Zac Pacleb

Las Vegas

Digital Content Manager at UFC

writer, digital content manager @ufc(dot)com || one-half of @blindspotters || soft-spots: liverpool fc, one tree hill, burritos || he/him

Articles

Crying While Watching Joy Ride & Other Thoughts About Mother’s Day

4 days ago | zacpacleb.substack.com | Zac Pacleb

An actual fact about myself that I believe to be odd is that, of the many movies I’ve watched in the last five years or so, none has made me cry harder than Joy Ride. I find it strange because Joy Ride is a comedy in which four Asian-American women travel across China and hijinks ensue. Those hijinks include: taking a smorgasbord of drugs, posing as a K-pop group and NBA all-star Baron Davis showing up for an insane sequence I won’t spoil. And yet! I genuinely sobbed both times I watched it.
Belal Muhammad Is Working Harder Than Ever

1 week ago | ufc.com | Zac Pacleb

Unlock MORE of your inner combat sports fan with UFC Fight Pass! Fighting is what we live for. And no one brings you MORE live fights, new shows, and events across multiple combat sports from around the world. With a never-ending supply of fighting in every discipline, there’s always something new to watch.
April 2025 Roundup | Sliding Scales, Sinners and Standout New Movies

1 week ago | zacpacleb.substack.com | Zac Pacleb

Recently, I’ve been rolling around this idea of grading movies using a variable maximum number and rating accordingly as opposed to going out-of-10 every time.
Deiveson Figueiredo Wants To Make History

1 week ago | ufc.com | Zac Pacleb

Deiveson Figueiredo has legacy on the mind. Although it’s normal for any athlete to consider their own legacy while they are in the midst ofcrafting it, most try to reserve that kind of self-reflection for when it’s all said and done. At 37, however, the former flyweight champion understands his time remaining in the sport is finite, so as he approaches his main event matchup with Cory Sandhagen in Des Moines, he is frank about the targets he has remaining in his sights.
Jack Della Maddalena | Journey To Title Shot

1 week ago | ufc.com | Zac Pacleb

In a division full of larger-than-life personalities and fighters happy to get on the microphone, Jack Della Maddalena leans more toward the “speak softly and carry a big stick” side of things. The 28-year-old Australian let his fighting do the talking, and when you’re racking up the knockouts he has since joining the roster, that’s plenty loud enough.
Cory Sandhagen: ‘The Time Is Now’

2 weeks ago | ufc.com | Zac Pacleb

Cory Sandhagen is clear minded about his intentions as he approaches his sixth main event on May 3. He needs to take out former flyweight champion Deiveson Figueiredo, and he’d like to do so in a way that puts him back in the thick of the bantamweight title picture. Part of the clarity comes with age and experience. The Colorado native has 14 UFC fights under his belt, and about half of that tenure has been spent in the division’s ultracompetitive Top 10.
The Ultra-Competitive Welterweight Title Picture Enters The Spotlight

2 weeks ago | ufc.com | Zac Pacleb

Although the general mixed martial arts fanbase gravitates toward the lightweight division when it comes to the most intriguing title pictures—and fairly so— the crowd around the welterweight throne which Belal Muhammad currently occupies is increasingly fascinating. With the belt going up for grabs on May 10, it’s prime time for the division’s title hopefuls to jockey and position themselves for a shot at whoever walks away with the strap in Montreal.
Ian Machado Garry | Short-Notice Risk-Taker

3 weeks ago | ufc.com | Zac Pacleb

Ian Machado Garry is the first to tell you how good he is and how good he will be. On his UFC.com athlete profile, the 27-year-old Irishman lists “ego” as his biggest strength, and while any human needs confidence to step into the Octagon, Machado Garry’s self-belief is something closer to his superpower. Through nine walks to the Octagon, he has pretty much backed up his words.
Main Event Spotlight | Machado Garry vs Prates

3 weeks ago | ufc.com | Zac Pacleb

In the last decade or so, the lightweight division has emerged as the highest-profile weight class in the UFC due to its unique mixture of historically high-level fighters and captivating personalities. Meanwhile, the featherweight and bantamweight divisions cultivated reputations as the deepest weight classes with the toughest paths to and through the rankings.
Belal Muhammad Welcomes All Doubters

3 weeks ago | ufc.com | Zac Pacleb

All that work is currently aimed at his first title defense at UFC 315 in Montreal. Originally, many believed he would face the undefeated Shavkat Rakhmonov. The two even faced off following Rakhmonov’s win over Ian Machado Garry at UFC 310, but an injury changed those plans, and after some shuffling, Australia’s Jack Della Maddalena got the call. Muhammad joked that he was surprised as anyone and took a little satisfaction in the fact that Della Maddalena was originally slated to face Edwards.