Rashad Evans
19-4-1 MMA 13-4-1 UFC vs. Glover Teixeira 24-4 MMA 7-2 UFC- Evans
was going to face Shogun Rua but an injury to Rua forces him out.
Teixeria steps in on late notice. Evans former champion and Texieria
former title challenger. These
two were booked to fight in February of last year but injures forced
both to pull out. Both have
faced recent issues and a win moves them up in line. Evans
last fought at UFC 192 in October. He had been out for two year
dealing with a leg injury. He was facing Ryan Bader going in he
talked a big game about trash talking all night and KO'ing Bader.
Instead he looked very rusty. Unless his game plan was to headbutt
Bader's hand until it was broken. He lost a decision. Teixeira last
fought in November he KO'ed Patrick Cummins after beating him up
badly. That was two wins in a row and two finishes.
Both
men have knockout power. And have shown very good chins. Each has
only lost via knockout once in there careers. Teixeira has 14 career
knockouts. Teixeira is a rugged brawler he often speak of Mike Tyson
being his hero. Evans has 7 career knockouts. He is more of a mover.
He like to dance taunt guys. IF
Teixeira is trying to be Tyson Evans is a bit like Mayweather. Power
I gotta give the edge to Teixeira but when you brawl you leave
yourself open just watch his fighter with Bader. Glover
is taller with the longer reach so edge standing up goes to him.
In
terms of grappling we got a former University of Michigan Wrestler
vs. a BJJ Blackbelt. Evans
was the college wrestler. But
as his MMA career has gone on he uses his wrestling a lot less. Now
Evans has never lost via submission but he also only has 2 career
submission wins. Teixeira BJJ blackbelt has 7 career wins via
submission and never been submitted. In terms of the advantage I'm
giving it to Glover.
To me this is a very close fight. Even with me giving Glover the edge
in stand up and the ground game I don’t' feel he has a huge
advantage in either and truth is Evans could wind up being better
than I am thinking. I think one thing that will help is Glover is
more active not having dealt with the same injures. I am picking
Teixeira to get the win in this fight. I see it going the distance
and it being a decision win.
Lyoto Machida
22-7 MMA 14-7 UFC vs. Dan Henderson 31-14 MMA 11-9 UFC-
It was 2013 at UFC 157 when these two fought in the co-main event.
Machida won a split decision. The way I would sum up that fight is
real simple Henderson charged hoping a hay maker would connect
Machida back up or cut an angle catches him with a few shots. Reset
do it again. That night a lot of people thought they were fighting
for a title shot at light heavyweight. Now three years later at
middleweight they are fighting in for both men a must win fight. One
needs this to stay a top ten fighter the other needs this to really
justify keep his career going.
2015
was the worse year of Machdida's
career he fought twice and lost badly both times. In April he was
dominated by Luke Rockhold got
taken down in the first took massive punishment barely got back to
his corner after the round. Second round take down again and got
submitted. His next fight
was in June he faced off
with Yoel Romero. Seemed like a very typical fight he has but than
suddenly he got caught with a powerful punch dropped than elbows and
he was out. The truth is Dan
Henderson has not been a contender in a long time. He has not won
consecutive fight since 2011. And if you look at the wins they are
over Rua another fading star twice and Tim Boetsch a guy that isn't
contender either. His last fight was in December in a rubber match
with Vitor Belfort got Knocked out in just over two minutes into the
fight.
The
stand up is interesting in that both guys have KO power but there
chins aren't as solid as they use to be. Machida has nine career
knockout win and only lost twice via knockout. Now that said in those
two fight I just talked about both times he got rocked pretty badly
taking some shots. A big
part of his advantage has been speed but at 37 you wonder if his
reactions are slowing.
Henderson has 15 career
knockouts wins. He's only been knocked out 3 times but two of those
come in his last three fights. Its
an all to common sight in combat sports the great fighter passed his
prime fighting on getting knocked out. The edge has got to got to
Machdida. He's a much more diverse striker he will punch kick throw
knees and elbows. He's also a counter striker meaning he picks his
spots. Henderson is very straight a head in his attacks most of his
knockouts come from the over hand right. More
and more as Henderson has gotten older it feels he's just looking for
that punch to connect.
Henderson had a great wrestling career. But he doesn't always use it
in his MMA career. He's more of a greco wrestling often tying up and
using the clinch to get a guy against the cage. But again as he's
aged he's even gotten away from that. In terms of submission he
really only has one. (His record says two but 1 was due to knees and
the guy quitting) that his second career fight in 1997. Now he's only
been submitted 4 times. All four of those guys are great fighters two
of them were The Nogeria brothers the others were Anderson Silva and
Daniel Cormier. Machida is a BJJ blackbelt but he only has two
submission wins. His last one came back at UFC 79 back in 2007. He's
been submitted twice but that was to Rockhold and Jon Jones hardly
guys that slouches in there submission games. But Machida is great
and countering wrestlers he's just always been able to stop them. So
edge goes to the Dragon.
This is the kind of fight I could see ending early with a highlight
reel KO. And just as likely I could see it going all three almost no
action as Henderson charges sloppy and Machida backs up looking for
his shot. The first fight was defenlty the later. Machida style does
seem to led to a number of controversial descions as him back up
often gives the impression he's losing. Hell after the first fight so
many people claimed “The UFC screwed Henderson.” That said there
are few fights where most people thought he should win and the judges
said he lost. My pick though is Machida. Why I don't think he's elite
anymore I think Henderson is older slower and much more limited.
Rose Namajunas
4-2 MMA 2-1 UFC vs. Tecia Torres 7-0 MMA 3-0 UFC- The
straweight division is still
truly forming. So really it feels like every fighter is just one win
away from a title shot. We have a title fight during the summer and
you feel like the winner here can claim to be the next in line. These
two met once before it was July 2013 back at Invicta 6. They
were the opening fight on main card for a major show. Both were 2-0
going in. It was a hell of a fight as both women went for it. We saw
tons of flurries both tried to break out different moves. In the end
Torres won a decision but it was a very close fight and Namajunas had
her moments and you could argue she should have won if you look at it
again. Shortly after that the UFC started the 115 lbs division signed
both fighters and put them on TUF.
If
you look back at that show Torres was ranked 3rd
going in she was one of the favorites. While Namajunas was middle of
the pack at 7th.
Torres was upset early on
but allowed to return when another fighter got hurt she than won a
fight before losing to Carla Esparza in the semi finals. Official
though those fights don't count on her record. Meanwhile
Namajunas kind of stole the show she went 3-0 on the show won all
three fights via submission including the than undefeated Joanne
Calderwood. She also beat Rando Markos the girl that beat Torress in
the opening round. Now she
did lose at the finals but it shows that maybe she surpassed Torres
in that time.
Both
women last fought in December. Namajunas fought on the 10th
on a Fight Pass card she main evented. That was a huge weekend it was
UFC 194 part of a triple header weekend. She faced off with Paige
VanZant. Going into the
fight both were seen as young fighters that have already shown so
much potential and are only getting better. The real difference was
Thug Rose is a much better technical fighter. PVZ was clearly trying
to out muscle her but Rose was smart. She kept her pace worked her
game plan and really dominated the fight. She picked her apart on the
feet took her down over and over again. She never seemed to get upset
when the finish didn't come early. Instead she was just pressing
finally fifth round she got a rear naked choke and earned a
submission win. Torres fought two days later on the UFC 194 prelims.
She beat Jocely Jones-Lybarger via decision. Originally
she was going to face Michelle Waterson a former Invicta Champion. An
injury changed that. So the fight went to being one of those that she
needed to win to make in impression. Torres keeps winning but you get
this strange feeling like she really hasn't had a chance to show just
how good she is in the UFC cage yet.
On
the feet expect a lot of flurries. Both fighters are extremely
active. They throw a lot of
strikes. Toress is called the Tiny Tornado she comes forward and will
blitz its the kind of action that never give her opponent a chance to
attack because they are defending. Namajunas is similar she throws a
lot of strikes. I do think there is more of a use striking to set up
a takedown with Namajunas. Odds are we won't see a knockout as
neither woman has one in there pro career. Namajunas does have two in
Amateurism MMA career. But I can't put to much stock in that given
how big mismatches can be on that stage. This
could be interesting because both fighters have backgrounds in
traditional martial arts. Both have blackbelts in Karate in
Taekwondo. I want to give a slight edge to Namajunas based on the
fact she is taller and will have reach.
In the grappling game I see a real advantage for Namajunas all four
of her pro wins come via submission. While she did lose via
submission to Esparza I don't think Torres has the strong wrestling
that Carla did. Now Torres has never won via submission but she
doesn't really go for them by what I've seen. If this goes to the
ground I think Namajunas can tap her out epically if she winds up in
a good position on the ground.
Again
the first fight was very close. Namajunas
seems to be more aggressive but Torres is that fighter that knows how
to win decisions. I am going
to pick Namajunas based on how close the first fight was and my
feeling she has improved more since that first fight.
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