UA-59049186-1 UFC 205 Preview - Good if it Goes
Home / Boxing - UFC - WWE / UFC 205 Preview

UFC 205 Preview

Back in April of this year, New York finally lifted it’s Mixed Martial Arts ban after a 20+ year battle, finally making the sport legal in every state in the USA. For many years, MMA fighters and fans alike dreamed of what it would be like to fight or watch MMA at the sports Mecca this Madison Square Garden, host of legendary combat sport participants in the historic past like Muhammad Ali, Evander Holyfield, Lennox Lewis, and even 3 Wrestlemanias. Now, finally, the UFC can put MMA in an illustrious class of having the sport of MMA take place in such a historic venue. And the UFC did not disappoint having the first event in New York City, with a stellar card from top to bottom, and giving us a main event of epic proportions. Conor McGregor looks to become the first fighter in UFC history to hold two titles in different weight classes at the same time. There have been fighters who have won titles in two different weight classes (BJ Penn and Randy Couture), but never has there been a fighter who held it at the same time. But in his way of making history is the durable, tough Eddie Alvarez, a man who for the majority of his career spent time winning championships outside the UFC until finally getting his chance in the biggest MMA organization and eventually winning the most prestigious championship of his career, the UFC Lightweight championship.

Eddie Alvarez was often given the title as one of the best fighters to never fight in the UFC. That changed in 2014 when he was finally given his release from Bellator, where he was champion at the time, and immediately signed with the UFC. Although he had a rocky start in his UFC debut, losing a hard fought decision against Donald Cerrone, he bounced back beating top contender Gilbert Melendez and former Lightweight champion Anthony Pettis. The UFC granted Eddie Alvarez a title shot in July against the champion at the time, Rafael dos Anjos and Eddie saved his best UFC performance for that fight putting an end to dos Anjos impressive reign as champion with a barrage of punches in the first round. Immediately after the win, Eddie campaigned for a fight with the biggest star in the organization Conor McGregor knowing it would be the best financial fight for him out there. But Conor McGregor at the time had his focus set on something else, revenge. Originally Conor was suppose to be fighting for the Lightweight championship back in March against dos Anjos, but a foot injury to dos Anjos scrapped that fight. Conor having trained to fight, didn’t want to disappoint the fans and was craving for a big payday fight still. In comes Nate Diaz, who accepted the short-notice fight on only 11 days notice giving the fans a dream fight they’ve always wanted to see. In what was an amazing fight, Nate Diaz was able to pull through trouble early in the fight to submit Conor in the 2nd round. Wanting to avenge his first UFC loss, Conor got an immediate rematch with Nate Diaz and in what was probably fight of the year, Conor eked out a close decision.

tshirt-ad

After avenging his only UFC loss, Conor now switched focus to what is his original goal and that was to be dual champion, and Eddie, more than happy to get the biggest payday of his long career, happily obliged. For Eddie to beat Conor, he’s going to have to keep the pressure on Conor taking him into deep waters. Eddie has the tools to beat Conor: a good overall MMA game with no real weaknesses and top level cardio. In his long career, he has proven that he can take punishment, won’t mentally break, and prevail with the win as displayed in the Michael Chandler and Gilbert Melendez fights. Conor’s gas tank is a bit of a question mark especially shown in both Diaz fights. He doesn’t want to gas out against Eddie Alvarez who fights in the 5th round like he does in the 1st round. Eddie will definitely look to utilize his wrestling against the long, lanky Conor McGregor to tire him out. As for Conor, as a pressure fighter himself, he will have to take a more patience approach in this fight and keep his space away from Eddie picking him apart from the outside. Eddie makes it no surprise he likes to be hit, and in fact, it brings a different side out of him. But Conor McGregor is easily one of the best finishers in the sport, if he has you hurt he will go in for the kill, especially how he times himself. Also a patience approach for Conor will work in his advantage as he won’t gas himself out, because Eddie Alvarez will definitely have the cardio advantage in this fight.

In the co-main event, we have another main event level fight as recently crowned Welterweight champion Tyron Woodley will look to make his first defense of his title against the ever so impressive Stephen “Wonderboy” Thompson. Woodley shocked the world this past July when he knocked out Robbie Lawler to win the Welterweight championship, in what has been the year of upsets. Robbie Lawler has proven to be one of the most toughest more durable fighters in the last few years, especially after his wars with Rory MacDonald and Johny Hendricks, but one crushing right from Tyron Woodley put the world on notice on what kind of power he really has. Everyone knew that Tyron Woodley had knock out power from his previous fights, but to be able to knock out Robbie Lawler really showed how scary his punching power is. After winning his fight, Tyron took a page from other champions book and tried to cash out in big money fights calling out Nick Diaz and former champion Georges St. Pierre. Unfortunately for Tyron, neither fight would come to fruition, but be able to defend your championship in the first UFC event at Madison Square Garden more then makes up for that. His opponent, Stephen Thompson, made a name for himself in the kickboxing circuit, amassing a 57-0 record, then took his talents to MMA back in 2010. In his UFC debut at UFC 143, he quickly made his name known with an impressive headkick knock out of Dan Stittgen. In his next fight he lost a very close, and controversial decision to durable Matt Brown, but after that he went on to win 7 straight fights with impressive knockout winners over the likes of Robert Whittaker, Jake Ellenberger, and former Welterweight champion Johny Hendricks. What earned him his title shot tho was a dominant decision win over Rory MacDonald a man who previously beat the current Welterweight champion, Tyron Woodley.

If you’re coming into a MMA with a striking-based background, Stephen Thompson is the fighter you would want to study and pick up from. The way he keeps his space, and times his strikes is something reminiscent of arguably the greatest MMA fighter of all time, Anderson Silva. Thompson was able to beat a similar fighter to Tyron Woodley back in February in Johny Hendricks. A strong wrestler with a powerful right hand, Thompson was able to pick him apart and TKO him in the first round. To beat Woodley, he will have to fight the same fight he did against Hendricks. As for Woodley, he will have to get inside the taller fighter in Thompson, Woodley has the speed and power to surprise people. I expect Woodley to also try and test Thompson’s wrestling but if he is going to successfully defend his title, he can’t be discouraged from wrestling Thompson if he isn’t successful at his takedown attempts at first. Thompson is a very difficult fighter to train for has there isn’t very many fighters out there with his kind of timing and pedigree, but one of Woodley’s main trainers is accomplished kick boxer Duke Roufus – he may have him prepared for what he should be expecting from Thompson.

And the other title fight on the card will be the dominant and entertaining Woman’s Strawweight champion, Joanna Jedrzejczyk defending her championship against her fellow countrywoman from Poland, Karolina Kowalkiewicz. These two have history, as they have fought before in the amateur circuit in Poland with Joanna winning with a rear naked choke. But since both have turned professional, they have remained undefeated. Joanna won the championship back at UFC 185, dominating the division’s first champion Carla Esparza and hasn’t looked back since. With defense of the title wins over Jessica Penne and Valerie Letourneau, none were more impressive than her last performance against Claudia Gadelha this past July. After engaging in an intense rivalry where her and Claduia were coaches on the Ultimate Fighter reality show, there was a lot of bad blood heading into this fight. Claudia put Joanna in a lot of trouble in the first two rounds, but Joanna showing the heart and determination of a champion pulled thru the last 3 rounds to score an unanimous decision. Karolina Kowalkiewicz earned her right at the title shot not too long after the Jedrzejczyk/Gadelha fight when she defeated Rose Namajunas at UFC 201. Interesting note about this fight, this will be the first time two European fighters face off with each other in a UFC Championship bout which shows you how rapidly fast MMA is growing in different areas of the world.

Despite Kelvin Gastelum/Donald Cerrone being cancelled, the remaining main card fights are still very intriguing. New York native and former UFC middleweight champion Chris Weidman will square of against fellow middleweight contender and 2000 Summer Olympics Silver medalist in freestyle wrestling Yoel Romero, which could possibly be a #1 contender’s fight for Michael Bisping, and former UFC Woman’s Bantamweight champion Meisha Tate looks to bounce back since losing her title against the tough and gritty Raquel Pennington who’s looking to stake claim for a title shot of her own. This is a can’t miss fight card, even if you’re the smallest of an MMA fan. Literally every fight on this card from top to bottom is intriguing weather it be for a championship, or a contender’s fight, this will be a monumental moment for the sport of MMA and the UFC organization, so go to a bar, order it at friend’s, do what you have to do, but make sure you’re watching this fight on Saturday night.

3 Comments

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *