UFC On FOX 19 takes place this Saturday night in Florida and we’ve got our predictions for all the fights below.
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Main Card:
Glover Teixeira vs. Rashad Evans
A lot depends on which version of Evans shows up in this fight. When he’s ‘on’ and is feeling confident then he can deliver great performance like we saw against Chael Sonnen and Tito Ortiz, but often-times he’s much more cautious and doesn’t let his hands go as often as he should.
That’s not helped by the fact that due to serious injuries he’s only fought once in the past two and a half years which was a somewhat lethargic loss to Ryan Bader, and he’s now 36 year-old.
Meanwhile, Teixeira is a much more dependable fighter with a solid all-round skill-set and has notched up two wins in a row. He might not have Evans speed, but he’ll be the more aggressive and active of the two, and while that could put him at risk of getting caught with an Evans counter, I think Teixeira will do more work over the course of 15 minutes to win on the scorecards.
Glover Teixeira to win by decision.
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Rose Namajunas vs. Tecia Torres
These two have fought once before in the Invicta FC organization back in the summer of 2013, with Torres winning by unanimous decision, but they were both relatively new to the sport back then and have developed their games since then.
Namajunas is a live wire, both on the feet and on the mat with submissions, which makes her a lot of fun to watch. Torres has less creative spark, but she’s quick, moves well in and out on the feet and delivers solid flurries of strikes in addition to being the better wrestler of the two.
Torres could play spoiler here as she’s more consistent and isn’t an easy target to track down. Still, I do feel Namajunas can get the better of her in the striking exchanges, particularly as she has a reach advantage and will be more aggressive, and if presented with an opportunity for a submission on the mat she’ll seize it.
Rose Namajunas to win by decision
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Khabib Nurmagomedov vs. Darrell Horcher
Poor Horcher, he was so eager to fight in the UFC that he said he’d fight anyone, anytime, and then the UFC called his bluff.
Nurmagomedov is a bad match-up for pretty much anyone in the lightweight division – even on a full camp – so for Horcher to be going up against him on barely a weeks notice in his UFC debut is the worst case scenario.
Nurmagomedov is an absolute beast in the wrestlign department, but can strike too, and Horcher’s only real hope here will be that the Russian’s two year injury lay-off may have led to some ring rust. I doubt it though, and I’d expect to see Horcher get slammed to the mat several times before being finished off.
Khabib Nurmagomedov to win by TKO in Rd2.
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Hacran Dias vs. Cub Swanson
After a great spell when he first arrived in the UFC, Swanson has lost two in a row, though they came against top talents in Frankie Edgar and Max Holloway. Dias is the other way, having had a sticky start to his UFC run, but is now coming off back-to-back victories.
I favor Swanson quite strongly here. He’s a terrific offensive talent on the feet and I think he’ll prove too much for Dias in that regard, giving him little time to settle into his own game.
Cub Swanson to win by TKO in Rd2
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Prelims:
Michael Chiesa vs. Beneil Dariush
Bethe Correia vs. Raquel Pennington
Court McGee vs. Santiago Ponzinibbio
Cezar Ferreira vs. Oluwale Bamgbose
Drew Dober vs. Islam Makhachev
Omari Akhmedov vs. Elizeu Zaleski
John Dodson vs. Manny Gamburyan
Randy Brown vs. Michael Graves
