Monthly Report | November 2023

Saint Denis has been on the ascent for a minute now, having won four straight, all by stoppage heading into his UFC 295 main card showdown with Matt Frevola in New York City, but putting the local boy on ice in 91 seconds is enough to garner Breakout Performance status this month.

There is a menacing presence to the 28-year-old French lightweight when he’s in the Octagon — he comes forward instantly and persistently, and is more than happy to absorb a shot or two in order to get where he wants to go or land one of his own. He showed that in his previous 2023 wins over Ismael Bonfim and Thiago Moises, and put it back on display against Frevola at MSG.

Pull up the contest and watch the way Frevola hustles away from Saint-Denis in the seconds just before the fight-ending kick lands: there is a different level of urgency to how he’s moving and that’s because in those very early moments of the fight, he felt the physicality and strength of Saint-Denis and needed to reset.

“Well get up and do something then, boy! C’mon! Get up and do something!”

Those were Pearce’s words to Brito as he worked from top position and the Brazilian mocked him for complaining to the referee about getting hit with shots to the back of the head.

In hindsight, he maybe would have been better served to stay quiet and keep punching Brito in the face, because the streaking Dana White’s Contender Series graduate did, in fact, get up and do something.

The above exchange transpired at the midway point of the second round in a fight Pearce was controlling with his grappling. Less than 90 seconds later, Pearce was stuck in a deep ninja choke, his face twisted into a painful visage as Brito clamped onto his neck and squeezed out the tap before going full Derrick Lewis and dropping his shorts in the center of the Octagon.

Knockouts that win heavyweight titles pretty much rule, and landing one after eating a power shot from a guy that had stopped six straight foes in the first round, all inside of 70 seconds, makes Aspinall’s interim title-winning effort the obvious choice here.

From a technical standpoint, the execution is great — he uses his footwork and speed to avoid a big shot from Pavlovich and counter with one of his own, shaking his equilibrium with his first strike before felling him with the second.

The fact that he took a clean shot from Pavlovich before this stands out, as well, because everyone else that caught one of those missiles was, at the very least, forced to reconsider their approach. Aspinall simply readjusted his jaw and marched forward, re-entering the fray and quickly finishing the streaking Russian.

But this knockout also rules the month because of what it feels like it signifies, which is a changing of the guard in the heavyweight division.

The first of the two draws in the month, this welterweight contest between Fakhretdinov and dos Santos was all kinds of fun.

Less than 20 seconds into the contest, Fakhretdinov put the Brazilian on the deck with a clean right hand, swarming in search of the finish. With just under two minutes left in the opening round, dos Santos had been out-landed 39-2 and Fakhretdinov was still pressing, but he persevered, and while the second was closer, it was still two-zip for “The Gladiator” going into the final stanza.

But Fakhretdinov’s pace through the first two rounds caught up to him, and when dos Santos stuffed a takedown attempt seconds into the third, you could feel the momentum shifting. He continued to defend takedowns well and snipe at his Russian foe, targeting the body with knees and snapping out jabs as Fakhretdinov’s gas tank started running dry.

With just under 90 seconds remaining, dos Santos stung Fakhretdinov with a front kick to the belly, and from that point forward, the surging Russian was in “hold on for dear life” mode, as the Brazilian swarmed in search of the finish.

It was a symmetrical fight in some ways, beginning and ending with opposite fighters working for a finish, with a lot of close, competitive moments in between. When the scores were read, and the bout was declared a majority draw — one judge saw the fight 29-28 for dos Santos — both seemed satisfied with the outcome.

Honorable Mentions: Nicolas Dalby vs Gabriel Bonfim, Joshua Van vs Kevin Borjas, Nazim Sadykhov vs Viacheslav Borshchev