There will be no shortage of critical fights for the UFC in the final couple months of the calendar year.
The promotion this past week announced a trio of new title bouts, one of which will join the heavyweight championship bout at UFC 295. The others are set for UFC 296, which will be the UFC’s final event of 2023.
Jon Jones vs. Stipe Miocic headlines the promotion’s UFC 295 30th anniversary event at Madison Square Garden, and now will be joined by Jiri Prochazka (29-3-1 MMA, 3-0 UFC) vs. Alex Pereira (8-2 MMA, 5-1 UFC) for the vacant light heavyweight title. The card takes place Nov. 11 at Madison Square Garden in New York. Prochazka vacated the title in November 2022 due to an injury. Pereira, a former middleweight champion, will try to add his name to the list of two-division UFC titleholders.
At UFC 296 on Dec. 16 in Las Vegas, Leon Edwards (20-3 MMA, 12-2 UFC) will attempt the second defense of his welterweight title reign when he meets former interim champ Colby Covington (17-3 MMA, 12-3 UFC). The UFC 296 co-main event is a flyweight title fight between champion Alexandre Pantoja (26-5 MMA, 10-3 UFC) and challenger Brandon Royval (15-6 MMA, 5-2 UFC).
Of those three fights, which appear to be fairly close and competitive on paper and from a betting perspective, what’s the one that is the best of the bunch? MMA Junkie’s “Spinning Back Clique” panel of Matthew Wells, Nolan King and Danny Segura joined host Mike Bohn to break it all down.
Watch their discussion in the video above, and don’t miss this week’s full “Spinning Back Clique” episode below.
Video: What’s the best of the bunch of the UFC’s newly announced Q4 title fights?