January is Fight Night for ufc. In other words, you do not judge a title but we see a lot of interesting ranking matches. On Wednesday the 15th of the month at the Arena of the Gwinnett Center in Duluth, Georgia, the most interesting part of the card will be the most important for all Greeks! The main confrontation of our Greek Cypriot fighter Konstantinos Filippou with the strikeforce champion Luke Rokhold. An important match because if the Greek Cypriot claims the title, he will have the opportunity to ask the president for the ufc to come to his country. With the rapid worldwide spread of the ufc, this is not at all unlikely. So until we see the Greek Ton. Christodoulou in the cage of ufc, our only hope remains Costas. The rest of the games of the night are the following, and of course we will analyze them all by Wednesday.
| MATCH | FIGHTERS | ||||
| 11 | Lorenz Larkin 14 - 1 - 0 | vs | Brad Tavares 11 - 1 - 0 | ||
| 10 | Beneil Dariush 6 - 0 - 0 | vs | Charlie Brenneman 19 - 5 - 0 | ||
| 9 | TJ Dillashaw 8 - 2 - 0 | vs | Mike Easton 13 - 3 - 0 | ||
| 8 | Yoel Romero Palacio 6 - 1 - 0 | vs | Derek Brunson 11 - 2 - 0 | ||
| 7 | Sam Sicilia 12 - 3 - 0 | vs | Cole Miller 20 - 8 - 0 | ||
| 6 | Justin Edwards 8 - 3 - 0 | vs | Ramsey Nijem 7 - 4 - 0 | ||
| 5 | Isaac Vallie-Flagg 14 - 3 - 1 | vs | Elias Silverio 9 - 0 - 0 | ||
| 4 | John Moraga 13 - 2 - 0 | vs | Dustin Ortiz 12 - 2 - 0 | ||
| 3 | Brian Houston 4 - 1 - 0 | vs | Trevor Smith 10 - 4 - 0 | ||
| 2 | Vinc Pichel 7 - 1 - 0 | vs | Garett Whiteley 7 - 1 - 0 | ||
| 1 | Alptekin Ozkilic 9 - 1 - 0 | vs | Louis Smolka 6 - 0 - 0 | ||
Weighing in pounds:
Luke Rockhold (185) vs. Constantinos "Costas" Philippou (185) - Middleweight
Lorenz (185) vs. Lorenz "The Monsoon" BRAD Tavares (185) - Middleweight
TJ Dillashaw (135) vs. Mike "The Hulk" Easton Fan Page (135) - Bantamweight
Yoel Romero (185) vs. Derek Brunson (185) - Middleweight
John Moraga (126) Dustin Ortiz (124) - Flyweight
Cole Miller (145) Sam Sicilia (145) - Featherweight
Preliminary Card (FS1 / Fight Pass):
Ramsey Nijem (155) Justin Edwards (155) - Lightweight
Isaac Vallie-Flagg (155) Elias Silverio (155) - Lightweight
Trevor Smith (186) Brian Houston (185) - Middleweight
Alptekin Ozkilic (125) Louis Smolka (125) - Flyweight
Vinc Pichel (155) Garett Whiteley (156) - Lightweight
Charlie Brenneman (155) Beneil Dariush (156) - Lightweight
Luke Rockhold in Constantinos Philippou
A difficult match for our Leventis. Unfortunately in his last fight he had a very poor takedown defense, unlike previous matches, which even the champion Cris Weidman, had a hard time putting him down. The reason for this poor performance logically is the change of coaching and training athletes. I do not know why he changed his training center, but so far he only got sick. His statements are based on the hope of a standing battle with the opponent, but I neither hear nor see anything that shows that he has improved his fight. Luke Rockhold, on the other hand, seems very focused on the strategy statement he will follow, saying that he saw Costa's weaknesses and if he fails to have the advantage of standing up, he will fight him to lead the battle down. If ours can keep the battle upright, he has a lot of hope, but if Luke fights him successfully, then he will have a very difficult night.
Brad Tavares in Lorenz Larkin
Tavares has an impressive streak of 5 wins in the ufc but all his opponents were low level. In fact, in the last race, although he won, he showed signs of exhaustion in the 3rd round. Larkin is a very impressive striker. His only weakness, which recorded 2 defeats throughout his career, is in wrestling. Even there, however, he showed signs of improvement in takedown defense. In this particular battle, however, you do not expect to find such a problem, since both fighters have a striker philosophy.
TJ Dillashaw in Mike Easton
I give the advantage to TJ Dillashaw because he is a very suffocating wrestler with good mui thai that you improve with the help of Ludwig in Team Alpha Male. Easton has a black belt in Ji jitsu and taekwodo but I do not think he can withstand the pressure of TJ Also Easton enters the race very dynamically but in the last two laps you start to get tired.
Yoel Romero Vs. Derek Brunson
Two excellent wrestlers who also have the rare ability of knockout attack. Rare because wrestlers usually hug and tire the opponent until they get points. But these people, perhaps because so far they have not found an equal wrestler to threaten them with takedown, give it their all in the uprising battle and so far they are doing quite well. If they neutralize their fight, Romero will have a small advantage in the standing battle.
Cole Miller in Sam Sicilia
Two ungrateful fighters with many technical flaws and several defeats. Miller with his long limbs tries to keep the opponent at a distance and dives whenever he wants in take down attempts to lead the fight to the ground and get the submission. Sam's greatest asset is his strong fists. In the last three games he has two defeats and one victory which means that if he loses for the third time he will greet us, as he is not small on the podium of the contenders. His opponents, however, were a little better than Miller's opponents, so I think he will be a little better in the uprising, with the only fear of not submitting.
Beneil Dariush in Charlie Brenneman
You will understand from my bets I think I like to bet on new undefeated fighters. One of them is Beneil Darius. In 6 mma races he has 6 victories and only the first of them ended with a decision of the judges. He has a pretty good attack in the standing battle but his strongest card is in the ground battle with the very good brazilian jiu jitsu. This time he will face by far the most difficult obstacle in his mma career so far. Brenneman is a suffocating wrestler and logic says he will easily put Dariush down to pound him with a pressure ground n pound. But it is only a blue belt in jiu jitsu and when he makes a mistake, Dariush will find the opportunity to subdue him.
Justin Edwards in Ramsey Nijem
Still two unfortunate fighters with defeats. Nijem believe I have the advantage on the ground with the combination of fighting skills and Jiu Jitsu but in the upright battle are both bad. So they will reasonably lie on the floors until they are exhausted.
Isaac Vallie-Flagg vs. Elias Silverio
You have seen me many times take the place of undefeated new talent. But here they give us the 2-year-old mma fighter Silverio as a favorite. In fact, they did not put anyone in front of him. Vallie-Flagg has been an MMA fighter since 2003, his last defeat came in 2007, you train at the best camp (Jacksons mma) and the only 3 defeats in his career came with submission. But Soriano has never won a fight with submission.
Brian Houston at Trevor Smith
Smith is famous for his submisses but often tries to put his opponents in the upright battle and pays it dearly. Huston made only one appearance at the ufc and lost very quickly, so we did not see his strengths and weaknesses very clearly. But his earlier fights, in smaller competitions, have ended very quickly in favor of him with strong punches, so if Smith once again opts for the upright battle, he will be very serious to come back with knockout.
Alptekin Ozkilic Louis Smolka
For Ozkilic I have recently spoken to you in UFC ON FOX 9 where I successfully predicted his victory over Uyenoyama. But now we have him as a very strong favorite against an undefeated and impressive newcomer fighter with many prospects. An ambiguous match, maybe Smolka deserves a very small bet because of the odds.
John Moraga in Dustin Ortiz
The last time we saw Moraga was in the title race against champion Demetrius Johnson, from whom he lost very quickly by submission. He has quite good wrestling and kick boxing but in general he is a well rounded fighter and one of the best featherweights in the world. Ortiz may not have the experience of Moraga, but he has faced almost equal opponents and with his attacking style he can surprise Moraga as he surprised the champion. In general, in my opinion, Moraga should be a marginal favorite in the race. But the big difference in odds gives rise to a small bet on Ortiz.
GARRETT WHITELEY IN VINC PICHEL
Both fighters in this fight have seven wins and one defeat. Pichel, however, has another defeat from the ultimate fighter, which you do not include in his professional career and he has been without a fight for 1 year due to injury.
