The Ultimate Fighting Championship on Saturday will make its return to Singapore for the first time since 2019, and it will do so with its first numbered event out of the Southeast Asian country.
UFC 275 clearly falls in the second tier as far as pay-per-views go, particularly as the promotion has attempted to stack such shows since fans were brought back into the fold. Yet, the top three bouts offer plenty of intrigue. The main event is a clear cross-generational affair, as light heavyweight champion Glover Teixeira—the oldest first-time titleholder in UFC history at 42 years of age—tries to defy Father Time once more against surging Czech whirlwind Jiri Prochazka. There is far less drama in the co-headliner, as Valentina Shevchenko has turned away all comers at 125 pounds with little trouble. Taila Santos at least provides a fresh face and more physical resistance than many of the reigning women’s flyweight champion’s previous opponents. The jewel of the main draw sits third from the top, as Weili Zhang and Joanna Jedrzejczyk revisit their 2020 pairing—a five-round title fight that was one of the best bouts in mixed martial arts history. The two other tilts offer reasons for interest. Manel Kape is an elite flyweight talent finally putting things together at the UFC level, and Jack Della Maddalena looks like a fun prospect at 170 pounds.
Now to the UFC 275 “Teixeira vs. Prochazka” preview:
UFC Light Heavyweight Championship
C | Glover Teixeira (33-7, 16-5 UFC) vs. #2 LHW | Jiri Prochazka (28-3-1, 2-0 UFC)ODDS: Prochazka (-200), Teixeira (+170)
Mixed martial arts always tends to surprise, but it is still somewhat of a shock to realize that Teixeira— who turns 43 in October—is the UFC’s light heavyweight champion. Teixeira came to the UFC in 2012, and the consensus was that while he would quickly find his path to title contention, years of visa issues meant that he had come to the promotion near the end of his prime years. The first part was true at any rate. Teixeira was a title challenger within two years, dropping a clear decision to Jon Jones in April 2014. Teixeira hung around the top of the light heavyweight for the next few years, but after a rough three-year stretch in which the Brazilian was outclassed by Anthony Johnson, Alexander Gustafsson and Corey Anderson, it appeared that he had finally slowed to the point of irrelevance in what has typically been an athlete’s division. Then Teixeira just kept winning. Teixeira spent 2019 in a gatekeeper role quietly stringing together some victories against younger competition, but a 2020 main event win over Anthony Smith affirmed that, if nothing else, Teixeira was still a tough out. He overcame some difficult stretches, but by the end of the fight, Teixeira was laying down such an extended beating that Smith was losing teeth. It took all of one more fight for Teixeira to somehow become light heavyweight’s top contender. Jones’ vacating the belt opened things up, and Teixeira put together another unlikely victory, basically refusing to get knocked out multiple times before eventually breaking and submitting Thiago Santos on the mat. Then came Teixeira’s title win over Jan Blachowicz in October, which was shocking in its ease. Teixeira got to his wrestling from the jump and dictated the fight from there, scoring another submission win in the second round. Teixeira is now the oldest first-time champion in UFC history, and honestly, there is a chance he could hold onto his title for a while; or his reign could wind up as a footnote thanks to the efforts of Prochazka.
Prochazka has been the obvious breath of fresh air in the post-Jones era of this division, as the Czech fighter brings absolute madness to his fights every time out. During a successful run in the Rizin Fighting Federation, Prochazka was an obvious talent with some just as obvious weaknesses; he is an elite athlete with a massive frame and impressive fluidity but developed a wild and messy style that leaves a multitude of defensive openings. In Rizin, that did not matter all that much, as the promotion consistently fed Prochazka a diet of post-prime veterans or overmatched non-athletes, which made it unclear exactly how he would fare once he was signed by the UFC. So far so good, to say the least. Prochazka’s UFC debut against Volkan Oezdemir provided a round of constant action before he impressively closed the show, and his subsequent main event win over Dominick Reyes was a star-making performance. Prochazka’s unorthodox and high-paced pressure constantly kept Reyes on his toes, leading to a wild fight that saw him clearly leading before he destroyed the Californian with a beautifully violent spinning back elbow. Teixeira is rugged and doggedly consistent in a way those two opponents are not, which makes this a fascinating proposition, particularly if he can get this to the mat early. Prochazka is not unskilled on the ground, but his constant tendency to gamble and bank on his athleticism could just hand the champion a fight-ending position in short order. While Teixeira has a much better shot than it would appear at first blush against such a supernova of athleticism, this does appear to be a tough needle for him to thread. For one thing, he will have to track Prochazka down, and if Teixeira cannot turn any successful moments into a finish, history suggests that the Czech will respond to adversity by doubling down on some potentially fight-ending offense. A Teixeira win would be another amazing moment, but the pick is Prochazka via second-round knockout.
Jump To »
Teixeira vs. Prochazka
Shevchenko vs. Santos
Zhang vs. Jedrzejczyk
Kape vs. Bontorin
Della Maddalena vs. Emeev
The Prelims