Preview: Craig vs. Oezdemir
Heading into his matchup with Paul Craig at UFC Fight Night 208 this Saturday at O2 Arena in London, England, the cards appear to be stacked against the 32-year-old Swiss knockout artist. On a two-fight skid and facing a fighter in Craig who has won five straight, in front of a UK crowd that is likely to be overwhelmingly vocal in its support of the surging Scot, Oezdemir has his work cut out for him. That is par for the course: Oezdemir’s 5-5 mark in the Octagon might look pedestrian on paper, but as much as anything else, it reflects his brutal slate of opposition. Despite having exclusively faced ranked contenders from his very first UFC appearance, “No Time” once won his way to a 205-pound title shot. The road back to another chance at gold now goes through London, and Craig.
As he prepares for his latest test at “UFC London,” a look at five moments that have defined Oezdemir’s career to this point:
1. Stockholm Shocker
Heading into his sophomore UFC appearance against Misha Cirkunov at UFC Fight Night 109 on May 28, 2017 in Stockholm, Sweden, Oezdemir was the antithesis of a hot prospect: a young Swiss light heavyweight who had knocked out a bunch of anonymous foes in European regional shows, gone 1-1 in a couple of appearances in Bellator MMA, and then disappeared for two years to pursue kickboxing. After returning to MMA, he was signed by the UFC, debuting against Ovince St. Preux in a fun fight and prevailing by questionable split decision. As a reward—or punishment—for the iffy win, he was then booked to face Cirkunov, who was at the time 4-0 in the UFC, on an eight-fight win streak overall, and appeared to be well on his way to title contention. Until meeting Oezdemir, that is. After a couple of wild exchanges on the feet, Oezdemir—as a nearly 5-to-1 underdog— clipped Cirkunov with a short right hand that sent the Latvian-Canadian judoka face-first to the floor, completely unconscious in just 28 seconds. Whatever cachet Cirkunov carried into the fight had been taken from him by mugging, and the light heavyweight division had a new problem.
2. Ticket: Punched
Realizing that it had something in the young bruiser, the UFC next booked Oezdemir against fellow knockout artist Jimi Manuwa on the pay-per-view main card of UFC 214, which was headlined by the light heavyweight title rematch between Jon Jones and Daniel Cormier. In what was all but proclaimed to be an eliminator fight for the next shot at the 205-pound belt, the two faced off on July 29, 2017 in Anaheim, Calif. “Poster Boy” was fresh off posterizing St. Preux and Corey Anderson in back-to-back knockout wins, and entered the cage as a nearly 2-to-1 favorite. Manuwa and Oezdemir clinched almost immediately and the British kickboxer shoved his foe to the fence, where Oezdemir crushed him with short uppercuts up the middle. Hurt—and clearly startled by Oezdemir’s power—Manuwa disengaged and tried to reset in open space, but Oezdemir gave chase, put him down with big left hand, and pounded him into oblivion with ground strikes. In just 42 seconds—adding up to barely over a minute of total cage time for two brutal knockouts—Oezdemir had completed his transition from quiet newcomer to title contender.
3. There Are Levels to This
After Jones’ drug test failure invalidated his UFC 214 win over Cormier, “DC” inherited the belt vacated by his nemesis and kicked off his light heavyweight title reign with a first defense against the red-hot Oezdemir. Their meeting, in the co-main event of UFC 220 in January of 2018, would be an educational experience for Oezdemir, and certainly a humbling one. While former NCAA All-American and Olympic wrestler Cormier was of course expected to have the advantage on the ground, he first demonstrated that he didn’t necessarily need it. Cormier avoided Oezdemir’s massive haymakers with ease, navigated his superior reach and tagged him with punches. Once Cormier looked for the takedown in earnest, everything became academic. After running out of time on a rear-naked choke attempt late in the first round, Cormier picked up where he left off in Round 2. The champ took the challenger down, quickly moved to a crucifix, and rained down unblocked punches and elbows until referee Kevin MacDonald mercifully stepped in at the two-minute mark.
4. A Win Is a Win
The one-sided loss to Cormier indicated that Oezdemir needed further development before challenging for another belt, but “back to the drawing board” became something closer to “back to square one” when he lost his next two fights as well, to Anthony Smith and Dominick Reyes, both of whom parlayed wins over “No Time” into title shots of their own. The closest thing Oezdemir got to a softball was a matchup with fringe contender Ilir Latifi—still a Top 15 fighter, just not a Top 5 fighter—and he responded by knocking out the stocky Swede after a one-sided fight at UFC Fight Night 156. Oezdemir then was booked against rising contender Aleksandar Rakic, a matchup that inspired significant déjà vu. Like Cirkunov, Rakic came into the fight on a massive win streak—12 straight, the last four of those in the UFC—and like St. Preux, he fell to Oezdemir by contentious split decision.
5. Crossroads in London
Back in 2017, the St. Preux fight had muted some possible shine for a debuting fighter, but by the time of the Rakic fight in December 2019, Oezdemir was a known quantity and a veteran face in the division, and in some sense, any win was good enough. Never mind that the decision was terrible and the fight itself was dull—that was more the fault of the cautious Rakic than the kill-or-be-killed Oezdemir, anyway—it was a second win in a row for a former title challenger. It was more than enough to vault him directly back into top-tier matchups, where he has come up short in consecutive fights with now-champ Jiri Prochazka and Magomed Ankalaev, who may well be the next challenger for the belt. In a sense, Oezdemir has never really left the title picture, but if he plans to be more than a chapter in other contenders’ stories, he will need to get back on track against Craig this weekend.