This weekend is a big one for Australian MMA with JDM’s title defense at UFC 322. Not only that but it’s the celebration of 100 Eternal MMA fight cards which is an incredible accomplishment by any active Australian promotion.
In celebration, Eternal 100 and Eternal 101 are being held on back-to-back evenings, which despite losing some fights both still shape to be interesting cards with meaningful fights on them.
I have picked my three favourite fights from each card and given a short breakdown for each.
A reminder for fans wanting to tune in live, both main cards will begin at 2 am PST/5 am EST and will be available on UFC Fight Pass. The preliminary cards will both begin 3.5 hours earlier at 10.30 pm PST/1.30 am EST and those will be streamed on YouTube.
Eternal 100
Tasar Malone (4-2) v Oscar Marlowe (2-1) – Featherweight
The new main event of Eternal 100, Malone v Marlowe is a really intriguing fight that will answer a lot of questions on both sides. Malone is a fighter a lot of us on the Australian regional scene rate highly. Having showcased some nasty grappling skills which he pairs with improving hands. His two pro losses came to Justin van Heerden and Seb Szalay, two highly respected fighters in their own rights and losses which Malone would have learnt a lot from.
In a must-win spot for Malone, he faces the 23-year-old Marlowe who burst onto the pro scene late last year with a shock upset win over the highly touted Jett Fisher. Marlowe would go 1-1 in his next two fights, losing to an underrated Ethan Mitchell before knocking out Lucas Cannon at Showdown 24. Marlowe has shown some nice skills especially for his age, but this is a big step-up in competition for him that will also answer a lot of questions about his upside. At only 23, if now isn’t his time he’ll learn some invaluable lessons taking a big headlining spot like this against a strong fighter in Malone so early in his career.
It wouldn’t be a shock to me at all to see both these fighters in the UFC at some point. This proves to be a big opportunity for one of these guys to make a big statement and probably earn themselves a vacant title opportunity against the top contender at Featherweight, Kevin Kophamel.
Matt Fordham (3-0) v Niamh Stephen (3-4) – Lightweight
This might seem like a prospect fighting a negative record fighter to pad their stats, but this fight could not be further from it. Niamh Stephen is a tricky grappler whose losses have come to genuine high-level opposition in Tom Nolan, Quillan Salkilld, Harry Webb and Coby Porter (who isn’t as good, but still a very good fighter in his own right.) His record betrays his skillset, and he’s a much more formidable threat than his 3-4 record have you believe on the surface.
On the other side though, Fordham is a prospect I have serious hopes for going forward. He’s a fighter I think has UFC upside in the future. Fordham is yet to taste defeat across his professional and amateur careers, holding impressive wins over the likes of the aforementioned Coby Porter and John Brewin most recently. Fordham has shown a capacity to finish fights with both his striking and his submissions, and really proves to be a well-rounded fighter with genuine danger wherever the fight plays out. He is still young in his career, but he has shown a strong ability to exponentially improve and is really starting to fire on all cylinders.
This fight proves to be a step up in competition for Fordham. Whilst I can’t reiterate enough how much better Niamh Stephen is than his record, I think it’ll be hard for Stephen to get this one done. The winner of this fight is likely to be in-line for a fight against Harry Webb sometime in 2026.
Aidyn Gould (5-0) v Dominic Aston (7-1) – Featherweight (Amateur)
This is a super fight for amateur MMA between two of the brightest amateur prospects in the country. I’m unsure whether this fight is on the main card or headlining the preliminary card due to the late fallouts. For me, this is the fight I’m most excited about on Eternal 100 even before the fallouts and one I can’t recommend enough tuning in for if you’re able to. It should be entertaining as long as it lasts.
Effectively both undefeated with Aston’s only loss coming to Brodie Mayocchi. These really are two of the best Australia has to offer coming through the amateur ranks. It’s a real treat to be able to see them matched up to fight as far too often we see those types of fights avoided.
Gould is a fighter with a penchant for finishing fights. Four of his five wins coming via finish, he’s really unbothered whether that finish takes place on the feet or the ground. Aston on the other hand has arguably been able to showcase more of his skills, and is a bit more of the known commodity, at least to me. Aston has some really impressive wins on his record such as his victories over Bas Demirel, Alex Poniris, and Dazz Kolovos to name a few. That isn’t to discredit Gould’s record either as his win over Jaden Dalrymple proved his level, but Gould also only made his amateur debut just over a year ago so he’s really burst onto the scene in a big way.
From this fight, the winner will likely set themselves up well for a very bright and prosperous future and cement themselves as the next big prospect to come through the Australian scene.
Eternal 101
George Mangos (7-1) v Justin van Heerden – Featherweight
Fresh off a frustrating stylistic matchup on DWCS against an admittedly high-level Radley da Silva, Mangos is back on the Australian regional scene in a rematch against Justin van Heerden. At the time, his toughest fight to date prior to da Silva.
Mangos for me is one of the best prospects on the planet and is somehow still only 22 years old which is utterly absurd for how good he is. His striking has been exponentially improving to the point he poses a serious threat on the feet, and his grappling is highly technical and underpinned by how physically strong Mangos is. His fight against da Silva showed that fighters simply do not want to engage with him, and that’s even with da Silva being arguably one of the most talented fighters on the regional scene.
It may have only been 17 months since their last fight, but this fight will go to show how much Mangos has improved since their first fight. Van Heerden is a skilled grappler in his own right and has some decent striking too that some guys can find tricky to deal with given how well he mixes things together. He is undoubtedly one of the best 145ers in Australia today and warrants being in this spot. I really like Van Heerden both as a fighter and more importantly as a person and I don’t like disregarding his chances like I am, but there’s very few fighters on the planet I’m picking to beat George Mangos and none of them fight on the regional scene.
Mangos is genuinely a special talent, and if Van Heerden could get this done in pretty much any fashion that doesn’t resemble what Radley da Silva did, it should be enough to possibly sign to the UFC.
Ran Deng (1-0) v Yaqoot Hakimi (0-0) – Lightweight
Ran Deng is someone I really like and have high hopes for. Fresh off a really impressive professional debut against Yusuke Sato, Deng has the opportunity to really set himself up with a win over the completely unknown Yaqoot Hakimi, who I honestly don’t know anything at all about.
It’s tough because neither us nor Deng will know what to expect for this fight, but with that said I like Deng’s striking and this feels like a spot for him to succeed in and gain valuable experience. It will be interesting to see how this fight plays out. Mostly, I want to see what, if any improvements Deng has made since his last fight because gauging that rate of improvement will be important to judging his future outlook in the sport.
Michael Alsop (1-0) v Kotone Tada (0-0) – Flyweight
Whilst Tapology have this fight listed as an amateur bout, I believe the fight is a pro bout. Either way, this is an interesting matchup with Alsop being a strong amateur holding a 7-2 record and Tada being undefeated in his amateur career at 3-0 and out of a good camp in Japan Top Team.
Alsop is already 30 and needs to really hit the ground running here. Fighting out of Infinite MMA, he has a strong team behind him and a good crop of sparring partners for him to consistently improve his game. Tada is a fighter I admittedly don’t know too much about. Holding an undefeated record I’m interested to see how he compares to Alsop who I’ve been able to see a lot of especially comparatively.
This matchup is a bit of an unknown to me, but that’s part of the fun and I’m interested to see if Alsop can make a quick impact after turning pro last month.