The battle of Chimaev with Diaz, the rehabilitation of Sidelnikov and Abdurahimov: the most anticipated events of September in MMA

UFC

Fight

Night 209

Date and place

: September 3, Paris (France).

Significant fights

: Cyril Gun - Tai Tuivasa, Robert Whittaker - Marvin Vettori,

- Alessio Di Chirico.

In early September, a landmark event for French mixed martial arts will take place.

Local fans will finally have the opportunity to enjoy not only Bellator tournaments, but also the largest MMA promotion in the world, and their star compatriot will perform in the main fight.

Cyril Gan will try to rehabilitate himself for the insulting defeat from Francis Ngannou and re-claim his claims to the title.

Tai Tuivasa, who has already managed to create more than one sensation, will try to prevent him.

Over the past 14 months, he has alternately beaten the scandalous Greg Hardy and promising Augusto Sakai, and in February shocked the sports world by laying Derrick Lewis himself, the UFC knockout record holder.

And if the next contender for the heavyweight title may well be determined in the duel between Gan and Tuivasa, then Robert Whittaker and Marvin Vettori will compete for another opportunity to fight the belt holder in the middle category - Israel Adesanya.

Previously, both fought twice with the Nigerian, but did not succeed.

And while there are no prerequisites that next time everything will end differently.

But there are still no more worthy candidates in the division up to 83.9 kilograms.

In turn, Roman Kopylov will fight to maintain a residence permit in the promotion.

After joining the UFC, the former Fight Nights champion suffered two defeats, and one more failure could put an end to his prospects in the league.

And the battle with Alessio Di Chirico is almost an ideal opportunity to correct the statistics.

The Italian lost in four out of five fights, in the last of which he lasted only 17 seconds.

UFC 279

Date and place

: September 10, Las Vegas (USA).

Significant fights

: 

- Nate Diaz,

- Zhailton Almeida, Lee Jingliang - Tony Ferguson,

- Jamie Pickett.

And a week later, another Russian will try to interrupt his losing streak.

Shamil Abdurahimov lost ahead of schedule in the last three bouts, and completely lost to compatriot Sergei Pavlovich in the first round.

It cost him his place in the top 10 heavyweight rankings, and a failure in his next fight would surely lead to a top 15 relegation.

His opponent will be promising Zhailton Almeida, a former light heavyweight who defeated the famous domestic fighter Nasrudin Nasrudinov at the Dana White's Contender Series show.

But it should not be underestimated for another reason.

The Brazilian is on a series of 11 victories, each of which was won ahead of schedule.

Denis Tyulyulin will also try to gain a foothold in the UFC.

In July, RT already announced his fight with Jamie Pickett, but that was postponed to a later date.

And since then, little has changed.

A Russian may not have a better opportunity to convince the promotion bosses of his worth.

The American impresses more with "physics" than with his skill.

The evening will be closed by a fight between Khamzat Chimaev and Nate Diaz.

For the American, it will be the last under the current contract.

The 37-year-old fighter repeatedly and in a rather harsh form demanded from the leadership to let him enter the octagon and allow him to go free swimming, but the matchmakers hesitated.

Perhaps they were hoping for the return of Conor McGregor and the completion of the box office trilogy.

But the recovery of the Irishman was delayed, and his former opponent began to behave more and more defiantly, in connection with which Dana White's patience snapped.

As a result, Chimaev was entrusted to conduct Diaz, which was ambiguously perceived in the MMA community.

According to former welterweight fighter Dan Hardy, it was decided to “execute” the legendary athlete on the air for speaking out against the promotion of the legendary athlete.

The organization of such a battle, he called "shame" and "attempted murder."

Bookmakers share such fears and call Khamzat the clear favorite.

The only question is what will the Swede of Chechen origin get in case of success.

If Kamaru Usman took over Leon Edwards, Chimaev would certainly be named the first contender, but now the most logical thing seems to be a rematch between the Nigerian and the Briton.

And in this case, Khamzat will either have to wait or fight Colby Covington.

And this is a much more difficult test than an unmotivated Diaz. 

Dana White's Contender Series (

Week 8

)

Date and place

: September 13, Las Vegas (USA).

Significant fights

: 

- Mario Souza.

Three days later, a former opponent of Chimaev will attempt to break into the UFC.

In April 2019, Russian Ikram Aliskerov fought with his compatriot at the BRAVE CF show and already at the 146th second was in the deepest knockout, but managed to return even stronger.

In the next four battles, he prevailed (three times ahead of schedule) and earned the right to speak at the DWCS.

Opposing him will be Mario Souza, who has previously tried to impress White.

True, things did not turn out well.

In September 2021, he gave in and was forced to return to his native country again.

And the upcoming duel will show if this helped him gain experience and close the gaps.

Bellator 285

Date and place

: September 23, Dublin (Ireland).

Notable fights

: Benson Henderson - Peter Quilley, Yoel Romero - Melvin Manhoef, 

- Kasim Aras.

In September, the Scott Cocker promotion will follow the example of its main competitor and hold another show in Europe.

And by the names of the card promises to be quite impressive.

The main event will feature former WEC and UFC lightweight champion Benson Henderson, while the second bout will feature two-time middleweight title contender Yoel Romero.

Russian fans will be able to watch the battle with the participation of Kirill Sidelnikov, who will try to close the defeat of seven months ago.

In February, Fedor Emelianenko's teammate was one step away from getting into the top 10 heavyweight, but was severely beaten by Gokhan Sarikam, and visa problems practically deprived him of the opportunity to correct the situation as soon as possible.

In order not to be idle, Sidelnikov agreed to fight at the Ural FC show and knocked out Fabio Maldonado in just 45 seconds, and then got a great chance to return to winning ways in Bellator.

By the age of 35, Kasim Aras has never fought at a high level, and a 14-month downtime will not do him any good either.