UFC Fight Night ‘Henderson vs. Thatch’ Notebook: Flight Path

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Former Bellator MMA champion Zach Makovsky finds himself in the middle of a deepening and improving Ultimate Fighting Championship flyweight division.

A victor in four of his last five fights, Makovsky will collide with Tim Elliott as part of the UFC Fight Night “Henderson vs. Thatch” prelims on Saturday at the 1stBank Center in Broomfield, Colo. Stakes will be undeniably high for the two would-be contenders at 125 pounds, as they jockey for position behind reigning flyweight king Demetrious Johnson.

Makovsky last appeared at UFC Fight Night “Bader vs. St. Preux” in August, when he saw his four-fight winning streak grind to a halt in a unanimous decision defeat to Jussier da Silva at the Cross Insurance Center in Bangor, Maine. Da Silva executed a pair of takedowns and three guard passes against the man they call “Fun Size,” overcoming a 59-51 striking deficit on the FightMetric chart. Makovsky wrestled collegiately at Drexel University and holds the rank of purple belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu under four-time Abu Dhabi Combat Club Submission Wrestling World Championships gold medalist Marcelo Garcia. The 32-year-old has compiled a 2-1 record since arriving in the UFC in 2013, with wins over Scott Jorgensen and Josh Sampo preceding the loss to da Silva.

Elliott will enter the cage on a two-fight losing streak, having fallen to Ali Bagautinov and Joseph Benavidez in consecutive appearances. The 28-year-old has not fought since April, when he submitted to a Benavidez guillotine choke at UFC 172 in Baltimore. Elliott first raised eyebrows in late 2011, as he knocked out former UFC lightweight champion Jens Pulver with a second-round knee strike at a Resurrection Fighting Alliance event; he was in the UFC a little less than five months later. Elliott has built his success through an excellent transition game and superb conditioning.

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Makovsky recognizes the considerable hurdle in front of him.

“He is a hyper-aggressive, unorthodox fighter with good wrestling and very good scrambling,” he said in his pre-fight interview with UFC.com. “He seems to thrive on the chaos his style creates.”

NO SLOWING DOWN

Life has never been better for Neil Magny.

A semifinalist on Season 16 of “The Ultimate Fighter” reality series, Magny will ride a string of five straight wins into his featured battle with former Heat champion Kiichi Kunimoto. He last appeared at UFC 179 in October, when he put away William Macario with third-round punches at Maracanazinho Gymnasium in Rio de Janeiro. A protégé of former World Extreme Cagefighting titleholder Miguel Torres, Magny now operates out of the Grudge Training Center in Colorado. He will have a five-inch height and nine-inch reach advantage over Kunimoto.

Magny believes in the power of persistence.

“I’ve been part of MMA for nine years now, and it’s finally starting to pay off for me,” he said during a “Why I Fight” vignette for UFC.com. “It’s great. It just goes to show everyone else that if you have a dream, just go ahead and work towards it. Don’t let anything hold you back. It may take a little longer than others, but your day in the spotlight will eventually come.”

THIS & THAT

MMA Lab representative Benson Henderson is one of five men to have held undisputed titles in both the UFC and the WEC. Frank Shamrock, Anthony Pettis, Jose Aldo and Dominick Cruz are the others ... Brandon Thatch has finished 11 opponents inside one round, six of them in less than a minute ... American Top Team’s Cole Miller sports 15 submissions among his 21 professional victories: five by guillotine choke, four by rear-naked choke, four by triangle choke and one each by kimura and armbar ... Dan Kelly was a four-time Olympian in judo for his native Australia, placing ninth in 2000 and seventh in 2004 ... Xtreme Couture’s Kevin Lee, 22, is the seventh-youngest fighter on the active UFC roster ... When Ray Borg was born on Aug. 4, 1993, the top five movies at the domestic box office were “Rising Sun,” “Robin Hood: Men in Tights,” “In the Line of Fire,” “Free Willy” and “Jurassic Park” ... In 31 career appearances, “The Ultimate Fighter” Season 8 winner Efrain Escudero has never been stopped on strikes ... Nik Lentz compiled a 125-21 record as a prep wrestler at Bloomington Jefferson High School in Minnesota ... Former Cage Warriors Fighting Championship titleholder Jim Alers graduated from the University of Central Florida with a degree in elementary education ... Black House export James Moontasri is a two-time United States national champion in tae kwon do.

INSIDE THE VENUE

The 1stBank Center opened in November 2006 at a cost of $45 million and can seat up to 7,000 people. It has played host to two previous Ultimate Fighting Championship events: UFC Fight Night “Florian vs. Lauzon” on April 2, 2008 and UFC Live 1 “Jones vs. Vera” on March 21, 2010.