#UFC MMA MMAZealot UFC215 11Defenses Cigano

[themmazealot-blog]

UFC 215 Johnson v Borg

On September 9th, 2017  Demetrious Johnson will be taking on Ray Borg to break former UFC Middleweight Champion Anderson Silva’s shared record of 10 Title Defenses.

Ray Borg comes into this fight with a UFC record of 5-2 whilst riding a 2 fight winning streak. Two of Borg’s UFC wins are marred by failed weight cuts against Geane Herrera (August 8th, 2015; 126.75) and against Louis Smolka (December 30th, 2016; 129.50). 

Demetrious Johnson hasn’t lost since October 1st, 2011 when he lost to  Dominick Cruz for the Bantamweight Championship of the World.

UFC 215 has two Championship fights; the Women’s Bantamweight Championship fight between Defending Champion Amanda “the Lioness” Nunes  and Valentina “Bullet” Shevchenko and the aforementioned fight between Demetrious “Mighty Mouse” Johnson and Ray Borg for the World Flyweight Championship. 

Fight of the Night:

Gilbert “El Nino” Melendez is making his Featherweight Debut against Jeremy  “Lil Heathen” Stephens. This is a very important fight for both men, Stephens is on a two fight skid, losing 5 of his last 7, and Melendez has a record of 1-4 in the UFC with his lone win coming of a fight of the year contender with Diego Sanchez in 2013.

This fight is The MMA Zealot’s pick for Fight of the Night due to the aggressive nature of both of these fighters and their willingness to trade in the pocket and because of their previous FOTN accolades.

Performance of the Night:

Junior dos Santos &  Demetrious Johnson are the MMA Zealot’s picks for Performance of the Night bonuses. 

Francis Ngannou is receiving a huge push from the UFC, in hopes, that he will be the next “big thing” in the UFC’s heavyweight division (pun intended). Unfortunately for Francis, is that he is facing former UFC Heavyweight Champion Junior “Cigano” Dos Santos.

The word “Gatekeeper” in the MMA community seems to be looked down upon but when talking about heavyweights, I would like to use “Gatekeeper” as a term of endearment for “Cigano” because he is one of, if not the most, consistent heavyweight fighters on the UFC’s roster; which is hard due to the immense amount of power heavyweights can generate in those 4 oz gloves. I believe that Cigano will outbox Ngannou and send him back to the drawing board while propelling Cigano to his 6th heavyweight title fight.

Demetrious Johnson is the most complete and technical fighter in the world and it isn’t even close. After breaking Anderson Silva’s record, let’s hope that Mighty Mouse will start having super fights outside of his division; Flyweight is basically cleared out (UFC 215 features two former Flyweight Title Challengers in Henry Cejudo v Wilson Reis) and it needs time to build up more contenders. 

The MMA Zealot believes that Mighty Mouse will finish this fight in two rounds or less earning his 8th performance bonus.

Fighter to Watch:

Sara McMann seems to have found her proverbial “groove” during her current 3 fight win streak. McMann’s last two fights were both submission victories via arm-triangle choke; it will be interesting to see if McMann continues to get top position and go for the arm triangle or if her BJJ will continue to evolve on her way to another crack at UFC Gold. 

As of August 12th, 2017, Sara McMann now trains at Urijah Faber’s Team Alpha Male (which also houses current Bantamweight Champion Cody Garbrandt) which could be what is needed for her next step as a freestyle wrestler turned Mixed Martial Artist.