UFC

Aljamain Sterling is likely to defend the UFC bantamweight championship later this year.

Per Nolan King and Mike Bohn of MMA Junkie, a bout between Sterling and TJ Dillashaw for the 135-pound title is being targeted for UFC 279 on Sept. 10.

ESPN's Marc Raimondi added that Tiki Ghosn, Dillashaw's manager, confirmed his client has agreed to the fight.

After a rough stretch from 2016-17 that saw him go 2-3 in five fights, Sterling has ascended to the top of the UFC bantamweight division. The 32-year-old has won seven consecutive bouts.

Sterling won the bantamweight title at UFC 259 in controversial fashion when Petr Yan was disqualified for throwing an illegal knee strike. It marked the first time in UFC history that a title changed hands on a disqualification.

"Everything I worked for to this point, and to have the fight go like that," Sterling said after the event. "I thought the fight was very close; I thought I was down two rounds. That's not the way I wanted to win. That's not the way I envisioned this. I just took the belt off."

A neck injury to Sterling prevented an immediate rematch from taking place. Yan defeated Cory Sandhagen at UFC 267 to win the interim title, setting up a second bout with the Funk Master.

Sterling earned a split-decision victory over Yan at UFC 273 on April 9 to become the undisputed bantamweight champion.

Dillashaw's win over Sandhagen at a UFC on ESPN show in July 2021 is his only fight in three years. The 36-year-old relinquished the bantamweight title in March 2019 following a failed drug test.

The New York State Athletic Commission announced at the same time that Dillashaw was being suspended for 12 months and fined $10,000 "for violations relating to use of a prohibited substance."

Dillashaw's suspension was retroactive to Jan. 19, 2019, the date of his flyweight title fight against Henry Cejudo. He lost to Cejudo via first-round TKO in his first career fight at 125 pounds.

Assuming this bout gets finalized, Dillashaw will have the opportunity to become the first three-time bantamweight champion in UFC history. He defeated Renan Barao in May 2014 to win the title for the first time.

Dillashaw defeated Cody Garbrandt in Nov. 2017 for his second title victory.

You could point to a few other possibilities. Alexander Gustafsson giving Jon Jones all he could handle in 2013. Randy Couture shocking Chuck Liddell in 2003. Lyoto Machida capturing the title from Shogun Rua in 2009.

But for my money, what happened Saturday in the main event of UFC 275 tops them all. When Jiri Prochazka choked out Glover Teixeira with 28 seconds remaining to win a bout he was losing on the scorecards, we all had not just a new light heavyweight champion, but the best title fight in 205-pound division history and a short-lister for the best title tilt in any weight class. It's certainly the clubhouse leader for 2022 Fight of the Year, and I don't even know what it would take for a different leader to emerge.

"In the hard moments I will do whatever—everything—whatever it takes to win the fight,” the new champ said afterward.

Light heavyweight has fallen on hard times in recent years, but no division has historically featured more action, intrigue or glamor than this one. It's the division of Ortiz and Rampage and Jonny Bones and Iceman and Wanderlei and Griffin-Bonnar. Both of these men wrote their names in this division's voluminous history books with a wild, whiplashing instant classic that saw a new star take shape in the personage of Prochazka, the 29-year-old Czech Republic native with the hair antenna, the unquenchable spirit and a flair for the dramatic.

After Machida defeated Rua to win the title 13 years ago—has it really been that long?— broadcaster Joe Rogan famously told viewers: "Welcome to the Machida era." That era didn't last very long in retrospect, but the one that dawned at UFC 275 appears to have the staying power.

That's right. Welcome, one and all, to the Prochazka era.

How do you sum up a fight like this one? In a way, unsummable is its best description. It was action all the way, pure unadulterated thrills, with momentum shifting on a dime. In general, the book on this fight was that Prochazka, who came into the bout having won 12 straight and with 25 knockouts to his name, would be the berserker, looking to separate the 42-year-old Teixeira—the oldest first-time champion in UFC history—from his consciousness. Meanwhile, Teixeira's best path to victory would be to get the action to the ground, grind the proceedings to a crawl, land takedowns and keep Prochazka from swinging his big hammers in space.

The first round actually went pretty close to that script, with Teixeira landing two takedowns for nearly three minutes of control time, per UFC stats, taking advantage of Prochazka's wild (and failed) escape attempts, one of which saw him wind up on the wrong end of full mount. Maybe the underdog champion had enough after all.

The second round saw more redlining action. Prochazka began to open up on the feet, hurting the champ and then stuffing Teixeira's circuit-breaker takedown attempts. But Glover still wound up in mount at the end of the round, slicing open Prochazka with a hellacious elbow from the top as time ran out.

The third round was a striking clinic from Prochazka, with the challenger landing 43 of 59 significant strikes, including eight-of-eight shots to the body. Teixeira did not enjoy those.

"He was hitting me with some body shots that took my gas away," he told broadcaster Daniel Cormier after the fight. "I was gassed out, to be honest."

Both men were exhausted and bleeding at this point. Prochazka would walk Teixeira back to the fence and pour it on from all angles. And just when it seemed like Prochazka might take full control, there they were on the mat again, with the old man in a dominant position and raining ground-and-pound.

Teixeira racked up 2:33 of control time in Round 4, including an extended bid for an arm-triangle choke. Although Prochazka ultimately dug deep and escaped, Teixeira again took his back, only for Prochazka to reverse him. And the horn sounds!

The most fateful sequence of the fight came early in the fifth, when Teixeira rocked Prochazka with a right hook and then another right hand. The knockout was there, with Prochazka clearly hurt and exhausted. But instead of swarming with punches, Texeira's instincts took him in another direction, and he jumped for a guillotine choke, only to slide off before he could make it a real threat.

A few minutes later, Teixeira was again dishing out punishment from mount, only for Prochazka to again power out. This time, he got on the champ's back and went for a rear-naked choke without bothering to get his hooks in. The tap was sudden and shocking. If you had Prochazka winning this by submission over a decorated jiu-jitsu black belt in Teixeira, you won a lot of money.

Prochazka, indomitable, hair antenna flapping around and receiving who-knows-what kind of signals from who-knows-where, walked away bleeding but eerily calm, a new UFC champion. When the judges' scorecards later emerged, it showed that Teixeira would have won had he hung on for just a half-minute more.

Instead, Prochazka found a way to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.

"It's like I said before the fight: I'm ready to end it first round, or fifth round, it doesn't matter. And it doesn't matter what technique," the new champ told Cormier. "That choke came naturally. I just watched the moment. What opportunity is before me?"

Now? Plenty of them.

For starters, how about a rematch with Teixeira? The Brazilian called for it, and no reasonable person would be mad at that.

But there are other options. I'd personally like to see him branch out and face someone else first. Former champ Jan Blachowicz was cageside and is certainly in the mix. Anthony Smith and Magomed Ankalaev square off in July at UFC 277; UFC prez Dana White previously said the winner here would get the next title shot. We shall see.

But more generally, Prochazka is more than a new champ, more than a fresh face, more than the victor in the kind of fight that drives people to order pay-per-views time after time after time. MMA is an individual pursuit and one that has always straddled the line between sport and spectacle. As such, it is one that thrives on characters.

Prochazka, with his samurai obsession and his bushido and his quiet boiling intensity, is just such a one. A star was born at UFC 275. The kind of star only MMA can produce. The kind of star that can prop up the whole dang circus tent.

Gilbert Burns had a message for Jorge Masvidal as he looks to set up a new welterweight bout.

"I respect you so much. I think you're one of the BMFs," Burns said, per TMZ Sports. "You're a legend, over 50 fights, but brother, I have a lot of bad intentions. I respect you, but I still want to beat the s--t out of you."

Masvidal notably won the "BMF Belt" in a 2019 fight against Nate Diaz, honoring him as the "baddest motherf--ker." He has lost three straight bouts since then, however, including two title fights against Kamaru Usman.

Burns also fell to Usman in 2021 and is coming off a loss against Khamzat Chimaev.

They are both still ranked in the top 10 of the welterweight division, but they could both use a high-profile fight to get back on track. The two competitors each showed interest in a matchup last month:

"I think Jorge Masvidal, he's a big name, he's the name that I'm looking forward to, and I think we'll put on a show," Burns told TMZ. "UFC is interested, he's interested, I am. I think he got a little injury, so we wait for him to get a little bit more recovery, and then we go forward."

Glover Teixeira may have lost his UFC light heavyweight title, but he's not going anywhere.

The 20-year MMA veteran confirmed he has no plans on retiring during his post-match interview following his loss to Jiri Prochazka at UFC 275.

"Did I look 42 out there? No? Then I'm going to keep going," Teixeira told Daniel Cormier in the Octagon after being submitted late in Round 5.

Teixeira was ahead on two of the three judges' scorecards heading into the final round and likely would have earned, at worst, a draw if he saw out the final 28 seconds of the fight. Instead, Prochazka locked Teixeira in for a rear-naked choke and finished him for just the third submission victory of his career.

"I'm ready to end it first or fifth round, doesn't matter," Prochazka said after the fight. "Doesn't matter which technique. ... That came naturally. I just watched the moment, what opportunity is before me."

Ironically, Teixeira won the title from Jan Blachowicz in October using the same move that felled him in this fight. That victory allowed him to become the oldest first-time champion in UFC history at age 42, reaching the apex of the division nine years after his debut and seven years after his first title shot.

It feels almost certain that Teixeira will be in line for a quick rematch, but Prochazka's victory confirmed his status atop the light heavyweight division. The 29-year-old has now won 13 straight bouts overall and all three of his matches since debuting in the UFC.

Jiri Prochazka capped off his rapid ascent in the UFC with a fifth-round submission win over Glover Teixeira to capture the light heavyweight crown in the main event at UFC 275 from Kallang, Singapore.

It didn't take long for Prochazka to see more adversity than he saw in his first two UFC fights. Teixeira scored a single-leg takedown early in the first round, and the challenger spent much of the first round trying to get back to his feet.

The second round featured some of the highl-level striking that got Prochazka his quick shot to the title. He tattooed Teixeira with a few uppercuts and controlled most of the round. Then the champion came roaring back to complicate the scorecards.

A flying knee and two clean jabs to the nose created a turning point in the third round. Teixeira absorbed the punishment but had to survive the moments after the two jabs landed flush.

The wild swings in momentum continued in the fourth round. Teixeira nearly locked in an arm-triangle choke before Prochazka slid out and did some damage of his own.

The back-and-forth came to a shocking conclusion when an exhausted Prochaazka grabbed on to a Hail Mary rear-naked choke and drew the tap from Teixeira.

Prochazka's rise to the top has not taken long in the UFC. He brought a 10-fight win streak with him into his organizational debut. Of those 10 wins, only one was by decision.

In short, Prochazka has been knocking people out since his career started in 2012. We are just now seeing it happen in the UFC.

It only took two fights for Prochazka to earn his crack at the title. Now, he's the Czech Republic's first UFC champion.

“I’m so glad to fight for the Czech Republic—to represent such a small country,” he said, per E. Spencer Kyte of UFC.com. “We’re a small country with such big potential, but not everybody is living up to that potential, so I’m just trying to live my best.”

Prochazka not only expands the global reach of the UFC champion club, but he breathes new life into the light heavyweight title picture.

Since Jon Jones left to chase the heavyweight crown, the division has seen 39-year-old Jan Blachowicz and 42-year-old Teixeira win the belt. The two combined for just one successful title defense.

Prochazka has the confidence, unique style and skills to become a mainstay in the division for a while. He'll be looking to take on all comers and establish a new era in the division.

Valentina Shevchenko successfully showed her dominance once again with a split-decision win over Taila Santos in the co-main event of UFC 275 from Kallang, Singapore.

The first round featured a rare moment of vulnerability for the champion. Santos took advantage of a miscalculation from the champion and took her back in transition from the clinch.

Santos had a body triangle and fished for a rear-naked choke after a neck crank but couldn't get anything locked in.

The 28-year-old's title bid became even more real in the second round. She was once again able to get the fight to the ground and held top position. Despite a gogoplata attempt from the champ, she held control over much of the round.

Santos met some unfortunate adversity in the fourth round. As Shevchenko started a combination, the two combatants butted heads and Santos' eye swelled shut as a result.

The fifth round saw both fighters have their moments. The competitive round put an inconclusive end to a fight that wasn't an easy one to score.

It's been established throughout Bullet's reign as the flyweight champion that she is the best fighter in the weight class.

Her win over Santos gives her seven consecutive title defenses. That run has included wins over Joanna Jedrzejczyk, Katlyn Chookagian and Jessica Andrade.

Of course, when someone has dominated a division for as long as she has, the next question inevitably becomes centered on a superfight. Shevchenko has already fought former bantamweight champion Amanda Nunes twice.

Her two losses to the Lioness are the only ones under the UFC banner. This win may have set up a trilogy if Nunes hadn't fought for the title, but Shevchenko has already spoken on the possibility of fighting current champion Julianna Pena.

“Definitely Julianna has all the chances to win, but if Amanda is gonna be in the same fight shape as when she fought me, I think she will get back her belt, and we are gonna still come back for this third fight,” Shevchenko said, per Nicolas Atkin of the South China Morning Post. “Either way I don’t care really. I can fight both of them at the same time, like whatever."

At this point, a fight with whoever is holding the bantamweight belt after Pena and Nunes' rematch is the only obvious answer for who Shevchenko should see next. She's proved time and time again to be too much for the contenders at 125 pounds.