Test for Nurmagomedov, Kopylov's duel with Soriano and two title fights in the UFC: the main fights of January in MMA

UFC

Fight

Night 217

Date and place

: January 14, Las Vegas (USA)

Significant fights

: 

- Raoni Barcelos,

- Punahele Soriano

By tradition, at the beginning of the year, the largest MMA promotions either limit themselves to a minimum of tournaments, or even take long “holidays”.

The same Bellator is going to return to active work only in February.

The UFC, although it does not suspend activities, starts with a rather modest name of the event, which will be crowned by a duel between Kelvin Gastelum and Nassurdin Imavov.

Against its background, the battles involving the Russians look much more curious.

Moreover, one of them is the cousin of ex-lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov.

Umar approaches this fight in the status of the 11th number in the bantamweight rating, but at the same time he does not get the most star fighter as rivals.

After joining the championship, Raoni Barcelos won five times in a row, and in one of the fights he defeated Said Nurmagomedov, but failed to gain a foothold in the elite.

Two defeats in a row (one of them - from Timur Valiev) - and the Brazilian is no longer considered as a potential top fighter, and even success in the battle with Trevin Jones does not return faith in him.

And there is hardly any reason to believe that he will be able to create a sensation in the confrontation with the Russian.

Many now believe that Umar is ready to claim the belt.

And if this is true, he should not experience serious problems in the next battle.

Roman Kopylov will have much more difficult time.

Although Punahele Soriano can not be called a top, but he poses a serious danger.

In the UFC, he lost only by decision of the judges, and in July 2022, he knocked out Dalcha Lungiambula in just over five minutes.

The American has a powerful shot and fast hands, which can be a serious problem for the Russian, who is still trying to gain a foothold in the promotion.

In September, he won the first victory after moving to the championship and retained his residence permit, but you can’t relax.

AMC

Fight

Nights 117

Date and place

: January 20, Moscow (Russia)

Notable fights

: 

Marcio Santos

The Russian league is not going to stop for a long time, thanks to the success in which Kopylov moved to the highest level.

AMC Fight Nights will open 2023 with a tournament in the capital, however, the list of participants will also be rather mediocre.

Among the significant ones, one can single out only the clash of Mikhail Allahverdyan with the ex-contender for the ACA title Valery Myasnikov and the duel of Kirill Kryukov with Artur Pronin, who managed to fight in Bellator.

The show will be headed by Marcio Santos and Dmitry Aryshev, whose first coming to the organization ended rather ambiguously.

The Russian made his debut in Fight Nights Global in November 2016, but lost in two of the next four fights and decided to try his hand at Hardcore FC.

And there the career took off.

Aryshev took over six times in a row (five of them ahead of schedule), won the Middleweight Grand Prix and returned under the wing of Kamil Gadzhiev, and even on improved conditions.

However, there is a risk that in January his successful series will come to an end.

It is impossible to call Santos a passing opponent, which is confirmed by the successes in the battles with Alexander Emelianenko and Artur Huseynov.

And he lost to Alexander Shlemenko only by a controversial decision.

UFC 283

Date and place

: January 21, Rio de Janeiro (Brazil)

Notable fights

: Glover Teixeira - Jamal Hill (vacant light heavyweight title), Deiveson Figueredo (c) - Brandon Moreno (flyweight title),

- Jailton Almeida

Rio will host the most anticipated tournament of the month.

This time, problems with obtaining a US visa should not prevent Shamil Abdurahimov from finally sharing the octagon with Zhailton Almeida, although this is unlikely to be a pleasant pastime for him.

One way or another, the main focus of UFC 283 will be on the other two fights.

At least for the reason that in each of them the title will be at stake.

By far the most talked about is the fight for the title of champion in the light heavyweight category.

Although a couple of weeks ago it was not supposed to take place.

Glover Teixeira was to face the victor of the fight between Magomed Ankalaev and Jan Blachowicz, and Jamal Hill was to face off against Anthony Smith.

But due to the controversial verdict of the judges in the duel between the Russian and the Pole, plans changed dramatically.

At a press conference, Dana White named the new line-up of contenders for the trophy and scheduled the bout for January.

The only question is, is Hill ready for such a test?

In the UFC, he won five out of seven fights, and only once crossed paths with high-level grapplers.

And it ended for him more than deplorably.

In less than two minutes, he twice got caught by painful Paul Craig, broke his arm and was under a hail of blows, as a result of which he could not continue to fight.

And although a year and a half has passed since then, Jamal is unlikely to have improved much in jiu-jitsu.

And if Teixeira manages to drag him onto the canvas, the battle risks going one-sided.

Also in Rio de Janeiro will be the fourth series of one of the longest-playing confrontations in the history of the promotion.

Deiveson Figueredo and Brandon Moreno will once again meet in the cage and determine the name of the strongest flyweight fighter at the moment.

Three previous fights did not give an answer to this question: the first ended in a draw, in the second the Mexican was stronger, and in the third the Brazilian restored parity.

As in previous times, it is extremely difficult to name a favorite.

On the one hand, it was Figueredo who took over the last time, but a long absence due to injury may well have a negative impact on his chances.

The Mexican did not waste time and in July in a spectacular manner knocked out Kai Karu-France.

Initially, Brandon was not particularly happy about the prospect of fighting Daveson on his home soil, but subsequently changed his attitude.

According to the ex-champion, he hopes to repeat the path of the hero Sylvester Stallone from the movie "Rocky 4" and deal with his opponent in front of his native fans.