UFC 295 Preview
The UFC is returning to Madison Square Garden in New York City on Saturday, November 11 for UFC 295. The main event will be for the vacant light heavyweight title between former champion Jiri Prochazka vs. former middleweight champion Alex Pereira.
Prochazka has not fought since June of 2022 where he won the light heavyweight title with a fifth-round submission of Glover Texeira at UFC 275. The fight is widely considered one of the greatest title fights of all-time and the two were booked for a rematch at UFC 282. Prochazka was forced to withdraw from the fight a month before and vacated the title.
After a draw for the title at UFC 282 between Jan Blachowicz and Magomed Ankalaev; Jamahal Hill won the vacant title with a unanimous decision victory over Texeira at UFC 283. Hill then vacated the title due to injury leaving room for Pereira to step in to fight Prochazka who was inevitably going to fight for the title again once he was healthy.
It only took Prochazka two wins in the UFC to earn a title shot and he proved against Texeira that he can win a war. The Czech fighter never lost the belt, but does he feel like the real champion right now? “Yes, sure [I feel like the champ],” Prochazka said. “I have to take it like that, because it’s my mindset to direct it for this feeling, to show that I’m the champion.”
The Czech fighter has been pulled into a war of words with Hill, but tried to remain true to the sport. “For me, what I’m doing, what I’m saying, and everything, that’s my lifestyle,” he said, “That’s everything. I like to do that with everything, like there is nothing left. This is a my last moment. That’s why I like to have this hairstyle, live by the samurai [text]. It helps me to be 100 percent here and now and to speak in the truth, to myself and to others.”
Despite the trash talk, Prochazka remains focused on getting the belt back and perhaps one day defending against Hill. “I know that Jamal spoke about me, many bad things, many good things, doesn’t matter for me,” he said. “I like him, I like other guys in the division. I will just show that I am the best in the division.”
Prochazka talked about the struggles of recovering from injury. "There is a period of when you get injured, you have to accept what you are dealing with," he said. "And then you said, 'OK, I must remain calm and approach this the right way. And it's working. To fix it, to get back to where you were, or even better, to go from zero to 100, it's going to take work. It's a lot of hard work. When you realize that, you just can be calm, focus on what you need to do each day to be better and you'll see the results [eventually]."
The 31-year-old vows to be a better version of himself against Pereira. "I think that no, there is [no advantage for Pereira] because since that fight with Glover, I have totally changed myself and my style," Procházka said. "Maybe change isn't the right word; say upgrade. I've upgraded my style. It's something I've always done, yeah, trying between the fights to take a step up and evolve. That fight was, for me, a big fight and I have to be honest, I was disappointed with my performance."
He continued speaking about his performance in his last fight against Texeira. "I was so upset with my performance that I said to myself, 'I need to do something; I need to change something,'" he said. "I needed to do something with my style. That's why I say, Glover can coach Alex however he wants, but they can't expect which Jiří will be in the cage. I totally didn't control myself. In the fight with Glover, I wasn't focused for that fight and it's something I have to delete from my style."
Pereira is coming off a split decision victory over former champion Jan Blachowicz at UFC 291 in July. The win was his UFC light heavyweight debut and it thrust him into the title picture. He also rebounded from a second round KO loss to Israel Adesanya for the middleweight title in his previous fight.
Pereira entered the UFC and much like Prochazka fought for a title in a short amount of time, as it only took him three wins in the UFC to fight for a belt. He will now have a new challenge and the potential to become one of the few fighters in UFC history to win titles in two divisions.
The former champion commented on Prochazka’s well known awkward style. “He’s definitely a hard opponent,” Pereira said. “Unpredictable, yes, but all the experience I have in fighting and kickboxing, I’m going to be using that in the fight.”
Pereira will also be leaning on his coach Glover Texeira for the preparation of this fight, after fighting five hard rounds with Prochazka. “It was definitely a hard fight,” Pereira said. “Glover was winning that fight to the moment he got submitted. Glover had all this experience, and it’s very important for me. I’m not going to think this fight is going to be easy because Glover already fought him, but with Glover and the experience he has, he’s already helped me. Regardless of whether for this fight or for the previous fight, he plays a big part of it.”
The 36-year-old believes this main event will be a fan favorite. “He’s an aggressive fighter, a lot of knockouts, me on the other hand, I’m also an aggressive fighter and try to control the fight the entire time,” said Pereira.
The Brazilian continued, “I think it’s going to be a very special fight for the fans, we’re going to give them a show.”
“Other fights tend to be a bit boring due to the match-up. This one we know due to the styles that it’s going to be an absolute show.”
The co-main event of the evening will be for the interim heavyweight title between #2 Sergei Pavlovich vs. #4 Tom Aspinall. The fight is taking place of the original main event for UFC 295 which was supposed to be for the heavyweight title between champion Jon Jones and former champion Stipe Miocic.
Fans were looking forward to a hall of fame matchup between Jones and Miocic, a fight that should have happened five years prior. With Jones pulling out due to injury and Miocic sitting out UFC 295, Pavlovich and Aspinall will battle for the right to become champion. But where does Miocic stand after an interim champion is crowned?
Pavlovich has won six straight fights and most recently defeated Curtis Blaydes by first round TKO in April. The Russian also has key KO wins over Tai Tuivasa and Derrick Lewis. He believed this day would come and knew to stay ready for a title fight. “I kept in mind that I could change for somebody in the fight between Stipe Miocic and Jon Jones,” said Pavlovich. “I expected that I would be one of them.
“In my mind, I was preparing for the title,” he added. “When I got the news I was going to be the backup for the fight, I was expecting for this to happen.”
Pavlovich continued to speak about why he believes he should be fighting for a title. "For me, I’m not surprised that I’m going to fight for the title because it’s supposed to happen,” offered Pavlovich, who posted four wins in 13 months after going without a fight in 2020 and 2021 as a result of injuries and travel issues. “I’ve been fighting for a long time, I’ve won six fights in a row, and if not this one, the next one was going to be for a title shot.”
The Russian fighter added, “After Curtis Blaydes, the UFC was saying the winner of this fight is going to have a title shot, so I was expecting it 100 percent after that fight,” continued the streaking contender, who dispatched Blaydes in May to run his record to 18-1 overall, with 15 of those victories coming by way of first-round stoppage. “There was a change in some plans, but I was thinking I was next in line.”
The preparation stayed the same regardless of the opponent. “First there is the mental preparation, and if you’re mentally ready, it doesn’t matter who you’re against,” added Pavlovich, who wrapped his camp at American Top Team in South Florida. “I was ready for the wrestling, the striking; I was ready to exchange with one of them at the last minute.
“As soon as I was mentally ready, all the other work is easy to do. It’s been 10 years of work in MMA and there is a lot of work done in order to get here.”
Aspinall is coming off a first round TKO victory over Marcin Tybura in July. He is 6-1 in the UFC with the loss coming by TKO due to a knee injury. In addition to Tybura, Aspinall has key wins over Alexander Volkov and Serghei Spivac.
The 30-year-old knows what kind of a challenge he is facing on Saturday. “I’m fighting the scariest guy in MMA in my opinion, in the worst circumstances possible without a training camp,” said Aspinall. “But I obviously think I can win. I’m not the kind of guy who shows up for money. I ain’t signing a contract and showing up if I don’t think I can win.”
But the English fighter is confident. “I truly, truly believe that I could win on Saturday night,” continued Aspinall. “I’m going to win on Saturday night. I’m an absolute winner, and I find a way to win, no matter what the circumstances [are]. The odds are definitely stacked against me, but it’ll be even better when I win the title on Saturday night. “
Aspinall aspired to fighting Jon Jones. “I would love to fight Jon Jones,” Aspinall said. “I want to test myself against that before this is all said and done. I would love to fight Jon Jones 100%.”
With Jones’ return questionable and the uncertainty of where Miocic fits into the title picture, both Pavlovich and Aspinall could bring new life to the heavyweight division. If Jones does come back, most fans want to see him fight former UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou is some sort of MMA heavyweight champion of the world battle. Miocic was clearly fighting Jones for his legacy, and while he has said he would have fought either Pavlovich or Aspinall at UFC 295, is a return to fight one of them something he really needs at all? The heavyweight division has always been an older fighters division, but the newly crowned interim champion at UFC 295 will bring new blood to the UFC’s heaviest division.
The rest of the main card:
Women's Strawweight - #7 Mackenzie Dern vs. #5 Jéssica Andrade
Lightweight - #14 Matt Frevola vs. Benoît Saint-Denis
Featherweight - Diego Lopes vs. Pat Sabatini
ESPN + Prelims:
Flyweight - #14 Steve Erceg vs. Alessandro Costa
Women's Strawweight - #10 Tabatha Ricci vs. #13 Loopy Godinez
Lightweight - Mateusz Rębecki vs. Roosevelt Roberts
Lightweight - Nazim Sadykhov vs. Viacheslav Borshchev
Early Prelims on ESPN + and UFC Fight Pass:
Lightweight - Jared Gordon vs Mark Madsen
Bantamweight - John Castañeda vs. Kang Kyung-ho
Flyweight - Joshua Van vs. Kevin Borjas
Featherweight- Dennis Buzukja vs.Jamall Emmers
