Coming into the event, we believed we were going to find out who the next contender was to fight featherweight champion, Alexander Volkanovski, of course once his move up to lightweight has culminated. The unpredictable events that unfolded have left us still asking tonnes of questions.

Let’s take a look at what could be next for the losers of the night.

Calvin Kattar

Coming in off the back of a controversial loss to Josh Emmett, Kattar was looking to return to the win column, and to stake his claim for being one half of what is likely going to be an interim featherweight title fight.

Despite that, the 34-year-old hardly even got the chance to get going in this high stakes fight. His opponent, Allen, started off the faster paced of the two, and you could tell his game plan for the early proceedings was to put on some pressure and stay light on his feet. During the latter stages of round one, whilst Allen was circling out of Kattar’s range, Kattar decided to chance a flying knee attempt. With Allen having moved out of range, Katter missed by quite a margin. But that wasn’t the issue. The issue being, as he was coming down from the attempt, he landed funny on his knee, proceeding to drop to the canvas in pain. Allen recognized the issue and jumped on Kattar, reigning down some ground-and-pound and attempting a D’arce choke. Kattar managed to see out the end of the round and get back to his stool.

Bizarrely enough, despite suffering a clear injury to his knee and not being comfortable putting weight on it, his corner allowed him to come out for round two. The doctor proceeded to enter the Octagon and do an extremely brief check on the hindered knee, but deemed him fit to carry on. Within seconds of round two beginning, Allen landed a minimal power leg kick, and Kattar’s knee went from underneath him, with Herb Dean waving it off.

So now, with his last two fights being clouded by unfortunate proceedings, it begs the question as to what is next for the New England Cartel fighter?

Another man who suffered an unfortunate injury in his last outing is, Brian Ortega. A fight between the two, when they are both ready, seems to make the most sense.

Calvin Kattar’s Next Fight: Brian Ortega

Tim Means

“The Dirty Bird” was coming into his fight with Max Griffin looking to reignite some form since his last loss to Kevin Holland. Prior to that loss, he’d picked up three impressive wins over Laureano Staropoli, Mike Perry and Nicolas Dalby.

Although he found himself on the wrong side of yet another decision, there were a few positives that the 38-year-old can take from the fight. In no way at all was the fight a one-sided domination, and in-fact, one of the three judges scored the fight in favour of the UFC veteran.

Having fought the who’s who in the welterweight division, matchmaking for the veteran becomes slightly more difficult.

Another veteran welterweight who is coming towards the tail end of his career is, Francisco Trinaldo. A fight between the two long serving professionals could be fun.

Tim Means’ Next Fight: Francisco Trinaldo 

Jared Vanderaa

In this fight between two Contender Series alumni, heavy leg kicks became the theme. Cortes-Acosta’s boxing in the early proceedings seemed to be causing Vanderaa some problems, but it didn’t take him long to rectify the issue, as he utilised punishing leg kicks to try and nullify the forward threat of the unbeaten heavyweight.

Despite all three judges scoring round one for Cortes-Acosta, Vanderaa came out in round two with a well fought game-plan, to chop at the legs of “Salsa Boy” even more. In the first round, Vanderaa landed all 12 of his leg kicks attempted. He upped that in round two landing 13 of 14. He took round two on two of the judges scorecards with the leg kicks proving pivotal. Unfortunately for “The Mountain,” Cortes-Acosta finished off the fight strong, taking the unanimous decision.

Vanderaa’s game-plan of attacking the legs wasn’t an awfully bad one, but the issue he had was that he didn’t really land much outside of the leg kicks. 69% of the strikes he landed were to the legs of Cortes-Acosta, with only 21% targeted to the head.

Although Vanderaa has lost six of his seven fights since being victorious on the Contender Series, he has faced some extremely tough opponents, from the likes of Sergey Spivak to Alexander Romanov.

Jake Collier is the only name that springs to mind that even makes just a little bit of sense for Vanderaa.

Jared Vanderaa’s Next Fight: Jake Collier 

Josh Fremd

The 28-year-old came into the fight as the slight favourite over his opponent, Tresean Gore, who himself has struggled to put anything together so far in his short UFC tenure.

Fremd held quite a substantial size advantage over Gore, but unfortunately for him, he couldn’t make it pay off. Despite being out-wrestled and out-grappled in the first round, Fremd finished the latter end of the round with a few nice combinations and began finding himself towards the end of round one.

A few minutes into round two, Fremd went for a level change of his own, and upon shooting for the double leg, found himself getting wrapped into a guillotine choke. The tremendous grip of Gore couldn’t be broke, despite Fremd wriggling and kicking off the cage, and moments later he was choked unconscious, losing back-to-back outings.

Having lost his first two UFC fights, his next one is going to pivotal for his future in the promotion.

A fight with AJ Dobson could make sense, and it would answer a lot of questions about both fighters.

Josh Fremd’s Next Fight: AJ Dobson

Dustin Jacoby

Another UFC card has come and gone where the major talking point in a fight that was extremely fun was the judging.

Coming into this one, I predicted that it would be a back-and-fourth chess match between two phenomenal strikers, and that’s exactly how it played out. When the fight was originally announced, the excitement was rife as the two styles of kick-boxing and Muay Thai almost guaranteed fireworks, and with it being Halloween weekend, it was fitting.

Despite it being an extremely exciting fight, and a relatively close one at that, the biggest talking point in the days after, have been whether the judges got it wrong.

Jacoby out-landed his counterpart quite substantially, also with a 12% higher significant strike accuracy. Not only that, but Khalil Rountree Jr didn’t clearly land the more damaging shots, neither fighter was really under substantial threat of the fight being called at any point.

Matchmaking for a losing fighter on the card, that in the eyes of the majority of fans didn’t actually lose the fight, is tough.

Jimmy Crute is scheduled to return to the Octagon this coming year, after undergoing knee surgery during 2022. That is a fight that could make sense for both parties in the new year.

Dustin Jacoby’s Next Fight: Jimmy Crute

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Early on, Cortes-Acosta took some big swings, while Vanderaa hung on the outside. Vanderaa began landing kicks to the lead leg, mainly inside. Another big swing for Cortes-Acosta, who seemed to have one game plan in the early going: swing for the fences.

The Dominican Republic-born fighter would land some heavy swings in a combo shortly after, at least one right hand landing flush to the side of the head. Vanderaa wore that well, retreating but apparently no worse for the wear. Vanderaa, however, appeared out-gunned on the feet, and he spent a fair amount of time circling and retreating, though a calf kick hit home with just over a minute remaining, then another. Both times, Cortes-Acosta was wobbled, and mobility issues appeared to be looming. One more came in the final twenty seconds, and Cortes-Acosta switched stances in response.

Vanderaa continued to attack the lead leg of his opponent early in the second. Cortes-Acosta took another big swing, the crowd gasped in response — but he whiffed on the attempt. About a minute in, Cortes-Acosta landed a right hand, and went on the attack. But Vanderaa covered up, tied things up, circled off and escaped. Cortes-Acosta was limping, and began screaming at Vanderaa, upset with his leg being picked apart. Finally, the Dominican fighter checked a kick. The problem being, the other twenty were he hadn’t. The pair then tied up, and Vanderaa popped off a few short shots by the fence before breaking.

Back at center, Waldo Cortes-Acosta fired a leg kick of his own. Vanderaa connected with one of his own. Cortes-Acosta went to the thigh with a kick. Vanderaa went inside on the lead leg, then outside. Vanderaa ducked a punch, and landed a counter. They came together, phonebooth fighting for just a moment before the buzzer.

Vanderaa, who entered the night on a four-fight skid, stuck with the game plan to open the third. Chew up the leg, hamper the movement. An inside leg landed, and Cortes-Acosta had to catch his balance. Another leg kick spun him right around. A left hand landed for Vanderaa; Cortes-Acosta returned fire. Cortes-Acosta did a bit of showboating late in the fight, trying out some boxing footwork. Vanderaa answered with some moves of his own, but it was Vanderaa landing a left and following up with a leg kick. They traded kicks late in the round, and Vanderaa closed things out with a missed head kick.

With the significant strikes relatively close, the judges ultimately downplayed Vanderaa’s kicks, giving Waldo Cortes-Acosta the unanimous decision win. He maintains his undefeated record, improving to 7-0.

Official Result: Waldo Cortes-Acosta def. Jared Vanderaa by unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28, 29-28)

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Sherman had been through two stints with the UFC, and appeared to be on his way out of the promotion again earlier this year. But his willingness to fight on short notice saw him brought in to face Alexander Romanov on short notice back in April.

That said, Sherman was on a four-fight skid heading into Saturday’s fight with Vanderaa, who had lost three straight himself.

Round one showed a clear speed advantage for Sherman who used it to land combinations on Vanderaa who seemed to be content to land jabs and the occasional leg kick. He did rock Sherman near the end of the round, but Sherman continued to pepper Vanderaa with the speed.

Round two Vanderaa found his groove landing combinations ending in leg kicks. Sherman used his movement and quickness to avoid many shots, but the combinations from Vanderaa were timed well. Very competitive round, but the feeling was that Vanderaa felt he could take Sherman’s shots so he began to take more risks and landing more.

Round three and both men were in a groove, but Sherman ended up with the win by overwhelming Vanderaa with strikes. He hurt the big man and Sherman let loose finishing the fight.

Official Result: Chase Sherman def. Jared Vanderaa via R3 3:10 TKO

The post UFC Vegas 58: Chase Sherman Takes TKO Victory Over Vanderaa appeared first on Cageside Press.

Sherman (15-10) is currently on a four-fight losing streak, but has remained on the UFC roster when most fighters would be cut loose after suffering a third straight loss.

“The last fight I took it on four days notice. Stepped up when nobody else would. I really did that to get re-signed back into the UFC. They doubled my salary and I really couldn’t turn it down. That was really the reason for taking the fight just to get another opportunity,” Sherman told Cageside Press among other media on Thursday.

“Hats off to him (Alex Romanov) phenomenal grappler. Probably one of the best wrestling purists in the heavyweight division since DC (Daniel Cormier) was in there.”

Even with the losing streak Sherman remains someone the promotion wants to keep around.

“I’m blessed. Re-signed to the UFC three times, and I’m just waiting for my opportunity. I tell people all the time I’ve got a story to tell and that ain’t going to be denied. All we need is a little spark man. Light this motherf*cker up,” Sherman said.

“I just need that little glimmer of hope and then it’s on. I think you find that a lot with sports. Individual sports.”

The glimmer of hope may come in the way of Jared Vanderaa who himself is looking to right the ship with a win on Saturday night.

“I watched his fights. Stylistically I see a lot of my own characteristics in the things that he does. When I say that I’m speaking in the sense that he likes to walk you down, he likes to engage in the firefight. He mixes up well with the hands and the feet. When he called me out I went and watched the film. I was like this is a tailor-made fight for me. I think it’s going to be a really fun fight,” Sherman said.

“I think I’m going to get to show some more of my skill-set versus trying to just get off my back. I could be wrong though.”

Watch the full UFC Vegas 58 media day appearance by Chase Sherman above. The event takes place this Saturday, July 9, 2022 at the Apex in Las Vegas.

The post UFC Vegas 58: Chase Sherman Looking For A Glimmer Of Hope, Fun Fight With Vanderaa appeared first on Cageside Press.

For Vanderaa (12-8) the last three bouts have meant three straight losses to Alexander Romanov, Andrei Arlovski, and Alexey Oleynik, respectively.

“The Arlovski fight didn’t go my way so that sucked. The Oleynik fight was going good until it wasn’t so that sucked. So I’m hoping to turn it around and just punch Chase until he’s like ‘Nah, we’re good’ and we call it a night,” Vanderaa told Cageside Press among other media on Thursday.

The Oleynik fight stands out for Vanderaa with the success he was having until the fight hit the ground.

“Old man strength is real. He’s just one of those grapplers that when he grabbed me I was like, ‘What the f*ck? Can I have my leg back please?’ I went in there on a week notice and I trained for all of his moves, but that dude’s just one of those guys that you need a little bit more than a week’s worth of training,” Vanderaa said.

“Mentally I felt fine. I actually enjoy short camps. So here I am on another short notice fight.”

Vanderaa and Sherman will be part of the main card on Saturday and the former has a theory as to why.

“Yeah because me and Chase are the best looking guys on the card. Of course. Heavyweight always look better than the flyweights we all know this,” he said with a smile.

Sherman (15-10) himself is riding a four fight losing streak with Arlovski and Romanov being two of the losses. It makes this match up make sense for both heavyweights.

“He’s (Sherman) just another dude that….he just has a punchable face. No disrespect he just has that face that I look at and I want to punch it at least once just to clear my conscience. I do think he’s very durable so he might take a few extra punches to the face, but I think this is going to be a fun fight,” said Vanderaa.

“Stylistically him and I are a fun fight to watch. We’re both strikers so that’s always fun. I think for the fans it’s definitely something to watch. I have no ill will, no hatred, no real complaints towards Chase.”

Watch the full UFC Vegas 58 media day appearance by Jared Vanderaa above. The event takes place this Saturday, July 9, 2022 at the Apex in Las Vegas.

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But with Oleinik’s 44 years comes a wealth of experience unrivaled in the major promotions. 76 fights, with 14 wins by the rarely seen Ezekiel choke (two of those have come inside the UFC octagon). At UFC 273, opponent Jared Vanderaa’s 12-7 record was dwarfed by Oleinik. He was also stepping in on short notice in a heavyweight scrap that had both men badly in need of a win.

Oleinik was once again hunting win number sixty. Once the fight went to the ground Saturday night, he locked it up.

Both fighters took the center of the octagon after a touch of gloves. A low kick from Oleinik followed by two looping hooks started the fight. Oleinik landed another jab and hook. Front kick from Oleinik, and he ate a stiff right hand. Oleinik pulled guard but Vanderaa defended. Vanderaa decided to go to follow Oleinik to the ground. Vanderaa caught Oleinik in a triangle and started landing punches. Oleinik survived and transitioned to Vanderaa’s back in a flash. Vanderaa survived Oleinik’s rear-naked choke but then got caught in a scarf hold. Vanderaa tried to pop his head out, but it was too late, and he was forced to trap.

Win # 6️⃣0️⃣ @OleynikUFC JUST DID THAT!

[ #UFC273 | Early Prelims on @UFCFightPass & E+ ] pic.twitter.com/XQmoeJ1xEZ

— UFC (@ufc) April 9, 2022

Oleinik snapped his three-fight losing streak, and obtained pro win #60, while handing Vandreaa his third straight loss. Vanderaa might be headed back to the regional scene in his next fight, though taking this match-up on short notice may just keep him on the roster for another go.

Official Result: Aleksei Oleinik def. Jared Vanderaa via submission (scarf-hold) Round 1, 3:39

The post UFC 273: Aleksei Oleinik Taps Jared Vanderaa With Scarf-Hold for Sixtieth Win appeared first on Cageside Press.

With Latifi pulling out of the bout, Oleinik has now been matched up with Jared Vanderaa, per an updated fight card on UFC.com. No reason has been given for Latifi’s withdrawal, but he did drop out of the pair’s original date this past weekend at UFC Columbus due to illness.

Oleinik vs. Vanderaa will be part of a six-fight main card at the UFC 273 Pay-Per-View, which is topped by a featherweight title fight featuring Alexander Volkanovski defending his belt against The Korean Zombie.

Oleinik (59-16-1), at 44, is the oldest fighter currently featured on the UFC roster. He’ll be looking to snap a three-fight skid against the much younger, and vastly less experienced Vanderaa (12-7).

Vanderaa has come up short in his last two fights, most recently losing a split decision against former heavyweight champion Andrei Arlovski. Oleinik, likewise, is coming off a decision loss to Sergey Spivak.

UFC 273 is set to take place at the VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena in Jacksonville, Florida on Saturday, April 9, 2022. The full card currently breaks down as follows:

• Alexander Volkanovski (c) vs. Chan Sung Jung – for the UFC featherweight championship
• Aljamain Sterling (c) vs. Petr Yan (ic) – for the UFC bantamweight championship / title unification bout
• Gilbert Burns vs. Khamzat Chimaev
• Mackenzie Dern vs. Tecia Torres
• Aleksei Oleinik vs. Jared Vanderaa
• Kelvin Gastelum vs. Dricus Du Plessis
• Aspen Ladd vs. Raquel Pennington
• Ian Garry vs. Darian Weeks
• Josh Fremd vs. Anthony Hernandez
• Jairzinho Rozenstruik vs. Marcin Tybura
• Mickey Gall vs. Mike Malott
• Julio Arce vs. Daniel Santos
• Mark Madsen vs. Vinc Pichel
• Kay Hansen vs. Piera Rodriguez

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At 29, Vanderaa is a young heavyweight; Arlovski, at 43, is one of the division’s elder statesman. But “The Pitbull” entered the bout off a pair of wins over two other fighters more than a decade his junior. For Arlovski, age was clearly just a number.

Arlovski found some success early, targeting the body and mixing in his kicks. “The Pitbull” found some success with his right hand as well, and Vanderaa, who had been hunting for an uppercut, finally opted to press the older fighter up against the cage, using his weight advantage to wear on Arlovski. Both men connected back at center; later in the round, Arlovski landed a spinning back kick that didn’t have much on it. A right hand, however, did land flush for Arlovski. A spinning back fist by Arlovski in the final seconds was blocked.

Round two opened with Arlovski on the outside, firing his right hand and catching Vanderaa. “The Mountain” could certainly take a punch, the question was whether they’d start to add up. Vanderaa then initiated a clinch up against the fence again, throwing a high knee. Arlovski had underhooks in, resulting in Vanderaa just firing knees until Arlovski reversed out.

Out in the open, Vanderaa whiffed on a high kick. Arlovski worked his jab, fired a high kick, switched stances, and landed a right hand — plenty of different looks. Vanderaa countered with a right; the action was then halted as Vanderaa landed low with a kick. Arlovski didn’t use much time, again landing a right hand as they got going. With roughly a minute to go Vanderaa looked for a body lock, pressed Arlovski into the fence, and was clearly thinking takedown. Arlovski, however, reversed; the duo traded knees before moving back to center.

Round three had Vanderaa tying Arlovski up against the fence early. But being blunt, that wasn’t going to win him the fight, with Arlovski almost certainly ahead two rounds. Every second off the clock was one second less in which Vanderaa could find the finish. Vanderaa walked Arlovski down more as the round went on, but Arlovski got his kicks going. They were active to the final bell, but more than anything the fight was a prime example of a modern-day Andrei Arlovski fight: lots of movement, plenty of kicks, stance switches, and surprisingly good cardio for a 43-year old heavyweight.

Official Result: Andrei Arlovski def. Jared Vanderaa by split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)

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Vanderaa (12-6) is paired up with the seemingly ageless Andrei Arlovski this weekend, a former UFC heavyweight champion who is among the last of his era.

“I’m just still fangirling inside. I mean, I get to fight Arlovski,” Vanderaa told media outlets including Cageside Press during this week’s media day. “So I’m like ‘oh my god, I get to fight the Pitbull.'” Fight camp has been harder, admitted Vanderaa, because “I am a fan and fangirling way too hard. Like ‘I’m going to beat his ass out of respect!'”

When Andrei Arlovski made his pro debut, Vanderaa was all of six years old. Of course Vanderaa is well aware that the fighter he watched as a teen will now be standing across from him in the octagon come Saturday night.

“Yeah, the dude’s kind of old, no disrespect. He’s what, 43 now? But the dude’s also whupping people’s asses still,” Vanderaa noted. “So you gotta respect the guy’s skill, regardless of his age.”

Thus far, “The Mountain” has had a couple of rough nights under the UFC banner. A Fight of the Night win against Justin Tafa is sandwiched between two losses, to Moldovans Sergey Spivak and Alexander Romanov. When it comes to being consistent, Vanderaa suggested the key was to “stop fighting wrestlers, or people from Moldova. I think that’s a strong case right there, if you’re from Moldova, just kind of move along. Thank god I got two of the three fighters from that country out of the way.”

“I think one of the biggest things was just getting in my head about ‘oh my god this guys are great wrestlers,’ realizing my coach is also a D-1 wrestler who has basically been holding me against my will and doing things that I tell him no to all the time. And he’s a better wrestler than those guys, no offense to them.”

And so Vanderaa has been trying to improve his wrestling, calling it “an obvious hole in my game.” And he wouldn’t be surprised if Andrei Arlovski tries to exploit that.

“If I was him, I would try to wrestle me. It’s a blatant hole in my game, like ‘hey, his wrestling defense is trash, how bout we shoot on him?’ Makes sense to me,” Vanderaa stated. “But if he wants to stand and punch me, by all means. I’m a lot better in the striking department than people give me credit for.”

Watch the full UFC 271 media day appearance from Jared Vanderaa above. More coverage from the event can be found below. UFC 271 takes place Saturday, February 22, 2022 at the Toyota Center in Houston, TX.

The post UFC 271: Jared Vanderaa Says Wrestling is “A Blatant Hole in My Game” appeared first on Cageside Press.

Vanderaa had previously said that he was a fan of Arlovski.

“That’s why he wants to fight me? I don’t know for me he’s like young, hungry, angry probably, big, heavy. He’s another heavyweight like me in the line for bigger fights so I’m really excited about this fight as well,” Arlovski said at media day on Wednesday.

Arlovski (32-20) first came into the UFC in 2000 at UFC 28 where he defeated Aaron Brink via submission. Fast forward to UFC 271 and Arlovski has a lifetime of memories to show.

“So first off it’s like compliment for me because I do look like Benjamin Button. Maybe he thinks I’m old. I’m older than him like 14 years older than him. I still have gas in tank, but trust me at age 43 I workout train more than when I was 20 so I’m very excited. I’m doing what I love to do and my family let me do what I love to do. I love fighting and even more I love training even hard and I’m very excited about this fight.”

Arlovski wasn’t familiar with Vanderaa when he signed to fight him, but he said he doesn’t pick and choose his opponents.

“It doesn’t matter do I like or not (the matchup). I never picked any of my opponents so UFC gave me him I’m very excited. For me it’s more important at this point to stay busy and fight as much as possible so I’m good.”

Watch the full UFC 271 media day press scrum with Andrei Arlovski above. More coverage from the event can be found below.

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