After a decision win in his most recent appearance, Dustin Jacoby believes he needs to prove a point to the himself and the rest of the UFC’s light heavyweight division.
Jacoby is set to face Ion Cutelaba this Saturday at UFC Vegas 25. “The Hanyak” is stepping in on short notice to replace Devin Clark, who was forced to withdraw for undisclosed reasons.
After going 0-2 in his first stint with the UFC, Jacoby returned to the promotion over eight years later after earning a contract on Dana White’s Contender Series in August. The 33-year-old picked up his first octagon win with a a first-round TKO win over Justin Ledet at UFC Vegas 12 in October. He would go on to pick up a hard fought win over Maxim Grishin in February at UFC Vegas 20 and looks to keep the train moving in an exciting matchup on Saturday’s main card.
When it comes to just name value alone, we do. Reyes (12-2) fought Jon Jones for the UFC s light heavyweight championship 14 months ago and many observers thought he should have won the judges decision in that fight. Prochazka (27-3-1) has been a champion in another promotion, and he made a splash in his UFC debut last year.
Action returns to the UFC Apex on Saturday, as top-10 light heavyweights Dominick Reyes and Jiri Prochazka square off in the main event. Reyes is coming off back-to-back title fight losses, while the emergent Prochazka carries a 12-fight win streak after defeating Volkan Oezdemir in his UFC debut.
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Ion Cuteleba was up to no good again at the UFC Vegas 25 staredowns.
The light heavyweight apparently couldn’t wait until fight night to get a hold of opponent Dustin Jacoby. Following Friday’s official weigh-ins, Cutelaba grabbed onto the back of Jacoby’s neck when they faced off, causing Jacoby to shove him and security to step in to separate the fighters.
Watch the exchange above.
This isn’t the first time that Cutelaba has made the most of his camera time before fight night. “The Hulk” has previously shown up covered in green paint for the weigh-ins and he got uncomfortably close with rival Magomed Ankalaev when they faced off in the past.
UFC Vegas 25 loses bout after Jonathan Pearce refuses to fight overweight Gabriel Benitez
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Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images
A botched weight cut has cost UFC Vegas 25 a “Prelims” matchup tomorrow night (Sat., May 1, 2021) live on ESPN2/ESPN+ from inside UFC APEX in Las Vegas, Nev., as Jonathan Pearce has pulled out of his clash with Gabriel Benitez after “Moggly” missed weight.
Watch UFC Vegas 25 On ESPN+ Here! UFC continues its live events schedule on May 1 with its Dominick Reyes vs. Jiri Prochazka-led fight card from Las Vegas available to stream RIGHT HERE don’t miss a single second of face-punching action!
You never get a second chance to make a first impression. That is, unless your name is Dustin Jacoby.
Jacoby’s story is a tale of three lives. He burst onto the MMA scene at age 22 and went on a 6-0 run as a pro. He scored a UFC contract by age 24. However, he was cut before his 25th birthday. From there, he bounced around between a few regional promotions and lost back-to-back Bellator fights. This led to a step back from MMA for about four and a half years.
During his time away, Jacoby took on a new life as a pro kickboxer. He won a couple of tournaments under the GLORY Kickboxing banner before eventually capturing the league’s middleweight title in 2016. He got injured twice, though, and eventually stepped away from kickboxing as well.