#ufn107

[writingsubmissions]

Fights to Make: UFC London

Jimi Manuwa (beat Corey Anderson) vs. Mauricio Rua: Just a few months ago, it looked like Manuwa had sort of flamed out as a prospect, but just two wins later, he’s suddenly one of the top contenders in the light heavyweight division. Wins over Ovince St. Preux and Anderson are fine enough, but it’s more the way that Manuwa has done it rather than anything else; he’s just absolutely melted both fellow fringe contenders, doing so to Anderson in just over three minutes. If one assumes Jon Jones isn’t back in action in time for the next title defense, Manuwa and Shogun Rua look like the next two possible contenders - I’ll run under the assumption that Jones gets the next shot, so Manuwa against Rua for that top contender spot makes the most sense.

Gunnar Nelson (beat Alan Jouban) vs. Dong Hyun Kim: Well, that was a reminder why people get so excited about Nelson - he looked outstanding here, more or less schooling Jouban (who has a submission background) on the ground before ending things with a picture-perfect punch into a funky choke submission. I’m still not sure Nelson’s weird bag of skills gets him into title contention, but he can still be a cult favorite and a viable headliner for smaller shows - in that vein, I’d like to see UFC try to rebook his fight with Dong Hyun Kim, which was slated to headline Belfast last November before Nelson got hurt. And given that Kim’s one of the few viable Asian headliners, that might make perfect sense for the Singapore card coming up in June.

Corey Anderson (lost to Jimi Manuwa) vs. Ilir Latifi: Well, this is another bump in the road for Anderson, and I’m not really sure how it changes things - he’s still pretty good, he’s still not ready for contention, and he still has one of the highest ceilings in the division, so it’s just still sort of a matter of waiting things out and seeing how he develops. Also, the thinness of the light heavyweight division makes matchmaking for Anderson kind of weird, since there’s not really much of a middle tier left as far as guys he can continue to improve against. I guess let’s go with Ilir Latifi, since that’d be a weird, funky fight against a guy with dangerous knockout power.

Joe Duffy (beat Reza Madadi) vs. Rustam Khabilov: Well, this assumes Duffy’s next fight will be in the UFC, since his contract is up, but he looked great here and pretty much treated Reza Madadi as the stepping stone he was supposed to be. Let’s get Duffy back in the mix as far as ranked lightweights, so let’s go with a guy on the fringe top-fifteen in Khabilov who can act as a final test for Duffy’s wrestling defense.

Leon Edwards (beat Vicente Luque) vs. Jake Ellenberger/Mike Perry (Apr. 22) winner: So, Leon Edwards is kind of a thing now, following up a big win over Albert Tumenov with another one against fellow top prospect Luque. There’s still some concerns in Edwards’s game - mainly, his tendency to go for takedowns in fights where he doesn’t really need to - but he wouldn’t have that concern against the winner of the upcoming Ellenberger/Perry fight in Nashville, as that could serve as a fun scrap to see if Edwards can start making a run up the rankings.

Alan Jouban (lost to Gunnar Nelson) vs. Alberto Mina: Well, that didn’t go too well for Jouban, as that pretty much served as a showcase fight for Nelson, and probably cemented Jouban’s fate as one of the better action fighters on the roster rather than a contender. Let’s go a bit off the board and put Jouban against Alberto Mina, a Brazilian-turned-Hong Kong native who’s fairly inactive - Mina’s shown flashes of dynamism, so this could be a fun fight, and would be a big test to see if Mina can actually start gaining some notoriety for when he actually fights.

Tim Johnson (beat Daniel Omielanczuk) vs. Andrei Arlovski: Well, that was a fight that happened. Johnson and Omielanczuk are solid, but not particularly dynamic, and...this was that Still, Johnson’s probably a fringe top-ten heavyweight at this point, given how thin the division is and all the failed drug tests that have added to that, so I guess you kind of have to give the North Dakota native a name next - let’s go with Andrei Arlovski? Sure, since I guess it’d be a test to see if Arlovski is at all capable of getting a viable win at this point.

Arnold Allen (beat Makwan Amirkhani) vs. Godofredo Pepey: So, this was a pretty fun win for Allen - it wasn’t a blowout, but he got to show off his well-rounded skills and get a big win over a fellow top European prospect. Allen’s still young, so I’d give him a few more tests before seeing if he’s ready to move into deep waters - Pepey, an aggressive submission expert, is the sort of dangerous but beatable opponent that can be a solid step up.

Marc Diakiese (beat Teemu Packalen) vs. Gregor Gillespie/Andrew Holbrook (Apr. 8) winner: So, Diakiese finally put on a performance like he was doing at the end of his pre-UFC run, destroying Packalen with a vicious knockout in thirty seconds flat and reminding people why he’s one of the best prospects in the sport. You could go a variety of different directions from here, but I’d like to feed him one more grappler to test that aspect of his game before moving him up the ladder in earnest - either Gillespie or Holbrook, who square off at UFC 210, would be the most physical wrestler Diakiese has faced yet, so I like that as a next test.

Marlon Vera (beat Brad Pickett) vs. Ricardo Ramos: Well, that was something. Vera was pretty handily losing Brad Pickett’s retirement fight before scoring a knockout head kick in the third round, and turned around the depressed crowd a bit thanks to, frankly, a hell of a post-fight interview that did more to put over Pickett’s career than anyone else. Still, I’m kind of “eh” on Vera as a prospect - he’s still developing, but I see him more as a test for the blue-chippers, and enter Brazil’s Ricardo Ramos, who came in with a ton of hype and had a mixed-bag debut win against Michinori Tanaka in February.

Makwan Amirkhani (lost to Arnold Allen) vs. Teruto Ishihara: On the plus side, Amirkhani got to further show off how strong the positives of his game are, as his wrestling and submission skills looked sharp against Allen. But, well, this loss also showed how limited that game is, and how only being good in really one aspect limits Amirkhani to a clear ceiling. I like the idea of a fight against Japanese prospect Ishihara - it’s flawed striker against flawed wrestler, plus both guys sort of play the over-the-top character of a ladies’ man, so if nothing else, the pre-fight banter would be excellent.

Vicente Luque (lost to Leon Edwards) vs. Zak Ottow: This was a disappointing loss for Luque, but there’s still a lot to like - his dynamism continues to be dangerous, and while he gassed badly after essentially throwing heat for a round-plus, he did gut through it at the end of the fight to almost steal the decision win. I’d put him against a durable vet who’s not particularly dynamic to see how far Luque’s game can continue to take him, and Ottow’s a solid choice for that task.

Lina Lansberg (beat Lucie Pudilova) vs. Jessica Eye: Lansberg’s win over Pudilova was shockingly narrow and shockingly fun, as Pudilova came on strong at the end of the fight to basically leave Lansberg a bloody mess. Still, Lansberg’s a tough, fun striker, and I like the idea of her facing Jessica Eye in a stand-up war that should serve as Eye’s last test to see if she can remain in the UFC.

Francimar Barroso (beat Darren Stewart) vs. Tyson Pedro: Ugh. Barroso got another win to stay in the promotion, and continues to probably be the most boring fighter to watch in the UFC, just neutralizing foes and not doing a whole ton himself. I’m not against the idea of him serving as a bounce-back fight to get smashed by someone like, say, Corey Anderson, but I guess I’ll continue to use him as a gatekeeper for prospects, so step on up Australia’s Tyson Pedro, who looked good in beating Paul Craig at UFC 209.

Brad Scott (beat Scott Askham) vs. Gerald Meerschaert: Scott’s win over Askham was, well, a Brad Scott fight (and a Scott Askham fight, frankly) - kinda fun, completely unmemorable, and continuing a trend of alternating wins and losses for the Brit. Gerald Meerschaert’s kind of making a name for himself as a solid vet who’s looked good in two UFC wins to date, and Scott would be a solid step up for him, so sure, let’s do that.

Teemu Packalen (lost to Marc Diakiese) vs. Jake Matthews: Well, after beating Thibault Gouti in twenty-four seconds last time in London, the cosmos paid Packalen back, as Marc Diakiese annihilated him in just thirty. Sadly, while Packalen’s a fairly solid talent, this probably establishes the Finn as someone who’s not really a priority prospect, so I like the idea of him as a bounce-back fight for Australian prospect Jake Matthews. Matthews looked like a blue-chipper before losses to Kevin Lee and Andrew Holbrook greatly dimmed his star, so I could see Packalen, who’s a dangerous submission artist but should be physically out-matched, as a solid last test to see if Matthews can hang in the UFC.

Daniel Omielanczuk (lost to Tim Johnson) vs. Tai Tuivasa: Shrug. Omielanczuk continued his pattern of looking good against the absolute dregs of the heavyweight division, but not being able to beat anyone decent, which, sadly, still makes him a fringe ranked heavyweight with the state of things. I guess allow him to be the fighter for Australian heavyweight Tai Tuivasa to debut in the UFC against? Once again, shrug.

Reza Madadi (lost to Joe Duffy) vs. Chris Wade: Well, Madadi lost rather handily, as expected, and I don’t really know where you go with the veteran grappler from here - hell, I wouldn’t have even re-signed him after he spent some time in jail for helping rob a handbag store. Let’s put him against Long Island’s Chris Wade in a fight between two similar types of guys who need a win, loser gets cut.

Darren Stewart (lost to Francimar Barroso) vs. Aleksandar Rakic: A disappointing performance for Stewart, who turned out to not have many ideas past an initial flurry of offense and might be better served at middleweight. Let’s put him against debuting Austrian light heavyweight Rakic, in the absence of any better ideas.

Lucie Pudilova (lost to Lina Lansberg) vs. Gina Mazany: Pudilova acquitted herself surprisingly well here, losing a narrow fight to Lansberg where she got to bloody Lansberg’s face up in a fun brawl during a late comeback effort. I’d like to keep her around, and I don’t think much of Mazany, who was somewhat of a baffling signing as a late-notice replacement to face Sara McMann last month, so that’s a good fight to make in my mind.

Scott Askham (lost to Brad Scott) vs. Oluwale Bamgbose: This might be it for Askham, who came in with some hype and is a fine fighter, but just never really leaves an impact on a fight and has racked up a bunch of close losses in the UFC. If he gets another shot, Bamgbose, who was supposed to fight Tom Breese here before that fight got pulled, would be a nice last-ditch opponent, since he’s a striker that should remain dangerous, but Askham might have trouble putting away.

[writingsubmissions]

UFC Fight Night 107 Preview

WHAT'S HAPPENING: *Fight Night from Fortaleza looked good on paper and pretty much delivered on its promise, giving us fun fight after fun fight (save one) and probably becoming UFC's best card of 2017 in the process. Things did end on a bit of a downer, I suppose, with Kelvin Gastelum knocking out Brazilian legend Vitor Belfort about four minutes into the fight, but hey, at least both guys looked impressive before the finish happened. I know that's funny to say about Belfort in a fight where he got knocked out quickly, but he did look pretty solid technically and had some of his trademark aggressiveness back from a flat last two fights; it's just that Gastelum, undersized as he was, was just way too quick, particularly with his hands, as he clipped Belfort with some combinations a few times before putting him down for the finish. Belfort has already said his next fight will be his last, and UFC 212 in his hometown of Rio is the perfect place for it to happen, and Gastelum continues to look like he could be a star. Yes, most of his big wins are over aging former contenders, but at the very least he's cashing in impressively on those opportunities, and he even showed some starpower here, giving a post-fight interview in shockingly perfect Portuguese, then turning the crowd in his favor by getting them to sing "Happy Birthday" to his mother. Impressive stuff on pretty much every count. *Things went better for the other Brazilian legend on the card, as Mauricio "Shogun" Rua looked pretty good per late-career Brazilian legend standards, scoring a third-round knockout of Gian Villante. Rua's been one of those guys that has adapted surprisingly well as he ages, as he's learned to cut down on his aggression as his chin has gone, and instead focused on a more patient outside striking game. And that worked perfectly here - while there were some dangerous exchanges and Rua got hit flush a few times, he mostly was able to get the better of Villante on the feet and counter a lot of what the Long Islander threw. And eventually, Villante's weird defensive lapses came a bit too often, Rua was able to tag him with a solid shot, and then Shogun moved in for the kill with some pretty wonderful precision, eventually getting the knockout against the fence. With things at the top of the light heavyweight division sort of stagnant, Rua's suddenly a viable title contender, as this three-fight win streak is somehow the longest such run of his UFC tenure. I mean, he'll almost definitely get smoked by the upper tier of this division, but such is the nature of light heavyweight that Rua's probably the next guy outside of that, and it's also a testament to how he's been able to adapt. *Well, the 2017 knockout of the year race has a new frontrunner, as Edson Barboza absolutely annihilated Beneil Dariush with a flying knee, reminding everyone that the lightweight contender is still responsible for some of the most outstanding bursts of violence you'll find. The sad part, at least from Dariush's standpoint, is that Dariush was winning most of the fight, using some impressive pressure to pretty much keep Barboza on his toes, preventing the Brazilian from unleashing the hardest of his signature kicks. But it's a testament to how well Barboza has fine-tuned his game that he was still able to find a narrow opening in what had become a tricky matchup, and pretty much, well, kneed his way through it. Barboza's yet another guy who deserves a lightweight title shot at this point, but with Khabib's weight issues and McGregor's McGregorness holding everything up, who knows what's next, though it should be exciting. And, honestly, this was an impressive enough performance from Dariush before the knockout that he should be back in that mix in fairly short order. *Breakout performances were a big part of the undercard, and three young fighters in particular stood out as far as earning a big fight next time out. Ray Borg probably did the most as far as an upcoming title shot is concerned, given the nature of the flyweight division, as he earned a narrow decision win over perennial contender Jussier Formiga. It was a fight that easily could've gone the other way, as both guys pretty much went strike for strike and scramble for scramble, but with Borg getting the nod, he probably supplants Formiga as the best guy in the division that Demetrious Johnson hasn't beaten yet. Kevin Lee got the biggest win of his career by far on the prelims, scoring a second-round submission of Francisco Trinaldo and ending the Brazilian fan favorite's seven-fight win streak. Lee had some trouble early, as Trinaldo's still a much better technical striker, but as Trinaldo tired a bit, Lee was able to rock with Trinaldo with a burst of offense on the feet, then reverse things as they went to the ground before clamping on the fight-ending submission. Lee still needs to fully round out his game, particularly on the feet, but he's at least at the level where he's a going concern in a deep lightweight division, and should only keep improving from here on out. And Alex "Cowboy" Oliveira opened up the main card with a big win over Tim Means, also by second-round submission. The first fight between the two saw Means mostly get the better of things before throwing an illegal knee that got the fight pretty much thrown out, so this was a testament to how much Oliveira's improved in just three months, as he was bulling Means around in the clinch where he was getting thrown around in December. While Oliveira's already been in some prominent positions, including a FS1 main event against Donald Cerrone last year, now feels like the first time where he's looking like a future contender. *And some other fun stuff happened! Bethe Correia and Marion Reneau fought to a fun draw - the first two rounds were close, with two judges giving both to Correia, but then Reneau turned things around and laid an absolute beat down on Correia, bloodying her up and just destroying her on the ground. But Correia is tough as nails, as she popped right back up, celebrated her assumed win, and then...did a very, very naughty dance. She knows her strengths, at least, and I'll leave it at that. Joe Soto had a fun back-and-forth fight with Rani Yahya and scored a big decision win - oddly, after an accidental clash of heads caused Soto to bleed like crazy, it was Soto that got fired up and fought aggressively, while Yahya just seemed to tire out. Michel Prazeres unloaded on Joshua Burkman and scored a submission win within two minutes, which was long overdue for someone who's mostly been a boring grinder in the UFC. And the night kicked off with two impressive performances - Canadian prospect Jeremy Kennedy got a solid decision win over Rony Jason, which is more impressive for the fighter he beat rather than the execution, as Kennedy mostly just neutralized a dangerous finisher to get the win. And Paulo Borrachinha had an impressive UFC debut to kick off the show, just dropping bombs on Garreth McLellan for a quick TKO finish. Oh, also, Sergio Moraes beat Davi Ramos in the one lowlight of the card, a boring kickboxing match between two BJJ aces - that fight is pretty much a reminder of why UFC doesn't really do much with Moraes, despite a sterling UFC win-loss record. *Pretty much no news this week, save James Elliott, UFC's vice president of Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, leaving after this card in London. There doesn't seem to be anything shady going on here, but it does continue the mass exodus, willing or not, of a lot of UFC front office, so...shrug. ------ BOOKINGS: *Well, Kelvin Gastelum called his shot once again, as he'll face Anderson Silva at UFC 212 in Rio. I would've gone for the other participant in this past Saturday's main event, as Silva against Vitor Belfort seemed like an obvious retirement fight to make, possibly for both guys, but instead this is what we're getting. I get what UFC sees in Gastelum, since he's a young talent that can be their big Latino star, but he's already destroyed a few legends, and the storyline coming out of this might just be how depressing it is when Silva loses, rather than Gastelum establishing himself as more of a star. But hey, a lot of us will still watch. *So, UFC isn't really screwing around with UFC 211 in Dallas, huh? The card was already looking like the deepest of the year, but then the company added yet another big fight, as top Mexican prospect Yair Rodriguez is getting thrown right into the deep end against Frankie Edgar. I'm not really sure of the logic here, since Edgar seems like the worst possible matchup for Rodriguez as well as a gigantic step up, but, well, I guess if Rodriguez manages to win this, UFC knows they have a future champ on their hands, and if he loses, it's not like it'll be a damaging upset or anything. There has been some rumors of Edgar instead facing Ricardo Lamas at UFC 210, which would've made more sense, but it looks like that's out, and that the rumored "one more big fight" for the pay-per-view in Buffalo isn't going to materialize. *And there's some other interesting stuff, led by Misha Cirkunov returning from some contentious contract negotiations to face Volkan Oezdemir in the co-main event of the upcoming card in Stockholm. This is ostensibly a fight between two rising talents, since Cirkunov has established himself as the light heavyweight prospect to watch, while Oezdemir is coming off a big win against Ovince St. Preux, but, well, in practice, this should probably be a big showcase fight for Cirkunov before he goes on to bigger and better things. Roy Nelson's back from his brief suspension by the Brazilian commission, as he'll face Russia's Alexander Volkov in the featured prelim of the upcoming Fox card in Kansas City. UFC 211 also added two more fun undercard fights - James Vick will face all-action Mexican striker Polo Reyes at lightweight, and fun featherweights Chas Skelly and Jason Knight will square off. UFC 212 added a fun striker-versus-grappler fight as Johnny Eduardo faces Matthew Lopez at bantamweight, and top bantamweight prospect Pedro Munhoz will head to Stockholm to face Poland's Damian Stasiak. ----- ROSTER CUTS: 1) Brandon Thatch (11-5 overall, 2-4 UFC, last fought 12/30/17, L vs. Niko Price): And so completes a pretty amazing fall for Colorado native Thatch, who was actually headlining a FS1 card against Benson Henderson a little over two years ago. Thatch looked like the next big thing in the welterweight division after blowing the doors off Justin Edwards and Paulo Thiago in a combined three and a half minutes to kick off his UFC career. But then Thatch missed all of 2014 due to injury, and after some early success in the Henderson fight, he eventually wore down to the point that the former champ was able to get him down and tap him out. Gunnar Nelson then seemingly exposed Thatch for good, clipping him on the feet before schooling him on the ground, as follow-up opponents Siyar Bahadurzada and Niko Price both didn't even really bother with striking, taking Thatch down for most of their fights and just winning handily before each getting a finish. Thatch is already 31, so one assumes this is as good as he's going to get, so hopefully he can catch on in a second-tier promotion somewhere and just go back to destroying overmatched dudes for our entertainment. 2) Nicolas Dalby (14-2-1 overall, 1-2-1 UFC, last fought 9/3/16, L vs. Peter Sobotta): Sometimes prospects don't work out, and regretfully, Denmark's Dalby really didn't. Dalby came into UFC with a solid bit of hype after winning the welterweight title in Cage Warriors, one of Europe's top promotions, and things got off to a great start, as both a win over Elizeu Zaleski dos Santos and a draw against Darren Till were both excellent, really fun matchups. But while Dalby has a technical kickboxing game, he just wasn't enough of a high-level athlete to hang in the middle of the welterweight division, and Zak Cummings and Peter Sobotta both pretty much worked him over. When rumor got out that UFC was running Copenhagen, it seemed like Dalby would likely get a last chance in his home country, but with that card getting moved to Stockholm, UFC just cut bait, apparently. Dalby's 32, so he's not a lock to come back, but if UFC continues running fairly frequently in Europe, and particularly if they do eventually debut in Denmark, I could see Dalby getting the chance to return. 3) Viktor Pesta (10-4 overall, 1-4 UFC, last fought 1/15/17, L vs. Oleksei Oleinik): Pesta's probably going to best known for a video clip of him and his corner during one of his fights, where his corner implored him to be a "takedown machine", and Pesta repeated something like "taydown machee" in exhausted, accented English, but he had a decent UFC run despite the ugly record, as it seemed to be a story of him impressing in fights that would end in a loss. Pesta, a Czech heavyweight who first gained notoriety through his website, where he was basically openly offering whoever would have him to come in as a training partner, looked solid in a debut loss against much more experienced Russian heavyweight Ruslan Magomedov, and then, just..man, what a weird run. Amusingly given all the narrow losses, the one fight that Pesta won in the UFC was the one where he was a gigantic underdog, as Russian knockout artist Konstantin Erokhin gassed out after almost finishing Pesta, allowing the Czech to take him down at will. And then came a few heartbreaking losses - Marcin Tybura handled him easily, but Pesta was using his wrestling to take over fights against Derrick Lewis and Oleksei Oleinik before both went wrong. Lewis was eventually able to stuff a takedown and pretty much obliterate Pesta for a late finish, while the Oleinik fight saw Pesta get caught unawares with the first Ezekiel choke in UFC history. Pesta's still 26, which is ridiculously young for a heavyweight, so I expect he'll continue to pop up on shows here and there, and he could eventually earn his way back to the UFC - long live the takedown machine. 4) Erick Montano (7-5 overall, 1-2 UFC, last fought 11/5/16, L vs. Max Griffin): Well, TUF: Latin America 2 didn't wind up going as well as season one did. Season one gave us Yair Rodriguez, who is streaking up the featherweight ladder, and season two gave us...Erick Montano, the younger brother of journeyman welterweight (and fellow UFC cut) Augusto Montano and pretty much a non-prospect. Really, nobody in the welterweight bracket of the season inspired, so Montano might as well have won it, but it wasn't a surprise that he went two and out in the UFC right after, though, to be fair, Montano did way better than expected before diving right into a guillotine against Randy Brown. But whatever goodwill that performance earned "Perry" (which is a weird nickname I don't believe we got an explanation for), he pretty much gave it up with a sub-one minute loss to Max Griffin that knocked him out of the UFC. 5) Jason Novelli (11-3-1 overall, 0-2 UFC, last fought 11/5/16, L vs. Polo Reyes): Novelli was a sneaky old prospect, as the Washington native was already 37 when UFC signed him, but he had some potential as a lanky lightweight striker. But David Teymur ran through him, and even though his sophomore effort against Polo Reyes was a fun fight that was a close decision loss, UFC still cut bait. 6) Chris Avila (5-4 overall, 0-2 UFC, last fought 11/5/16, L vs. Enrique Barzola): I feel kind of bad for Avila being put in the position he was put in, since he was pretty much the worst fighter on the UFC roster in recent memory. (Well, CM Punk and such aside.) Avila's a teammate of the Diaz brothers, and that's pretty much the only reason he was signed - UFC thought it would be cute to put Artem Lobov, a Conor McGregor training partner, against a Nate Diaz teammate on the undercard of the McGregor/Diaz fight at UFC 202, and Avila was apparently the best available option. You could see flashes of talent on Avila's pre-UFC tape, but he honestly didn't even really stand out even at that level, so he was ridiculously overmatched even against Lobov, and then Enrique Barzola in his second UFC fight. With time, Avila might be able to earn his way to the UFC roster in proper fashion, but...we're still a long ways away. 7) Yusuke Kasuya (9-3-2 overall, 0-2 UFC, last fought 11/26/16, L vs. Alexander Volkanovski): Japan's Kasuya was a perfectly fine fighter for a bunch of Asian promotions, and had some fun submission skills, but he didn't really show much in his UFC tenure - his UFC debut against Nick Hein wound up being, as most Hein fights are, a fairly blah striking match, and then Kasuya was served up as the sacrificial lamb for top Australian prospect Alexander Volkanovski for UFC's last card down under. 8) Felipe Olivieri (14-5 [1] overall, 0-1 UFC, last fought 1/30/16, L vs. Tony Martin): Olivieri's one of those Brazilian vets who definitely earned his way to a shot in the UFC with a bunch of wins over solid competition, and didn't figure to do much once he got there. And indeed, Olivieri lost fairly handily to Tony Martin, then failed a drug test to get himself suspended for two years. Well done. 9) Kelly Faszholz (3-2 overall, 0-2 UFC, last fought 10/1/16, L vs. Ketlen Vieira): Faszholz came in as an extremely raw late-notice replacement, but looked game and had a really fun fight before losing her UFC debut against Lauren Murphy. But Ketlen Vieira handled her in the grappling department, and then UFC cut her loose - apparently Faszholz has already caught on with Invicta, so I could easily see her developing there and earning her way back. 10) J.C. Cottrell (17-5 overall, 0-2 UFC, last fought 1/28/17, L vs. Jason Gonzalez): Like Olivieri above, Cottrell was a guy who got into UFC mostly on the volume of his wins rather than looking like any sort of prospect, and indeed, Cottrell couldn't really hang at the UFC level. Losses to Michel Prazeres and Jason Gonzalez were fairly one-sided, and Cottrell's UFC tenure only lasted about six months. ----- UPCOMING UFC SHOWS: 4/8 - UFC 210 - Buffalo, NY - Daniel Cormier ( c ) vs. Anthony Johnson, Gegard Mousasi vs. Chris Weidman 4/15 - UFC on Fox 24 - Kansas City, MO - Demetrious Johnson ( c ) vs. Wilson Reis, Rose Namajunas vs. Michelle Waterson, Jacare Souza vs. Robert Whittaker 4/22 - UFC Fight Night 108 - Nashville, TN - Artem Lobov vs. Cub Swanson, Al Iaquinta vs. Diego Sanchez 5/13 - UFC 211 - Dallas, TX - Stipe Miocic ( c ) vs. Junior dos Santos, Joanna Jedrzejczyk ( c ) vs. Jessica Andrade, Demian Maia vs. Jorge Masvidal, Frankie Edgar vs. Yair Rodriguez, Eddie Alvarez vs. Dustin Poirier 5/28 - UFC Fight Night 109 - Stockholm, Sweden - Alexander Gustafsson vs. Glover Teixeira 6/3 - UFC 212 - Rio De Janeiro, Brazil - Jose Aldo ( c ) vs. Max Holloway (ic), Kelvin Gastelum vs. Anderson Silva, Claudia Gadelha vs. Karolina Kowalkiewicz ----- UFC Fight Night 107 - March 18, 2017 - The O2 Arena - London, England UFC returns to London, and this card has wound up becoming a bit of a punchline thanks to a lackluster main event, but really, it looks like a pretty fun card. Still, I get where people are coming from. First off, this is the first time I can remember a situation like this, where Bellator is running the same arena about two months later, and with a much better main event, in this case Rory MacDonald against Paul Daley. Plus, UFC sort of set everyone up for a letdown, as for the second year in a row, the promotion put tickets on sale for their London card before announcing a main event. Last year, that main event wound up being Anderson Silva returning against Michael Bisping, so expectations were set high...and instead, UFC eventually announced that the already-announced Jimi Manuwa/Corey Anderson fight would be the new main. In UFC's defense, they apparently did try a few different things - they apparently tried to book Alexander Gustafsson against either Ryan Bader or Misha Cirkunov, but Gustafsson got hurt, Bader left for Bellator, and contract negotiations with Cirkunov got contentious, and I also heard rumors of an Anthony Pettis/Mairbek Taisumov pairing that never quite materialized. But, still, as much goodwill as they earned last time by pulling the Silva/Bisping rabbit out of their hat, they probably did even more damage here. Anyway, it should still be a fun show - there's some interesting fights (though I go back and forth if the main event is among them), and a bunch of fun prospects that should hopefully have good performances. There are worse ways to spend a Saturday afternoon. MAIN CARD (UFC Fight Pass - 5:00 PM ET): Light Heavyweight: (#4) Jimi Manuwa vs. (#6) Corey Anderson Welterweight: (#9) Gunnar Nelson vs. Alan Jouban Bantamweight: Brad Pickett vs. Marlon Vera Featherweight: Arnold Allen vs. Makwan Amirkhani PRELIMINARY CARD (UFC Fight Pass - 1:30 PM ET): Lightweight: Joseph Duffy vs. Reza Madadi Light Heavyweight: Francimar Barroso vs. Darren Stewart Heavyweight: (#12) Tim Johnson vs. (#15) Daniel Omielanczuk Lightweight: Marc Diakiese vs. Teemu Packalen Middleweight: Oluwale Bamgbose vs. Tom Breese Welterweight: Leon Edwards vs. Vicente Luque Bantamweight: Ian Entwistle vs. Brett Johns Middleweight: Scott Askham vs. Bradley Scott Women's Bantamweight: Lina Lansberg vs. Lucie Pudilova THE RUNDOWN: Jimi Manuwa (16-2 overall, 5-2 UFC) vs. Corey Anderson (9-2 overall, 6-2 UFC): Light heavyweight is weird, man. Jon Jones is eternally missing in action, and Daniel Cormier and Anthony Johnson have established themselves as the division elite while he's gone. After that, there's Glover Teixeira and Alexander Gustafsson, who are clearly a tier below those three and a tier above everyone else, and then a giant morass of aging vets, flawed non-prospects, and guys who might still be too raw to contend. So get hyped, because here's two of those guys! That probably wound up harsher than I intended it to be, but I'm still not really sure what to make of this main event between Jimi Manuwa and Corey Anderson - on the one hand, it's two fringe contenders, so one getting a showcase win makes some sense, but on the other, the more I think about either fighter, the less I'm all that sold on them, at least in the moment. Manuwa in particular is in a weird spot - UFC signed him as one of the top fighters in Britain back in 2012, and he did look good in his first three fights (ending all three due to injury, of all ways to win), but then he got rushed into fights with Alexander Gustafsson and Anthony Johnson, and neither went particularly well. But Manuwa did rebound with a brutal knockout of Ovince St. Preux to regain some momentum, and honestly, he might be the top fighter in the division outside of those five guys I've named. Still, he does seem to clearly be a tier below, and it's not like Manuwa has time to improve - he's already 37 years old, and even though it feels like he's been around a lot less thanks to long injury layoffs, he's already been fighting for almost a decade. Meanwhile, Corey Anderson's sort of in the opposite boat - if you asked me to pick the guy at light heavyweight with the highest ceiling, it's probably Anderson, and while he's done an excellent job of improving over the course of his UFC career, it still feels like we're waiting for a breakout performance. Anderson came into UFC super-raw, with only a 3-0 record and a year of experience, plus a season-winning stint on TUF, and he's just sort of chugged along as an impressive wrestler learning to round out his striking. There have been some bumps in the road, particularly a come-from-behind knockout loss to Gian Villante in his second post-TUF fight, but Anderson recovered from that to go on a bit of a win streak, and his only loss in his last five fights is a somewhat iffy split decision loss to Shogun Rua. But that Rua fight and the narrow win over Tom Lawlor before it highlight that there are pretty much two types of Anderson fights - against overmatched fighters (like Anderson's last win over Sean O'Connell), he can pretty much take them down and maul them, but when Anderson faces more talented or savvier competition, he really has trouble putting a stamp on his fights, particularly if it turns into a kickboxing match. Anderson knows what he's doing, but he doesn't really wear damage well, as he tends to get rocked if someone hits him solid, and he's rarely been able to make up the difference with a power shot of his own. Unlike Manuwa, this all should improve with time, since Anderson's still young and still less than four years into his career, but there's still a lot of questions in his current form. So, this seems like a fairly binary fight - Anderson will probably be best served to ugly it up, as Manuwa hasn't shown much defense when it comes to takedowns and the clinch, while Manuwa's better served on the feet, where, again, Anderson doesn't really win rounds and is quite vulnerable. I honestly could see this looking a lot like Manuwa's win over Ovince St. Preux, where St. Preux mixed in a lot of clinches and wrestling work to win the first round, but then got caught standing in the second, wobbled, and then got destroyed. So my call is a bit of a more drawn-out version of that - Anderson just taking over with takedowns and looking solid on the feet in the interim, before Manuwa connects with a solid shot, rocks him, and then finishes the job sometime in the championship rounds. And then Manuwa is probably a fight away (possibly against Shogun?) for a title shot, and I'm not sure how I feel about that. Gunnar Nelson (15-2-1 overall, 6-2 UFC) vs. Alan Jouban (15-4 overall, 6-2 UFC): A really fun fight here between two rising welterweights with two very different styles. Gunnar Nelson's been a European favorite for a while - partly because the Icelander has a stoic personality that's so anti-charismatic it's kind of charismatic, and partially thanks to his friendship with Conor McGregor, one of his main training partners. In the cage, Nelson has a weird style lending to his background both in karate and as a high-level BJJ practitioner; on the feet, he uses a darting style reminiscent of Lyoto Machida, while on the ground he's a submission whiz with strong fundamentals. And for the most part, that's served him well, although he's already suffered two fairly dispiriting losses - Rick Story pretty much shut down Nelson's game with some good old-fashioned American wrestling, and in late 2015, Demian Maia pretty much took him to school in a one-sided grappling bout. Still, Nelson rebounded by upending the hype train of Albert Tumenov by taking him down and tapping him out, and he's still an unorthodox, talented fighter who can keep moving up the ladder with the right matchups. It remains to be seen if Alan Jouban is one of those right matchups - I believe I say it every time Jouban fights, but for someone with a grappling background that makes a living as a model, the Louisiana native fights pretty much the opposite of what you'd expect. Most of Jouban's career has been marked by wild brawls, as Jouban has no problem letting himself get hit in the moneymaker, relying on his recovery ability to just pop back up and keep the fight going. That didn't go so well against Tumenov, who had enough power and technique to put Jouban's lights out, but Jouban's responded fairly well, and in his last two fights has shown a bit of a smarter gameplan, instead being patient while picking apart opponents like Belal Muhammad and Mike Perry without being baited into a firefight. I really like this matchup - while it's ostensibly Nelson who's the more highly-touted fighter, this is sort of a step up from Nelson's best wins, over Brandon Thatch and Tumenov - Jouban is a similarly dangerous fighter on the feet, but does have a submission background, so Jouban won't be as helpless as the other two if Nelson gets it to the ground. Still, I do favor the Icelander to take a decision - Jouban should make it fun on the feet, but against anyone but high-level wrestlers (which Jouban isn't), Nelson does a good enough job of mixing in takedowns with his striking to get this to the floor, and while Jouban is capable, there's levels between him and Nelson. So while I doubt either guy looks so dominant that this becomes one-sided, Nelson should control most of the fight and continue on as a bit of a regional star. Brad Pickett (25-13 overall, 5-8 UFC, 3-1 WEC) vs. Marlon Vera (10-3-1 overall, 2-2 UFC): UFC's continuing a bit of a trend here of having hometown retirement fights where they can, as British MMA pioneer Brad Pickett wraps up his career here in his hometown of London. Everyone pretty much loves Pickett, who comes off as quite the affable gent, and he's had a hell of a run, coming up through a lot of top British promotions and making his way to WEC, where he became one of only two men to defeat current flyweight champ Demetrious Johnson. But, honestly, Pickett's been scuffling for a bit now - after falling just short of a bantamweight title shot a few times, Pickett tried to cut to flyweight and didn't really have much success, and in his return to 135 last year, Pickett got a fairly controversial split decision win over Francisco Rivera in London. Pickett said after the fight that he would've retired had he lost, and he probably should've done so anyway, since his last two fights were fairly ugly, between a blowout loss to Iuri Alcantara in Manchester and then being the sacrificial lamb for Urijah Faber's retirement fight in Sacramento, where Faber pretty much mauled him. Pickett was initially supposed to face Henry Briones here - just like he was in London last year, and in Germany last fall - but Briones fell out of the fight again, so Ecuador's Marlon "Chito" Vera steps in on short notice. It's been kind of interesting to see Vera go from a fan favorite to those who watched season one of TUF: Latin America - Vera came off as a nice guy who's fighting to pay for surgery for his daughter, who has a rare form of facial paralysis - but in the cage, well, he's been a bit of a dick lately, getting docked a point last February for continuously grabbing Davey Grant's gloves, and then doing a lot of shit-talking and other machismo-based stuff in his last win over Guangyou Ning. Vera's looked good in his wins and has improved a lot over his UFC career, but if his wins are over D-level guys like Ning and Roman Salazar, he's proven unable to beat even C-level guys like Marco Beltran and Grant. It's entirely possible that Vera has improved enough since November - he's still just 24 - and Pickett has lost enough steps that Vera is just able to outpace and outstrike the Brit, but Pickett should still have enough veteran savvy and general overall skills to get the nod. It may not be pretty, and I'm not sure it'll be all that good (though the British crowd being behind Pickett should help the excitement), but I say we get the happy ending, and Pickett takes a decision win. Arnold Allen (11-1 overall, 2-0 UFC) vs. Makwan Amirkhani (13-2 overall, 3-0 UFC): A really excellent matchup here, between two European prospects that have a ton of potential and are in similar places in their career, but are inactive enough that they're still hard to get a read on. Makwan Amirkhani had about the best debut you could ask for in January of 2015, as he blitzed Andy Ogle and knocked him out in just eight seconds, then gave an awesome post-fight interview - Amirkhani, a Kurd whose family emigrated to Finland when he was a child, calls himself "Mr. Finland" and basically lives the gimmick of being a total ladies' man, and essentially comes off as the lovable side-character on some sort of a sitcom or something. As far as in the cage, Amirkhani's debut was a bit of false advertising, but he's still a good prospect - he just typically prefers to get things done via grappling, and he pretty much ran through Masio Fullen on the ground and out-wrestled Mike Wilkinson in his two follow-up fights. On the other side of things, Suffolk's Arnold Allen has only fought once per calendar year while under UFC contract, but he's made it count - he made his UFC debut on just over a week's notice in 2015, getting a comeback submission win over Alan Omer, and then had a one-sided showcase performance over Yaotzin Meza on last year's London card. I like the individual matchmaking and bringing each guy along slowly, but I really wish we'd get to see more of each guy, since these fights need to count if they're only happening once a year. (Though, in UFC's defense, Allen was slated to fight Mirsad Bektic this past October before getting injured.) But, hey, this is a good one, and the winner will be the king of the European featherweight prospects. While Amirkhani's gotten more notice, particularly after that debut and given his charisma, I favor Allen here - he does seem to be farther along as far as having a well-rounded game, and while Amirkhani's grappling game can work great when it's on (he's the lone man to beat recent UFC signing Tom Duquesnoy, one of the best prospects in the sport), he tends to get over-aggressive and leave himself open defensively a bunch. And as the Omer fight showed, Allen is more than capable of staying steady and taking advantage of openings when they present themselves, and even if Amirkhani is winning the balance of the fight (which is up in the air to begin with), he should eventually give Allen something to work with. This should be a fairly fun, back-and-forth affair, primarily grappling, but I favor Allen to sneak on a late submission, and it'll be interesting to see how much each fighter has improved in the last year. Joseph Duffy (15-2 overall, 3-1 UFC) vs. Reza Madadi (14-4 overall, 3-2 UFC): Well, this is a fight that's probably more fascinating for what's going on outside of the cage rather than inside of it. Joe Duffy's probably the second-best Irish fighter under UFC contract, and he holds a win over the guy in first place, Conor McGregor, tapping the lightweight champ out in November of 2010. So when UFC signed "Irish" Joe in 2015, they started putting their promotional weight behind him as, at the time, the last man to beat McGregor, giving him a prominent slot on that summer's card in Glasgow and then following that up with a headlining spot in Dublin against Dustin Poirier. But that fight fell apart when Duffy got concussed a week before the fight, and instead became the Fight Pass prelim headliner at UFC 195, where Poirier surprisingly out-wrestled Duffy on his way to a victory. But the Irishman rebounded with a brutally quick win over Mitch Clarke, and looked to be moving his way back up the ladder - until UFC realized he was on the last fight of his contract and basically didn't go out of their way to book him once it became clear he would test free agency. So, eventually, they gave him Swedish grinder Reza Madadi, who's had an interesting journey of his own, to say the least. Madadi was a fairly unnotable Swedish fan favorite until a 2013 submission win over Michael Johnson that suddenly made him a going concern in the lightweight division - and Madadi followed that up with...well, nothing, since he got convicted of helping assist in the robbery of a designed handbag store, and Madadi's excuse of "it wasn't me" didn't really seem to cut it. Or, well, didn't seem to cut it with the Swedish authorities, but it seemed fine enough for UFC, who re-signed him pretty much as soon as he was out of jail. Madadi lost his comeback fight to Norman Parke, but got a surprising upset win over Yan Cabral, and now he faces Duffy here. So, yeah. Unsurprisingly given this is the last fight on his deal, this isn't a fight that does much for Duffy, since Madadi isn't a big name and, on paper, is a tricky opponent - Poirier showed that when Duffy gets taken down, he can be held there, as the Irishman is more comfortable going for submissions rather than trying to get up, and, theoretically, a grinder like Madadi could do the same. But Madadi has to get it there first, and Duffy looks to be way better on the feet thanks to his years as an amateur boxer. Madadi's tough as nails, having never been finished in his career, but I wouldn't be surprised if Duffy just lights him up here - my call is Duffy by first-round knockout. Francimar Barroso (18-5 [1] overall, 3-2 [1] UFC) vs. Darren Stewart (7-0 [1] overall, 0-0 [1] UFC): Let's try this again. So, these two met in Stewart's UFC debut back in Sao Paulo this past November, and it looked like an interesting fight where the light heavyweight division could get some new blood. Stewart's a fairly interesting prospect - the Londoner's undersized for the division and, sadly given the lack of depth at 205, probably more of a natural middleweight, but he's an aggressive knockout artist who was a good signing. And Barroso was a solid first test - he's absolutely awful to watch, since he's just a giant dude who tends to play it defensively on the feet and just grind out opponents against the cage - but that also has been enough to get him a few UFC wins. So anyway, in their first fight, after some grappling, Stewart basically bulled Barroso against the cage and knocked him out as the Brazilian held his jaw, and it looked like the best-case for the division, as a new talent got a big win over one of the least interesting fighters on the roster. But, lo and behold, the Brazilian commission stepped in and ruled that an accidental clash of heads led to the finish, and overturned the bout to a no contest, so we get it again, this time on Stewart's home soil. And, hopefully, things go similarly the second time around - Stewart did well in the clinch last time, and I don't really see how Barroso handles the Brit's speed, so I'll say that he once again gets a first-round knockout. Though, given how we can never get nice things, watch Barroso go ahead and grind out another victory over an intriguing talent to stick around on the roster. Tim Johnson (10-3 overall, 2-2 UFC) vs. Daniel Omielanczuk (19-6-1 [1] overall, 4-3 UFC): Ah, the wonders of mid-tier heavyweight action. Tim Johnson was a bit of a question mark coming into the UFC as they signed up whatever heavyweight they could find, since he had pretty much fought exclusively in his native North Dakota, but Johnson's done a pretty solid job of making a name for himself, as he probably should've won three of his four UFC fights, given that most people felt Johnson beat Alexander Volkov in his last fight. Plus, Johnson also has what's probably the strongest pound-for-pound mustache in the game. Heavyweight's packed with a bunch of guys like Johnson, who have a clear ceiling but can beat a lot of guys on the roster, and hey, Poland's Daniel Omielanczuk is right in that mix. Omielanczuk's a stout fireplug of a guy who can do a little bit of everything, but had mostly beat lower-level dudes until a surprising win over Oleksei Oleinik earned him a three-fight winning streak and a fight with Stefan Struve, who, well, submitted him in fairly short order. This is a solid enough matchup to make, and probably the right one as far as helping sort out the giant morass at the middle of the division, but it honestly probably won't be too interesting to watch - both guys' games involve a ton of cage-grinding, so this'll probably devolve into two giant men sweating on each other in fairly short order. And I favor Johnson pretty handily - the clinch seems to be where he's most comfortable, and he uses every pound of that 265-pound weight limit, while Omielanczuk is on the smaller side for the division. So chalk up another decision win for the 'stache. Marc Diakiese (11-0 overall, 2-0 UFC) vs. Teemu Packalen (8-1 overall, 1-1 UFC): UFC's got a ton of interesting European prospects on the roster, and England's Marc Diakiese might be at the top of the list. Diakiese's got pretty much everything you'd want in a prospect - an interesting backstory, as he left his native Congo when he was a teenager to seek out a better life in Britain, some marketing savvy, as he earned some headlines as the first UFC fighter to pose for a gay magazine (for the record, Diakiese is happily heterosexual, and engaged with two kids), and all the athleticism and upside in the world. Diakiese was an obvious signing for UFC after earning the lightweight title in BAMMA, a top British organization, and knocking out his two challengers in a combined sixty seconds, and UFC's pretty much done the perfect job of booking him, putting him against solid grapplers like Lukasz Sajewski and Frankie Perez. Perhaps more importantly, UFC has also done a good job of keeping Diakiese active, as this is already his third UFC bout since making his debut just over five months ago. And as a perfect example (though Arnold Allen and Makwan Amirkhani on the main card might be even better ones), Finland's Teemu Packalen is in the other boat, as this is also his third UFC fight, except Packalen was signed in the summer of 2015. There's some interesting talent there, but Packalen's a bit hard to get a read on - his UFC debut was a late-notice won and was a weird, close grappling match against Mickael Lebout, and then he beat Thibault Gouti in just 24 seconds on the London card in February of last year. Packalen should be a solid enough test, as I continue to like how UFC is bringing Diakiese along, but Diakiese should take this rather handily. Diakiese's weakness seems to be defensive grappling, and Lukasz Sajewski exploited that before Diakiese eventually fought back and finished things, and the Brit seemed to improve things even just two months later, as he mostly went on the offensive when outwrestling Frankie Perez. And I expect this fight to look a lot like the Perez fight - Packalen's a slick submission artist when the fight is actually on the ground, but he seems to be the weakest of Diakiese's UFC opponents as far as getting it there, so this fight should either be Diakiese just keeping things standing, where he could knock Packalen out, or testing out his wrestling just more and controlling things for a decision win. I'll split the difference and say Diakiese scores a knockout sometime in the second round, and I look forward to seeing where the "Bonecrusher" goes from here. Oluwale Bamgbose (6-2 overall, 1-2 UFC) vs. Tom Breese (10-1 overall, 3-1 UFC): Man, things cooled off pretty quickly for Tom Breese, even though he's still an excellent prospect, and his performances in 2016 weren't all that bad. It's just that his 2015 was so good - a submission artist by trade, Breese kicked off his UFC career by shockingly destroying two tough vets in Luiz Dutra and Cathal Pendred, and did so almost entirely on the feet. So UFC did the smart thing and put Breese, a Birmingham native, in what figured to be a main-card showcase fight against Keita Nakamura on last year's London card, and while it was a win for the Brit, it was more of an ugly grappling match that didn't really get people too excited about Breese as a potential star. UFC followed that up with another fight that was good matchmaking, but iffy results, as Breese lost a narrow decision to fellow rising prospect Sean Strickland in a fight that didn't really stick out in practice, and suddenly Breese became sort of a forgotten man. But he's still just 25 years old, and he's still ridiculously talented, and he's making the jump up into a much thinner division, as this will be Breese's debut at middleweight when he faces Nigeria's Oluwale Bamgbose. Bamgbose is one of UFC's more interesting characters outside of the cage - he calls himself the "Holy War Angel", has a cross shaved into the back of his head, and is basically just super-into the Lord when he's not giving weirdly intense post-fight interviews. And inside the cage, Bamgbose is also pretty fun, but ridiculously limited for the UFC level - Bamgbose pretty much just exclusively throws heat, and his last fight against Cezar Ferreira was the first time one of his pro fights had lasted longer than four minutes. Bamgbose's dangerous - he did pretty much run through Daniel Sarafian last February - but that Ferreira loss exposed Bamgbose's lack of really any sort of ground game, and it's unclear if he has the gas tank to keep throwing bombs for fifteen minutes. Breese could get himself knocked out - Bamgbose is probably more athletic in some aspects, and Breese didn't look like the fastest guy on the feet as a welterweight - but this looks like a bit of a matchmaking layup to get an interesting prospect a win in a new weight class, since if Breese is able to get this to the ground, this one looks pretty much over. So my call is Breese by first-round submission, and sadly, that's probably the end of Bamgbose in the UFC. Leon Edwards (12-3 overall, 4-2 UFC) vs. Vicente Luque (11-5-1 overall, 4-1 UFC): Sneakily, this might be the best fight on the card, pitting two interesting up-and-coming welterweights against each other. Vicente Luque's quietly become a bit of a thing - he was a bit of a non-prospect, though he looked impressive on that American Top Team versus Blackzilians season of TUF, and lost pretty handily to Michael Graves in his first TUF fight, so not a ton was expected of him. But then once Luque started his UFC career in earnest, he became a finish machine, scoring slick submission wins over Hayder Hassan and Alvaro Herrera, then brutal knockout wins over Hector Urbina and Belal Muhammad. Luque started super young, so he's still only 25, so things are looking quite up for the intriguing Brazilian talent. But Luque gets his toughest test yet in Birmingham's Leon Edwards, who's coming off the best win of his career, a third-round submission of Albert Tumenov. Edwards lost an ugly, close decision to Claudio Silva in his UFC debut, but rebounded in pretty much the best fashion possible, knocking Seth Baczynski out in just eight seconds. Since then, Edwards's career has been a bit up and down, but he's shown a bunch of different skills and has grown pretty solidly from fight to fight, culminating in that win over Tumenov. While that knockout win is obviously Edwards's most impressive finish, and he did come into UFC touted as a striker, the Brit's game is best when he can get his wrestling game going, and his two toughest fights showed that - against a diverse boxer like Tumenov, Edwards was able to use his wrestling as a safety valve when things got dicey on the feet, and got the finish because of it; but in Edwards's other big fight, against top welterweight prospect Kamaru Usman, Usman's wrestling advantage kept Edwards from really mixing things up, resulting in a fairly decisive loss. And that's why I'm picking Edwards to take the decision, since Luque's wrestling game is a bit of a question mark - really, the only solid wrestler Luque has faced was Graves, who pretty much took him down and smothered him at will, and as impressive as the four subsequent finishes have been, Muhammad is the only guy of that bunch I'd call "UFC-level." This might be the toughest fight on the card to call, as Luque still does have the dynamic finishing ability to end this at any time, and his slick submission skills mean Edwards will never really fully be out of the woods, but my pick is still Edwards to just rely on his wrestling and grind out a decision. Ian Entwistle (9-3 overall, 1-2 UFC) vs. Brett Johns (13-0 overall, 1-0 UFC): Bantamweight's suddenly flush with prospects, and Brett Johns is one of the standouts - the first Welshman to step foot inside the UFC cage (though countryman Jack Marshman was signed first), Johns debuted against South Korea's Kwan Ho Kwak in Belfast this past November, and looked awesome, showing his signature wrestling game and even getting the better of things on the feet against a tough opponent. Johns topped prospect lists before his UFC debut - even after weight cut issues forced him to give up his Titan FC championship in 2015 - and the performance against Kwak showed why. For his follow-up effort, UFC's matched him against Ian Entwistle, who's one of those weird fighters that makes the UFC roster fun - Entwistle is a stocky Englishman who's pretty much exclusively a leglock specialist and makes pretty much every fight he's in fun once it gets to the ground. Unfortunately, it hasn't really resulted in much success at the UFC level - Anthony Birchak basically charged into a leglock during a 2014 fight and that's about it. Johns should take this pretty handily - Entwistle's a one-trick pony and while he's unorthodox enough that he could submit Johns, I really just see Johns staying cautious and working him over on both the feet and on the ground. And it seems like when Entwistle can't get things going, things tend to go downhill fairly quickly, so I'll say Johns gets a second-round stoppage. Scott Askham (14-3 overall, 2-3 UFC) vs. Bradley Scott (10-4 overall, 2-3 UFC): UFC's got a bunch of random European middleweights that they put against each other, so here we are - Britain versus Britain, only one Scott survives. Yorkshire's Scott Askham had a pretty excellent resume coming into UFC, so there were some expectations he would make an impact at the UFC level - but so far, no dice. Askham's just traded wins and losses, and while he's scored impressive first-round knockouts over two guys that are no longer in UFC, fights against decent competition have just turned into narrow losses, since Askham isn't really able to put his stamp on any part of the fight. Bath's Bradley Scott, meanwhile, came into UFC with much less fanfare even if he wound up in a similar place - Scott lost to Robert Whittaker on a UK versus Australia season of TUF, and just sort of hung around; Scott's only fought once per calendar year in the UFC, and has traded wins and losses on cards in Europe and Australia, popping up just enough to remind you that he still exists. It's a hard one to call - both guys are just sort of average everywhere, and have the same problems as far as being technically sound, but unable to really take over any part of the fight. In actuality, my prediction is that this goes to a split decision that could go either way, but if you had to ask me to pick someone to win that decision, I guess I'll go with Askham. Lina Lansberg (6-2 overall, 0-1 UFC) vs. Lucie Pudilova (6-1 overall): Lina Lansberg sure is going from the penthouse to the outhouse here, opening up a card on UFC Fight Pass after she was, somehow, a FS1 headliner for her UFC debut. Well, that "somehow" is because she was willing to face Cris Cyborg, and while the Swede was ridiculously tough while hanging in there, she pretty much just got beaten pillar to post for a round and a half in that fight. Lansberg was initially supposed to face Veronica Macedo here, which was a weird fight - Lansberg's fought at featherweight before, while Macedo is probably a natural strawweight - but with Macedo out, Lansberg instead faces Czech newcomer Lucie Pudilova. And, as an interesting note, this is actually a rematch of a 2015 fight under the "Battle of Botnia" banner that saw Lansberg win a clear decision. (Also, I learned that "Botnia" is apparently the name of the gulf that separates Sweden and Finland - fun geography knowledge!) Honestly, there's only older footage of Pudilova out there, and I'm not particularly impressed - she's very tall at 5'11", but I just see a lot of Jessamyn Duke to her game, as she's fairly hittable and liable to get smoked by UFC-level opponents. Actually, the most recent fight out there is her bout against Lansberg, and that just saw Lansberg pretty much clinch Pudilova against the cage and work her over, and while Pudilova has probably improved a bit since then (she won three fights in 2016, including two by submission), I kind of get the feeling this one is going to look similar. So I say Lansberg, once again, just cruises to a fairly one-sided decision.