s going to give Nurmagomedov a gas tank to match Dvalishvili’s, but working on better conservation of energy and a strategy geared toward definitively winning just one more round, those are achievable goals. I’m taking Nurmagomedov in the rematch (assuming he gets past Mario Bautista, anyway).
Now, do I think he can beat Dvalishvili twice when the trilogy is inevitably booked? Let’s cross that bridge when we come to it.
Heck: Nope — at least, anyone that’s on the UFC roster currently.
Saturday night showed me that nobody is beating Merab in a bantamweight UFC fight unless he is fighting into his 50s. I really dove into the fight vaults of both Dvalishvili and Sandhagen in the lead-up to the fight, and my conclusion was, stylistically, Sandhagen had the best chance to dethrone Dvalishvili — and even then, I couldn’t fully pull the trigger on making the pick. In the first round, Sandhagen looked exactly the way I thought he could, and then he got thumped in Round 2, and then Merab’d over the next three rounds.
I think Umar Nurmagomedov will eventually win the bantamweight title, but he won’t do it against Dvalishvili. He had his best chance in the first meeting when Merab was nowhere near 100 percent, and had the deck stacked against him, and Dvalishvili somehow still got it done. The only person dethroning Dvalishvili is the man himself — either through vacating for another challenge or retirement.
Martin: The short answer is probably not, but the MMA answer is that anything can happen, so you just never know.
That said, Umar Nurmagomedov still exists, and he gave Dvalishvili his toughest fight in recent history. If Nurmagomedov can bounce back with a win over Mario Bautista in a few weeks, he’s right back in the hunt for a potential title shot. The UFC eyed Nurmagomedov as a potential star, as seen by his rapid rise up the ranks, but he came up short in his first bid against Dvalishvili.
It might be worthwhile to let Nurmagomedov get a couple of fights under his belt before booking that rematch. If he gets through Bautista, maybe throw him in there with the winner of Sean O’Malley vs. Song Yadong (assuming that one happens) and then set the stage for an epic rematch with Dvalishvili.
Outside of that, Dvalishvili is going to have to just get absolutely caught looking because stylistically, he’s a nightmare for every single 135-pound fighter in the world.
Meshew: I’m with AK on this one. Umar Nurmagomedov is the only guy I view as having a decent chance — as we just saw with Pereira, just because something happened in the first fight doesn’t mean it will happen again in the second — but you still have to favor Merab if they fight again soon.
Along those lines, I also stand with Damon. Merab is about to be 35, and the cliff can come quickly in MMA. Anderson Silva looked unbeatable until he wasn’t. Same for B.J. Penn, and Fedor Emelianenko, and a whole host of other people.
And I’ll also say there’s another guy out there that people are sleeping on who could have a chance: Mario Bautista. I am an avowed Bautista hater, but he’s been undeniably effective, and even though he should’ve lost to Jose Aldo, the same can be said of Merab. If Bautista beats Umar in their upcoming fight — a tall task — I will legitimately be interested in seeing him get his shot at the champ.
4. How awesome is Jiri Prochazka?
Heck: Jiri was always in the top-three, but he’s now officially my favorite fighter to watch in the history of the sport.
I’ve now watched Prochazka vs. Rountree three times, and I had so much fun every single time. Prochazka is a lunatic, and watching him try to navigate this fight with a super tough opponent in each of the three rounds was an adventure. In Round 1, we thought maybe he blew his knee out because he was slipping and sliding, and not moving well — and, of course, the moment where Rountree hit him clean and he got super pissed off with a scream. Round 2, Prochazka turned into Cody Garbrandt when he was fighting Dominick Cruz; jabbing, footwork, head movement, dancing around like a butterfly on steroids.
And then Round 3 began, and he went full-on wacko, and it was incredible. In fact, check out Jed and I’s real-time reaction.
Prochazka may not wear UFC gold again, and I truly don’t care. The man is a combat treasure, and one of the saddest days of my life watching and covering this sport is when Prochazka decides he no longer wants to do it. Until then, enjoy the spectacular ride!
Lee: So awesome that there was no doubt in anyone’s mind he was capable of doing exactly what he did to Rountree in Round 3.
Many fighters would have been content to coast to a loss and move on to the next one after falling behind on the cards against an elite opponent, but not Prochazka. He chose to go full ka-razy with five minutes to go, daring Rountree to match him punch for punch, even knowing Rountree’s own history of devastating knockouts. Didn’t matter. Prochazka once again trusted the spirits to guide him (and his fists to his opponent’s chin), and he was not led astray.
Unless your name is Alex Pereira, you’re not beating this guy right now.
Martin: Immediately after Prochazka scored a comeback knockout against Khalil Rountree Jr. at UFC 320, I texted a member of his team, and the message I got back was a tongue-in-cheek response: “Jiri has aged me.” That’s understandable considering the way Prochazka loves to take risks and rarely displays any defense in his fights. It makes for some highly entertaining fights, but Prochazka loves keeping everybody on the edge of their seats.
That’s what makes him guaranteed fun every time he fights.
Prochazka often throws caution to the wind and just steps into the fire, betting that he’ll torch his opponents before getting burned in return. Rountree found that out the hard way on Saturday night, and there’s a good chance most opponents would suffer the same fate.
He’s not quite Justin Gaethje when it comes to delivering a pier-six brawl, but Prochazka is incapable of putting on a boring fight, and that’s going to keep him employed until the day he decides to hang up the gloves.
Meshew: I could write 20,000 words on Jiri Prochazka and still not scratch the surface of what I want to say. But to put it in the plainest language, Jiri has undeniably etched himself onto the Mount Rushmore of Action Fighters. Justin Gaethje and Robbie Lawler are the 1A and 1B of Most Exciting Fighters to Ever Live, and Jiri now joins their ranks as a beautiful violence demigod. Only he’s arguably even better because while Gaethje and Lawler are relatively quiet, mild-mannered guys, Jiri is a crazy person.
This is a man who got a Master’s degree to improve his brain capacity for fighting.
This is a man who only realized that swimming under a frozen lake is dangerous when he was actually doing it.
This is a man who unironically blamed his loss to Alex Pereira on the use of Amazonian spirits. And THEN wept tears of joy at seeing Alex reclaim the belt.
There has never been anyone like Jiri Prochazka in the history of this sport, right down to his ability to be minutes from clearly losing to Khalil Rountree only to simply smash his break-in-case-of-emergency “go crazy” button and deliver a devastating finish.
There’s a reason why I call him my large adult son, and it’s because he’s the best. I love him like a member of my family, despite having never met him.
5. Who was the biggest loser at UFC 320?
Heck: While this isn’t the lowest hanging fruit, it’s Patchy Mix for me.
I’ll admit, some of this comes with a little bit of vindication: I always thought Mix was a very good fighter, but I never bought into the “Patchy Mix is the best bantamweight in the world” take that A LOT of people were giving — including people who work at this here website. He had a superb run in the Bellator bantamweight grand prix, no doubt about it, but the Magomed Magomedov rematch was the exclamation point I needed to see to tell me I had a near-perfect read on the situation. The Mario Bautista fight in his UFC debut saw the train fill up with a lot more people.
Outside of the hardcore fan base, very few knew who Jakub Wiklacz was heading into this fight. Wiklacz is a former KSW champ, and a fun guy to watch, but this was 100 percent a sink-or-swim fight for Mix, and one, stylistically, he matched up really well in… and then he lost. I scored it 29-28 for Mix on the live watch, but make no mistake, this was NOT a robbery. Now, the former Bellator champ is in UFC purgatory.
No, he will not be cut right now, but the UFC will attempt to milk whatever is left of his name to get other fighters over. Mix is probably going to fight Malcolm Wellmaker next, and then he’ll fight another stud Contender Series contract winner before likely moving on when his contract expires. I feel bad for Mix. I really do. This is one of the painful parts of this crazy sport we love.
Lee: Magomed Ankalaev is never getting a title shot again.
It’s not just that he lost to Pereira, it’s that somehow he gained almost zero cachet (or, perhaps more appropriately, aura) in the seven months since he ended Pereira’s first title reign. You figure the law of transitive properties might have come into play at some point with Ankalaev achieving another level of recognition, but no. It feels like everyone is content to act like that first fight just never happened, and that Ankalaev belongs back in the middle of the contender line. He was on a 14-fight unbeaten streak!
Ankalaev has never had the support of Dana White, the matchmakers, nor the casual MMA fan, and that’s a recipe for irrelevance. He had to wait a long time to finally win the belt, and even though he’s just 33, a baby in the light heavyweight division, it feels like the moment is gone for good.
Martin: Without a doubt, it’s Magomed Ankalaev.
He already had to go on an impossibly long unbeaten streak to get his first title shot, because Ankalaev wasn’t known as the most exciting fighter on the roster despite picking up several finishes in the UFC. To his credit, Ankalaev got a lot more vocal before and after his fights with Pereira, but that still didn’t make him a household name.
If anything, Ankalaev played the role of villain to perfection, but he was far less The Joker on Saturday and instead looked more like The Condiment King (look it up, that’s a real Batman villain).
The way he just got steamrolled by Pereira pretty much guarantees he’s not getting an immediate rematch, and it seems unlikely the UFC is going to put him on the fast track back towards title contention. Thankfully, Ankalaev is only 33, so he’s got some time to climb back up that mountain again, but he’s probably going to have to put another impressive string of wins together before he gets to sniff a shot at gold, especially if Pereira remains champion.
Meshew: Heading into UFC 320, I said Patchy Mix has the most to lose, and buddy did he lose it. There was a time not too long ago when Mix was considered one of the best in the world, and his two forays into the UFC have been unmitigated disasters. The performance against Maurio Bautista was about as bad as possible, and this fight somehow feels worse. Because while Bautista is clearly a Top 10 fighter, Jakub Wiklacz was making his UFC debut. No disrespect to Wiklacz, who is a great fighter and fun as hell, but this fight showed Mix what the UFC thought of him, and he basically confirmed it.
Mix may stick around the UFC for the remainder of his contract, and might even get a win — though it’s doubtful, they’re about to use him as a launching pad — but he clearly seems to be this generation’s Will Brooks. Which is a tough place to be.
