Sherdog’s Top 10: Can’t-Miss MMA Fights of February

All the countless hours in the gym have led Ilia Topuria exactly where he expected them to.

The undefeated Climent Club representative will challenge Alexander Volkanovski for the undisputed Ultimate Fighting Championship featherweight crown in the UFC 298 main event on Feb. 17 at the Honda Center in Anaheim, California. A top-flight prospect when he entered the promotion three-plus years ago, Topuria has since emerged as the clear No. 1 contender at 145 pounds behind an all-purpose game that resulted in finishes of Damon Jackson, Ryan Hall, Jai Herbert and Bryce Mitchell. “El Matador” last suited up at UFC on ABC 5, where he took a one-sided unanimous decision from Josh Emmett on June 24. Volkanovski, meanwhile, has never lost as a featherweight. The City Kickboxing-trained Aussie last fought on Oct. 21, when he succumbed to a first-round head kick and follow-up punches from Islam Makhachev in a second failed bid to capture the light heavyweight title at UFC 294. Three wins over the great Max Holloway anchor Volkanovski’s impeccable resume.

The Volkanovski-Topuria showdown is but one can’t-miss fight in February. Here are nine more:

Aliaskhab Khizriev vs. Makhmud Muradov
UFC Fight Night 235
Feb. 3 | Las Vegas
Khizriev might not be a prototypical prospect—he turns 34 in August—but he nevertheless steps back into the spotlight with a perfect 12-0 record in tow. Still looking to establish himself as a clear-and-present danger to the rest of the UFC middleweight division, the former Fight Nights Global champion has not competed since he put Denis Tiuliulin to sleep with a rear-naked choke in the second round of their UFC on ESPN 33 pairing nearly two years ago. While inactivity may have curbed some of the enthusiasm surrounding him, Khizriev’s five sub-minute finishes account for nearly half of his career win total and serve as a warning to those who populate the 185-pound weight class. On the other side of the equation, the knockout-minded Muradov has won 15 of his past 17 bouts. He last appeared at UFC Fight Night 224, where he snapped a two-fight losing streak with a three-round unanimous decision over Bryan Barberena on July 22.

Javier Garcia vs. Elijah Johns
LFA 176
Feb. 9 | Phoenix
The Legacy Fighting Alliance featherweight championship will be up for grabs when Garcia defends his title in a rematch at Arizona Financial Theatre. Garcia, 31, operates out of Erik Paulson’s famed CSW camp and enters the cage on the strength of a three-fight winning streak. “El Mariachi” last fought on July 21, when he choked Johns unconscious with an arm-triangle in the second round of their LFA 163 main event. A little more than seven months later, they run it back. The loss to Garcia was Johns’ first via stoppage and came on the heels of back-to-back victories over Brandon Phillips and Masuto Kawana. Should the Fortis MMA rep emerge victorious in the rematch, he would join Garcia, Kevin Aguilar, Damon Jackson, Justin Gonzales, Bruno Souza and Gabriel Santos as the seventh featherweight champion in LFA history.

Evgeniy Goncharov vs. Anton Vyazigin
ACA 170
Feb. 9 | Moscow
Goncharov, 37, will risk his Absolute Championship Akhmat title when he rematches Vyazigin in the semifinals of the 2023 ACA heavyweight grand prix at CSKA Arena. The two men met once previously, with Goncharov taking a unanimous decision from the “Cherepovets Giant” under the Russian Cagefighting Championship banner in 2020. He has since improved to 20-3 overall and pushed his current winning streak to five bouts by beating Daniel Omielanczuk, Tony Johnson , Mukhomad Vakhaev and Alikhan Vakhaev in succession. The 6-foot-5, 265-pound Vyazigin has suited up only once since his first encounter with Goncharov, as he was awarded a unanimous verdict over the aforementioned Johnson in the tournament quarterfinals on June 2.

Jack Hermansson vs. Joseph Pyfer
UFC Fight Night 236
Feb. 10 | Las Vegas
Pyfer draws a Top 10 opponent for the first time and does so in a headlining assignment when the UFC touches down in Sin City on the eve of Super Bowl LVIII. The former Ring of Combat champion and two-time Dana White’s Contender Series alum approaches his most significant opportunity to date having rattled off five straight victories, all of them via stoppage. Pyfer, 27, last competed at UFC Fight Night 229, where he put away Abdul Razak Alhassan with an arm-triangle choke in the second round of their Oct. 7 confrontation. On the other side of the docket, Hermansson has alternated wins and losses in each of his past seven outings. The ex-Cage Warriors Fighting Championship titleholder owns a 10-6 record in the UFC, highlighted by a 49-second guillotine choke finish of David Branch, a 78-second heel hook submission of Kelvin Gastelum and a five-round unanimous decision over Ronaldo Souza.

Merab Dvalishvili vs. Henry Cejudo
UFC 298
Feb. 17 | Anaheim, California
Now the unofficial boogeyman of the bantamweight division, Dvalishvili has methodically pieced together a nine-fight winning streak at 135 pounds and finds himself perhaps a breath away from a title shot. The Serra-Longo Fight team ranks second among active fighters in takedowns completed (74)—only Clay Guida (78) has been credited with more—and has executed 10 or more in four of his 11 starts inside the Octagon. Dvalishvili last strapped on the gloves at UFC Fight Night 221, where he recorded 11 takedowns and landed a career-high 147 significant strikes in a five-round unanimous decision over Petr Yan on March 11. With that said, Cejudo poses a serious threat to anyone in the lighter-weight classes. The onetime Olympic gold medalist and former two-division UFC champion returned from a three-year sabbatical in May, when he wound up on the wrong side of a split verdict against Dvalishvili stablemate Aljamain Sterling at UFC 288. Cejudo has held UFC gold at 125 and 135 pounds.

Valeriu Mircea vs. Leo Brichta
KSW 91
Feb. 17 | Liberec, Czech Republic
Stakes are unquestionably high for Mircea and Brichta, as they prepare to duke it out for the interim Konfrontacja Sztuk Walki lightweight championship at Honda Credit Arena. A unification bout with incumbent titleholder and promotional cornerstone Salahdine Parnasse likely awaits the winner. Mircea, 30, carries a 29-8-1 record that features 24 finishes: 12 by knockout or technical knockout and 12 more by submission. “The Solitary Wolf” steps back into view on a run of three straight victories. Brichta, meanwhile, has not tasted defeat in more than four years, having put together an 8-0 mark with one no contest across his past nine outings. He last fought at KSW 87, where he buried Roman Szymanski with third-round punches on Oct. 14.

Devin Smyth vs. Shamidkhan Magomedov
LFA 177
Feb. 23 | Niagara Falls, New York
The fate of the interim Legacy Fighting Alliance welterweight crown will hang in the balance when Smyth toes the line against Magomedov at the Seneca Niagara Event Center. Reigning champion Geraldo Coelho de Lima Neto has not fought since September, creating the need for a placeholder. Smyth, the godson and protégé of former UFC light heavyweight titleholder Rashad Evans, enters the cage after authoring one of the most memorable knockouts of 2023—a spinning wheel kick finish of Jonathan Piersma in the LFA 167 main event on Sept. 15. His career remains in the developmental stage, as Smyth does not turn 29 until July. Magomedov represents his next hurdle. A decorated grappler with ironclad credentials, the once-beaten Russian has the momentum of a four-fight winning streak in his corner. He improved to 2-0 under the LFA flag in September, when he outpointed Bahromjon Mashrapov to a unanimous verdict.

Yair Rodriguez vs. Brian Ortega
UFC Fight Night 237
Feb. 24 | Mexico City
They needed a do-over. Rodriguez was awarded a technical knockout over Ortega in their first meeting at UFC on ABC 3 in July 2022, the stoppage the result of a shoulder injury suffered by the California a little more than four minutes into the first round. Ortega has not fought since. Even more worrisome, the longtime featherweight contender has not recorded a victory since he outdueled Chan Sung Jung across five rounds more than three years ago. At 32 and with injuries, mileage and inactivity mounting, how much does Ortega have left in the tank? Rodriguez, meanwhile, owns a 10-3 record in the UFC having lost only to former champions Frankie Edgar, Max Holloway and Alexander Volkanovski. “The Ultimate Fighter Latin America” Season 1 winner took a deserved vacation following his failed bid to capture the undisputed featherweight title in a third-round TKO defeat to Volkanovski at UFC 290 on July 8.

Jesus Pinedo vs. Patricio Freire
PFL “PFL vs. Bellator Champs”
Feb. 24 | Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
The first Professional Fighters League event of 2024 features several champion-versus-champion superfights in an attempt to capitalize on its purchase of Bellator MMA in November. Pinedo was of the breakout stars of the PFL’s most recent season, as he became an unlikely million-dollar winner at 145 pounds with back-to-back-to-back upsets of Brendan Loughnane, Bubba Jenkins and Gabriel Braga. He finished all three men inside three rounds. Now, the Peruvian takes his swings at validation in a showdown with a longtime Bellator pillar in Freire. A four-time champion in the promotion, “Pitbull” makes his PFL debut on the heels of consecutive defeats to Sergio Pettis and Chihiro Suzuki. The 36-year-old Freire has delivered 23 of his 35 career victories by knockout, technical knockout or submission.