Zane Simon & Eddie Mercado are here to breakdown this Saturday’s, May 1st, ‘UFC Vegas 25: REYES VS. PROCHAZKA’ event. The guys will have hot takes, possible next fights, as well as reactions to the overall event.
Zane Simon & Eddie Mercado are here tonight, Saturday, May 1st., 2021, to breakdown the UFC VEGAS 25: ‘Reyes vs. Prochazka’ event. The guys will have hot takes, possible next fights, as well as reactions to the overall event in the player above, or on our Bloody Elbow Presents YouTube Channel and BE Presents Podcast Network. (SPOILERS…)
Tonight, entering the octagon for the main event, we had a Light Heavyweight clash between former two-time title contender, Dominick ‘The Devastator’ Reyes, who was coming at this bout off of two losses in 2020 to Jan Blachowicz and Jon Jones, preceded by a twelve-bout career win streak, giving him a 12-2 record; and his opponent tonight was former RIZIN Fighting Federation champion, Ji?í ‘Denisa’ Procházka, who was coming off an eleven fight win streak, with a 27-3 career record. Tonight he was handed a huge opportunity to rocket into title contention in just his second UFC bout when ‘Denisa’ toppled Reyes, via second-round knockout with a wicked spinning back elbow.
In the co-main, we had a Featherweight tilt between WEC and UFC mainstay, veteran contender Cub Swanson and rising star, Giga ‘Ninja’ Chikadze, a power striker who was coming at this bout off a seven fight win-streak, and an overall 12-2 record. Chikadze captured the biggest win of his MMA career in 63 seconds, when the rising featherweight scored a vicious first-round TKO via body liver kick over Swanson. This was the defining performance the ‘Ninja’ needed to make his move toward the featherweight top ten. He’s now 6-0 since joining the UFC back in 2019 and has earned himself a pretty significant fight his next time out, which Chikadze hopes is a matchup with former UFC champion Max Holloway. Our third big bout of the evening had Ion Cutelaba and Dustin Jacoby facing off in a Light Heavyweight clash. After an excellent fight, the bout was declared a split draw.
Prior to that, in our featured prelim the debut of Brazilian prospect Luana Pinheiro did not go as planned when she was struck with an illegal upkick to the chin by veteran Randa Markos in the first round. This wasn’t the result Pinheiro was looking for, but the ‘Contender Series’ standout appeared to be quite a threat leading up to the illegal blow. After the DQ was declared, Pinheiro was carried backstage by her coach. Before that, Kai Kamaka and TJ Brown fought their hearts out in a bout that one judge saw for Kamaka 30-27, and the other two officials scored the fight 29-28 for Brown.
We were also supposed to see two featherweights collide on the undercard, but a botched weight cut instigated Jonathan Pearce to pull out of his brawl with Gabriel Benitez after ‘Moggly’ missed weight by 4.5 pounds; but it was expected that Pearce would still accept the fight and Benitez would have to hand over a portion of his purse. That’s usually the way things work when two guys train for weeks and one drops the ball at weigh ins, but Pearce wasn’t having it this time around and the bout was cancelled.
Overall, this now 11-bout card saw two exhilarating first round KO/TKO finishes, including our main event, as well as one DQ, one Draw, no submissions, and seven decisions – including two Split. Rounding things out, bonuses for putting forth POTN efforts went to Ji?í Procházka and Giga Chikadze; FOTN honors went to Ji?í Procházka vs. Dominick Reyes. What a night of fights we have to share with you, join us to discuss all the action…
Here’s a look at the UFC VEGAS 25: ‘REYES VS PROCHAZKA’ RESULTS & UPDATED FIGHT RECORDS:
ESPN/ESPN+ MAIN CARD | SAT. MAY 1
12. Ji?í Procházka (28-3) DEF Dominick Reyes (12-3) – KO/TKO, Spinning Elbow at 4:29 pf Rd 2 of 5, Total 9:29 – FOTN BONUS, POTN BONUS
11. Giga Chikadze (13-2) DEF Cub Swanson (27-12) – KO/TKO, Body Kick to G&P at 1:03 of Rd 1 – POTN BONUS
10. Ion Cutelaba (15-6) vs. Dustin Jacoby (14-5) – ENDS IN A DRAW, SPLIT
9. Sean Strickland (23-3) DEF Krzysztof Jotko (22-5) – DEC, Unanimous
8. Merab Dvalishvili (13-4) DEF Cody Stamann (19-4) – DEC, Unanimous
ESPN/ESPN+ PRELIMS
6. Luana Pinheiro (9-1) DEF Randa Markos (10-11) – DQ, Illegal Upkick at 4:16 of Rd 1
5. TJ Brown (15-8) DEF Kai Kamaka III (8-4) – DEC, SPLIT
4. Luana Carolina (7-2) DEF Poliana Botelho (8-4) – DEC, SPLIT
3. Loma Lookboonmee (6-2) DEF Sam Hughes (5-3) – DEC, Unanimous
2. Andreas Michailidis (13-4) DEF KB Bhullar (8-2) – DEC, Unanimous
1. Felipe Colares (10-2) DEF Luke Sanders (13-5) – DEC, Unanimous
*Luana Carolina misses weight by 2.5 lbs.
**Gabriel Benitez misses weight by 4.5 lbs.
Be sure to follow Zane – @TheZane Simon & Eddie – @TheEddieMercado; and follow @BloodyElbow on twitter for all the latest in MMA happenings. Bloody Elbow Presents is a mixed martial arts podcast network presented to you by Bloody Elbow…
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