The Ultimate Fighting Championship on Saturday brings the Octagon to Jacksonville, Florida, in April for the second straight year, and it should be a source of considerable entertainment. Two of the best fighters in the world take center stage in the top two fights, as Alexander Volkanovski and Petr Yan look to show off their wares in the headlining title bouts. Volkanovski defends his featherweight crown against perennial action hero Chan Sung Jung in the main event, while Yan tries to reclaim the bantamweight championship in the co-feature against Aljamain Sterling, who infamously won the title via disqualification in March 2021. Beyond that, the lineup sees some interesting tests, led by Khamzat Chimaev attempting to accelerate his seemingly inevitable march to contention against Gilbert Burns. Meanwhile, Mackenzie Dern’s pairing with Tecia Torres and former Olympic silver medalist Mark Madsen’s encounter with Vinc Pinchel are well-matched fights that are important for all involved.
UFC Featherweight Championship
C | Alexander Volkanovski (23-1, 10-0 UFC) vs. #4 FW | Chan Sung Jung (17-6, 7-3 UFC)BETUS ODDS: Volkanovski (-700), Jung (+450)
After being among the UFC’s leaders in terms of ratio of talent to actual attention, it is nice to see Volkanovski rightfully getting his due as one of the best fighters in the sport. Any optimism about Volkanovski heading into his 2016 UFC debut was deservedly cautious. As a wrestler coming out of Australia, there were plenty of questions about how well his best skills would transfer against better competition, along with a bunch of cautionary tales suggesting those would be answered in the negative. However, Volkanovski turned out to be a step above his predecessors, eventually leading the charge for what looks to be a pioneering class of elite talent from Down Under. Within a few fights, it became apparent that “Alexander The Great” had contender upside, with 2018 wins over Jeremy Kennedy and Darren Elkins serving as clear signposts for Volkanovski’s talent. With that said, it was a 2019 win over Jose Aldo that marked Volkanovski as a truly elite fighter. The Aussie fought against type, eschewing straight-ahead pressure and wrestling to come out with a feint-heavy range striking approach. Despite his stocky frame, Volkanovski proved deft enough to neutralize possibly the greatest featherweight of all-time, at which point he went about possibly claiming that crown for himself. Volkanovski capped off 2019 by interrupting the seemingly unstoppable featherweight title reign of Max Holloway, showing enough different options to slow down the then-champion’s building style and hang on for a clear decision victory. After a controversial rematch—this time, it was Volkanovski who did the adjusting to take over a fight many felt Holloway won—he got a brief respite from his Hawaiian rival, as 2021 saw him win an excellent affair against Brian Ortega in September. Once it was time for the scorecards, there was no doubt that Volkanovski won, but he had to survive the toughest moment of his career in the process—a third-round guillotine choke from Ortega that seemed destined to finish the fight. Otherwise, Volkanovski affirmed that he and Holloway are the two men operating on a different level in one of the UFC’s best divisions. Accordingly, a trilogy fight was initially in the works for March, but with Holloway injured and the pairing subsequently delayed, Volkanovski gets the chance to show his wares against another fresh opponent in Jung.
Jung may not have the cleanest record, but it is essentially impossible to complain about him getting the shot here given the amount of goodwill he has amassed over the years, almost entirely through entertainment and violence. Jung’s 2010 stateside debut is the stuff of legend. Facing Leonard Garcia in the featured prelim of World Extreme Cagefighting’s lone pay-per-view, the two combined for an all-time classic fight that saw Garcia get the mostly undeserved nod. Between Jung’s performance and his ability to live up to one of the best nicknames in the sport, he immediately became a made man as a perennially featured fighter. Once the WEC roster was absorbed by the UFC, Jung kicked off his Octagon career with a three-fight winning streak that included another classic: a UFC Fight Night main event that saw him go to absolute war against Dustin Poirier on route to a submission victory. When Aldo needed a challenger for a title fight a year later, Jung still had enough momentum to get the call. That did not go particularly well, with Jung clearly losing before a shoulder injury led to the end of the bout, and from there, “The Korean Zombie” was more myth than fighter. Between injuries and mandatory military service, Jung was completely off the radar for the better part of three and a half years. Upon his 2017 return in a main event spot against Dennis Bermudez, Jung was clearly a smarter “Zombie,” using a more patient approach that focused more on blasting his opponents with big counterstrikes. Still, Jung’s fights were no less violent. Bermudez, Renato Carneiro and Frankie Edgar all ate quick and brutal knockouts, and Jung’s 2018 loss to Yair Rodriguez was an excellent affair that ended with a crazy no-look elbow that scored a knockout in the literal last second of the fight. A 2020 loss to Ortega raised some concern that Jung’s championship window might finally be closing, but he rebounded well with a June win over Dan Ige that saw him mix in some wrestling more than he had in recent memory. That may not be enough to overcome Volkanovski, but if anyone deserves the chance to try, it is Jung.
Volkanovski might be the best fighter in the world right now—or at least the hardest to game plan—so this clearly seems like his fight to lose. Jung prefers to counter, but he is still quite capable of leading the dance if needed, which he might have to do here. Particularly with five rounds at his disposal, Volkanovski figures to be content to burn some early time reading Jung, especially with the Korean typically not operating at a high pace by default. Something like the feint-heavy approach from the Aldo fight might serve Volkanovski well, and while Jung is particularly dangerous with the counters that he brings, it does seem like a low-percentage shot for the challenger, given both how durable and well-prepared the champion has historically been. Volkanovski’s wrestling should not be a factor given Jung’s dangerous ground game and it would be a surprise if “The Korean Zombie” found success getting this to the mat, so this figures to be five rounds of strong work for one of the best fighters in the sport, even if it may not be a statement performance. The pick is Volkanovski via clear decision.
Continue Reading » Sterling vs. Yan
BetUS.com is offering our listeners an incredible 125% bonus on their deposit for UFC 273. Use code SHERDOG and get $2,500 in extra money to make fight night even better.