5 most explosive moments from UFC 275: Glover Teixeira vs. Jiri Prochazka
Built up as one of the biggest pay-per-views of 2022 thus far, UFC 275 looked like a strong event on paper and delivered the goods in execution.
Not only did UFC 275 treat us to a stone-cold classic title bout in its headliner, but it was also filled with explosive moments up and down the card.
In fact, the quality of some of the fights we saw last night is likely to mean that they’ll end up amongst the most memorable of the year, a big achievement given how good 2022 has been thus far.
Here are the five most explosive moments from UFC 275: Glover Teixeira vs. Jiri Prochazka.
#5. Jake Matthews produces his best UFC performance to deal with Andre Fialho
Prior to last night’s event, the last time we saw Jake Matthews in the octagon was in March 2021. The Australian lost to Sean Brady in that fight in a largely one-sided affair, snapping a three-fight win streak. It seemed to confirm something that fans had feared for a while. Namely, that ‘The Celtic Kid’ would never quite reach his potential.
At UFC 275, though, Matthews returned to take on the streaking Andre Fialho, who delivered two brutal knockouts in the space of a few weeks in 2022. If anything, this fight looked set up for the Portuguese to pick up a big win over a more experienced veteran.
Instead, though, it was Matthews who surprised everyone by looking better than he’d ever done before, particularly on the feet.
He took the fight to Fialho in the first round with a much improved boxing game, and while he did get tagged in the final seconds of the stanza, it didn’t take him long to get back to business in the second.
‘The Celtic Kid’ hit the Portuguese with a perfectly-timed left hook and then continued to pour it on, catching Fialho with a series of clean punches while never getting overly wild in an attempt to finish. Finally, he backed the Portuguese into the fence, and dropped him with a big combination for the stoppage.
This was an explosive performance from Matthews and it should put him back on the map, particularly given how dangerous Fialho has looked previously. Given he’s still only 27 years old, with this kind of improvement he could well be a fighter to keep an eye on again.