Sean Sheehan 
Injuries, injuries and more injuries seems to be the common theme over the last few months for The Ultimate Fighting Championship. Unfortunately, that’s again the case this weekend as the Octagon returns to Florida for the latest show on FOX TV in the states.
Initially slated to headline the card was the wonderful match-up of lightweight contenders Tony Ferguson and Khabib Nurmagomedov but when Ferguson was injured last week that fight was scrapped with Nurmagomedov now fighting debutante Darrell Horcher in a 3-round tune-up fight on the undercard.
Stepping into the main event slot now will be a light-heavyweight bout between Glover Teixeira and Rashad Evans.
Having both lost to Jon Jones in recent times, this is a huge fight for both men if they harbour any inclination of ever fighting for the title again.
Evans, a former UFC champion, has had a long, successful career since winning season 2 of ‘The Ultimate Fighter’ but it has somewhat stagnated of late. That aforementioned loss to Jones along with hints at retirement, a spate of injuries and a loss to Ryan Bader in his return have people questioning whether Evans is still a force at 205 lbs. On Saturday we should find out.
The reason we’ll find out is because Glover Texeira is never an easy fight for anyone. Since coming to the UFC in 2012, Brazil’s Teixeira has won seven of his nine fights – only losing to Jon Jones and Phil Davis in 2014. In 2015, though, he bounced back and looked better than ever, winning both of his fights inside the distance. A run he’ll be looking to extend on Saturday.
As a match-up this one features two very similar fighters.
Teixeira is probably the harder-hitting and more technical striker but Evans hits hard with good technique too.
Evans is arguably the better wrestler on paper but Teixeira too is a very good grappler with some of the most underrated wrestling in MMA and very good jiu-jitsu.
All of that probably makes for an extremely close fight.
Stereotypically with strong wrestlers, fights tend to turn into prolonged bouts of kickboxing followed by a lot of clinching against the cage. I’d expect five full rounds of that on Saturday.
In open water you’d expect Teixeira to win a lot of the exchanges but not in an overwhelming way unless a huge, clean shot lands. While in the clinch I think this one might slightly favour Evans, but not by much.
Having prepared for a 3-round fight until barely a week out, conditioning late on could play an absolutely huge factor here with maybe a few late takedowns deciding who gets his hand lifted.
For me, Teixeira is extremely strong usually when fights go longer and I think he’ll be able to get Rashad down and nick the last couple of rounds. It’s bound to be close, though.
Outside of that this is a pretty strong card all around despite the changes with some very worthwhile bouts featured.
Opening up the main card, an extremely high-level strawweight rematch of Rose Namajunas and Tecia Torres should excite the fans. Unbeaten in 7 professional fights, Torres has found it somewhat difficult to pick up momentum since coming over to the UFC. The opposite, at least recently, can be said for Rose Namajunas who earned much adoration for her wonderful performance against Paige VanZant last year.
Despite having lost to Torres in their previous encounter, Namajunas will arguably be the favourite on Saturday having made huge improvements to her game over the last couple of years. Back then, the fight was very much a boxer-wrestler against a submission artist but it takes up a very different dynamic this time around mainly due to Namajunas’ vastly different and better striking. This is one definitely not to miss.
Also returning on Saturday are fan favourites John Dodson, Cub Swanson and Bethe Correia while the meeting of top lightweight prospects Michael Chiesa and Beneil Dariush looks to have fight of the night written all over it after Lyoto Machida and Dan Henderson was cancelled on Wednesday with Machida admitting to have taken a banned substance following a USADA drug test.
FULL FIGHT PICKS
Glover Teixeira vs. Rashad Evans – Teixeira wins unanimous decision
Khabib Nurmagomedov vs. Darrell Horcher – Nurmagomedov however he wants
Rose Namajunas vs. Tecia Torres – I’m taking ThugRose in a great fight
Beneil Dariush vs. Michael Chiesa – Dariush
Bethe Correia vs. Raquel Pennington – Pennington
Court McGee vs. Santiago Ponzinibbio – McGee
Cub Swanson vs. Hacran Dias – Dias
John Dodson vs. Manvel Gamburyan – Dodson
Randy Brown vs. Michael Graves – Brown
Drew Dober vs. Islam Makhachev – Makhachev
Cezar Ferreira vs. Oluwale Bamgbose – Bamgbose
Elizeu Zaleski dos Santos vs. Omari Akhmedov – Dos Santos
BET OF THE WEEK
This week I’m going for an even money double of Texeira and Namajunas
START TIMES (Irish Time)
Early Prelims – 9pm on Fight Pass
Prelims – 11pm on BT Sport 2
Main Card – 1am on BT Sport 2
Nice1 for the picks lads