This week in mixed martial arts there are two events which stand above the rest. UFC Vegas 99 is a rare treat of an Apex fight night card, while PFL has one of their biggest events of the year in Saudi Arabia on pay-per-view.
Read along as we count down the best fights of the week, from the giants of the heavyweight lineal title fight, to the ranked bantamweights of the UFC, and everything in between.
10. Jake Hadley vs Cameron Smotherman
On one week notice, Cameron Smotherman flew back from Saudi Arabia, where he was cornering Raufeon Stots (who also appears on this list) for his PFL fight. Now he is set to make his UFC debut against a tricky, well-rounded opponent on Jake Hadley.
Hadley largely profiles as a boxer, he uses a similar guard to the “Hillbilly Shoulder Roll” of Dustin Poirier and is hard to his clean, but he also proved in his fight with Cody Durden that he can scramble like nobody’s business.
However, Smotherman is one of the more difficult debuting fighters he could face. Cameron is also an exciting striker but has shown new wrinkles of late, winning by anaconda choke in his last fight. At 5’9″ this bantamweight will look to use his length advantage against the former flyweight in Hadley.
I expect an exciting, back-and-forth technical striking duel, which has potential to turn into a brawl and even maybe a ‘Fight of the Night.’
Cam Smotherman with a ….submission win! pic.twitter.com/YGttOGFlOA
— Fury FC (@FuryFightingTX) July 21, 2024
9. Francis Ngannou vs Renan Ferreira
The biggest fight of the week may not be the best, but everyone shifts to the edge of their seat when men with this combined knockout power step into the cage.
The lineal MMA heavyweight championship of the world will be put on the line for the first time since 2022 as Ngannou returns to the sport after his stint in boxing.
He will face PFL’s biggest knockout artist, athletic Brazilian Renan Ferreira. Ferreira may be less skilled but packs almost as much of a punch, so somebody is definitely going to sleep.
Renan Ferreira, le futur adversaire de Francis Ngannou est un problème !pic.twitter.com/TLy6c1XW7E
— ARENA (@MMArena_) September 30, 2024
I predict it will be Renan, but who knows? Ngannou is coming off his first knockout loss ever, and that kind of thing can change a fighter.
Francis Ngannou vs Stipe Miocic pic.twitter.com/prc7peeELx
— José Louis (@concatenarsim) October 16, 2024
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