Nestled between events that each feature(d) at least five debutants, UFC Atlantic City, which takes place this weekend (Sat., March 30, 2024) inside Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, N.J., arrives with just three newbies in tow. On this edition of “New Blood,” the series where I expose myself to lethal quantities of APEX to bring you the truth, we look at a Turkish knockout artist with a 100 percent finish rate and a pair of tough-as-nails Featherweight up-and-comers.
As always, episodes from the most recent Contender Series season can be found on ESPN+.
Connor “The Controller” Matthews
Weight Class: Featherweight
Age: 31
Record: 7-1 (1 KO, 5 SUB)
Notable Victories: Jair Farias
Matthews — fighting out of the New England Cartel alongside the likes of Calvin Katar and Rob Font — started his professional mixed martial arts (MMA) career undefeated (5-0) before running afoul of Francis Marshall on Contender Series. He returned to the program one year later against 10-0 Jair Farias, whom he out-worked en route to a unanimous decision win and UFC contract.
“The Controller’s” first five fights lasted around five minutes combined and, excluding 15-97 Jay Ellis for the sake of clarity, came against opponents with a 4-18 cumulative record. The Marshall fight was exactly what one would expect from a can crusher fighting his first competent foe — he did well early on, piling up calf kicks and one-two combinations, but the wheels quickly fell off thanks to Matthews’ nonexistent defense.
Matthews showed off an unfortunate combination of habits: a porous guard, no head movement and a tendency to freeze whenever he got hit, which even his corner pointed out after a disastrous first round. If Marshall hit him once, the rest of the combination was almost guaranteed to land. The only reason Matthews was able to leave the cage under his own power after multiple near-knockouts was Marshall’s decision to shoot takedowns whenever Matthews was reeling.
It didn’t help that Matthews seemingly ran out of steam less than seven minutes into the bout.
To his credit, Matthews did seem sharper against Farias. A deepened gas tank let him consistently pressure the taller Brazilian — and even though Matthews did appear to flag late in the second — his consistent southpaw body kicks left Farias the more tired of the two. Matthews’ ground game also played more of a factor, showing off good timing and penetration on his shots despite struggling to hold down Farias for any length of time.
His prior strengths were still on display, including solid clinch elbows, straight punches, and calf kicks that he actually bothered to set up this time with feints. He was still too easy to hit, however; his only head movement came via bending his knees and he tended to back straight up when Farias blitzed with combinations. Plus, while Matthews does boast several submission finishes, he never threatened anything on the mat more complicated than a front headlock.
Though his grit is undeniable, Matthews lacks any real highs and his lows are extremely worrying for someone who had his first amateur bout more than a decade ago. I don’t see him going far in the Octagon, even against someone as limited as debut for Dennis Buzukja.
Ibo “The Last Ottoman” Aslan
Weight Class: Light Heavyweight
Age: 27
Record: 12-1 (12 KO)
Notable Victories: Paulo Renato Jr., Robert Valentin
Aslan smashed his way to a perfect (8-0) professional start on the Austrian circuit before falling to future UFC competitor, Anton Turkalj, in his Brave CF debut. After 1.5 years on the sidelines, he returned with three straight wins to earn a spot on Contender Series, where he knocked out Paulo Renato Jr. to claim a UFC contract of his own.
In the interest of transparency: there’s not a whole lot of technical analysis I can do here. Aslan has only ever fought three men with records over .500 and one of those was in 2018. I will, however, make an effort.
Aslan does not lack size at 205 pounds, standing a chiseled 6’3” with an impressive 77.5-inch reach. His gameplan revolves around tenderizing opponents’ calves with heavy kicks, then unloading rapid-fire flurries as soon as he’s in the pocket. Though his knockout record was largely built on garbage opposition, his power is genuine, and he’s sharpened up his punching technique quite a bit over the last few years. Heck, I even saw a jab out of him against Renato, so training with someone like Aleksandar Rakic is clearly paying dividends.
Despite that size, he’s also remarkably quick, both in terms of hand speed and ability to slide just out of range of kicks while patiently advancing.
Besides a general lack of upper-body movement, the impact of which is lessened somewhat by his footwork and range management, the big concern is cardio. He was giving Turkalj the business in 2020, smashing him on the feet before dragging him to the mat and clubbing him from guard. He hit another takedown early in the second and was again chipping away from guard, but in a move so counterproductive I’m half-convinced he threw the fight, he let Turkalj to his feet. Less than seven minutes into the fight, a completely gassed Aslan got battered across the cage, taken down into mount, and choked out in seconds.
He hasn’t gone past the halfway point of the first round since, so there’s no telling whether he’s fixed the issue. He certainly looks plenty fit, but that’s far from a reliable metric.
Overall, though, I think there’s potential here. Indeed, he’s got all the physical gifts you could want and he’s making clear strides in his standup. With Xtreme Couture and Rakic in his corner alongside a fairly weak UFC Light Heavyweight division, I can see him at least approaching contention within the next couple years.
As for his debut, he battles Turkalj in a rematch. Barring another catastrophic brain fart, Aslan should demolish him this time because Turkalj remains easy to hit and easy to take down. And that’s not even mentioning his brutal knockout loss to Tyson Pedro back in Sept. 2023.
Angel Pacheco
Weight Class: Featherweight
Age: 32
Record: 7-2 (4 KO, 3 SUB
Notable Victories: None
Pacheco went 7-5 as an amateur and 7-1 as a professional before joining Contender Series in 2023. There, he put on one of the show’s all-time best fights against Danny Silva, falling short on the scorecards but claiming a contract regardless.
Two fights back against Vilson Ndregjoni, Pacheco seems to prefer working at range with kicks from both legs and short punching combinations. Though largely effective, he showed an unfortunate tendency to “crash” his way inside, by which I mean throwing a shot with so much forward momentum that he basically glides into his opponent. You’ll recall me criticizing Charalampos Grigoriou for that ahead of his debut last week and Pacheco showed the dangers of it here, nearly going to sleep from a counter right early in the first after drifting in with a right cross.
Still, he managed to survive and ultimately catch Ndregjoni with a flying knee to set up a fight-ending, rear-naked choke.
Forced into protracted close-quarters exchanges against Silva, Pacheco instead utilized lengthy punching flurries interspersed with clinch knees and elbows whenever Silva shelled up under fire. He did a good job of mixing his attacks to the head and body, particularly his lead right downstairs, but also showcased an entirely different defensive issue.
I’d say 99 times out of 100, any MMA fighter attempting a shoulder roll would be best-served not attempting a shoulder roll … and Pacheco was not the exception. He constantly dropped his left hand to his waist and never caught onto the fact that a proper shoulder roll requires both upper-body movement and, as the name implies, raising the lead shoulder to intercept punches.
As a result, Silva was basically guaranteed to land any strike he threw over Pacheco’s left shoulder, especially if he led with his own left to draw Pacheco’s right hand away. Pacheco, for his part, never seemed to realize how badly it was working for him, resulting in Silva landing more than 200 significant strikes.
That’s just not going to cut it in the Octagon, especially since Pacheco doesn’t seem to hit hard enough to keep opponents honest.
On the grappling side of things, he gave up a couple takedowns to Silva, but spent less than 25 combined seconds on his back. Similarly, he quickly escaped a guillotine from Ndregjoni after getting rocked, then choked him out in return following the aforementioned flying knee.
As admirable as his output and resilience are, Pacheco’s severe defensive liabilities will keep him from making any sort of impact in the Octagon. Though debut foe, Caolan Loughran, isn’t the hardest man to hit, either, he’s a terror on the inside and the superior grappler by a significant margin.
Remember that MMAmania.com will deliver LIVE round-by-round, blow-by-blow coverage of the entire UFC Atlantic City fight card right here, starting with the ESPN2/ESPN+ “Prelims” matches, which are scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. ET, then the remaining main card balance on ESPN (simulcast on ESPN+) at 10 p.m. ET.
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