Preview: UFC 209

@SouthSideSN

UFC 209 takes place March 4th at the T-Mobile Arena in beautiful Las Vegas, Nevada. Two title fights are set for Main and co main event. In the main event we have a rematch between Tyron Woodley vs Stephen “Wonderboy” Thompson for the Welterweight Title. In the co-main we finally have Khabib Nurmagomedov vs Tony Ferguson for the Interim Lightweight Title. Also on the card is former Light Heavyweight champ Rashad Evans, Mark Hunt, and Alistair Overeem.

Tyron Woodley (c) vs Stephen Thompson:

The first fight took place at UFC 205 at Madison Square Garden and it did not disappoint. Woodley dominated the first round by using his wresting but after the first round he abandoned the wrestling game for some reason. Thompson was able to win the second with pure striking ability and also won the third. The fourth round was the most important round of the fight. Tyron Woodley knocked Thompson down early and the round and he was able to make it back to his feet before getting rocked again and hurt bad. Woodley put Thompson in a deep guillotine choke but Wonderboy refused to tap. He got out and survived the round. This fight would end up going to the scorecards and was a 47-47 draw. This could only mean one thing. Rematch. The rematch is going down this Saturday and there are a lot of questions to be answered. Will Woodley use his wrestling more this time around? Has Wonderboy worked on takedown defense? How effective has Sage Northcutt been in Woodley’s camp? The keys to victory for Woodley are: Use wrestling early and often. We saw how effective Woodley’s wrestling was in the first round of their previous bout. If Woodley can keep Wonderboy pinned down and mix in elbows and punches on the ground, he can finish the fight early. I think that is the main key here. Next Woodley must avoid gassing out at all costs. He punched himself out in the fourth round last time and Wonderboy was able to capitalize in the final round. The first key for Wonderboy is to defend the takedown. He was only taken down once last fight but he was not able to get back to his feet and was beat up pretty bad. The second key is to avoid Tyron’s one punch knockout power. He was knocked down and almost finished twice in the fourth and when Woodley connects he can put anybody to sleep. The last key is to use his natural reach to attack Woodley. Wonderboy is long so he can use his reach to hit and counter Woodley from far out. He did this well in the last fight and I would like to see him improve on this Saturday night

Prediction: Stephen Thompson def. Tyron Woodley by Decision (48-47)

Khabib Nurmagomedov vs Tony Ferguson:

After the fight falling through twice, Khabib Nurmagomedov and Tony Ferguson are going to finally throw down in the octagon. I personally cannot wait for this scrap. The trash talk leading up this fight has been electric and there is sure to be more with the pre-fight press conference on Wednesday. The biggest element to this fight is that somebodies win streak is going to end come Saturday night. Will Khabib’s 24 fight win streak end or will it be Tony Ferguson’s 9 fight win streak? The only thing about this fight that bothers me about this fight is that it is for an interim title. Yes this mean we can five rounds and both fighters will make more money but I think the UFC has been giving out too many interim titles recently. In this case, Conor McGregor won the belt 3 months ago. That’s not really a long layoff and he has a legit reason not to fight until at least after May. None the less this fight will be a five round title fight. Winner of this fight will finally get to face off against Conor McGregor to try and unify the belts. Khabib’s keys to victory may seem obvious but here they are: He’s just got to use his world famous sambo. Take Ferguson down and hammer him from the top. Easiest way to bring the belt back to Russia and face off against Conor. Key number two is to be careful of Ferguson’s submissions off his back. Yes, Khabib’s best chance to win is staying on top of Ferguson but he’s also got to respect his bottom game. Ferguson has finished many people from the bottom with his signature D’arce Choke. The only real key I have for Tony Ferguson is avoid that takedown and make it a stand up battle. You do not want Khabib on top of you for five rounds so he has to do everything in his power to stay on the feet and batter Khabib if he wants to win this fight. If this fight delivers I predict this to be fight of the night.

Prediction: Tony Ferguson def. Khabib Nurmagomedov by Decision (48-47)

Rashad Evans vs Dan Kelly:

Next up on the card, we have Rashad Evans vs Dan Kelly. Many of you know Rashad Evans from his days at Light Heavyweight. He was the former champion at that division. After his latest loss to Glover Teixeira, Evans has decided to moved down to Middleweight and test his luck there. He was slated to face now retired Tim Kennedy twice but both fights fell through due to Rashad Evans not being able to pass his medical tests. He will now be able to square off against Dan Kelly after passing his medical this time around. When first announced, fans were upset about Evans opponent but Dan Kelly is no slouch. Dan Kelly is a four-time Judo Olympian for his home country of Australia. Kelly is currently 11-1 while coming off a decision victory over Chris Camozzi in his home country. This should be an interesting matchup because both have solid ground game with Evans coming from a Wrestling background while Dan Kelly is a 4th degree Black Belt in Judo and also a Black Belt in Jiu Jitsu. The key for Rashad is to keep it on the feet and use his heavy, fast hands to try and score a big knockout and make Kelly work for a takedown. Kelly’s key to victory is to get to the clinch and try to get the fight to the make to either outpoint or submit Evans. Either way this should be an interesting match from both veterans.

Prediction: Rashad Evans def. Dan Kelly by Decision (30-27)

Alistair Overeem vs Mark Hunt:

There is some fights on paper that when you first hear of them you say “Somebodies getting knocked out” well this might be one of the best examples of that saying. In the red corner you have Alistair Overeem. Maybe one of the most decorated MMA careers of all time. K1 Kickboxing Champion, Two time Pride Grand Prix champion, Strikeforce champion. The records speak for himself. He has vicious kicks and knees on top of devastating knockout power. In the blue corner you have Mark Hunt. Mr. Walk Off Knockout himself. All but one of his UFC wins have come by way of knockout. Both these fighters are coming off of loses which makes these two fighters even hungrier. Overeem is coming off a knockout loss in his championship fight against Stipe Miocic in September while Mark Hunt was completely man-handled by Brock Lesnar back in July at UFC 200. The key to victory for both fighters is just do not be the man to get knocked out. They both have fight ending power in their hands so it should be interesting to see who goes down. This fight will hands down get one of the performances of the night.

Prediction: Mark Hunt def. Alistair Overeem by KO (RD. 1)