Everyone wants to talk about the fights for UFC 167, but the individual fighters certainly have some very interesting backgrounds heading into Saturday night.
The main event will certainly be entertaining, as Georges St-Pierre looks to defend his welterweight title for the ninth consecutive time. It will be no easy task, as he will be taking on his toughest test to date in Johny Hendricks.
With five total fights and 10 fighters on the main card, let’s go ahead and take a look at a few of the event’s most interesting fighters to watch.
Rory “Ares” MacDonald
As one of the top welterweight contenders in the UFC, Rory MacDonald has a very important fight on Saturday against Robbie Lawler.
Ares is currently 15-1 in his MMA career, winning his last five fights. His only loss came back in June of 2010, when he fell to Carlos Condit. Of his 15 wins, six have come by knockout and another six by submission.
As an excellent striker and deceptive fighter on the ground, MacDonald is quite versatile. According to FightMetric.com, he lands 4.13 strikes per minute and defends 86 percent of takedowns, making him a tough target to deal with when standing up.
With a win here, Ares could very well be the next fighter in line to contend for the welterweight title. That means that he would be likely be facing the winner of the main event at UFC 167, giving either St-Pierre or Hendricks a preview of things to come.
Josh Koscheck
While MacDonald is looking to become the No. 1 welterweight contender, Josh Koscheck is trying to stay relevant in the division with a tough fight against Tyron Woodley.
It appears that Koscheck has passed his prime. He was able to fight St-Pierre for the welterweight title back in 2010, but he lost and hasn’t looked the same since. He has lost his last two fights, now sitting at 19-7, and his last win was a rather unconvincing split decision over Mike Pierce.
As a former NCAA wrestler, Koscheck does most of his work on the ground. He focuses more on taking his opponents down and doing work from there, as he has six career submissions.
At 35 years old, Koscheck is now just trying to survive. If he falls to Woodley, he will have three consecutive losses, and he will struggle to ever be relevant in the UFC again. However, with a win, he can finally start turning things around and try to eventually end his career on a high note.
Georges “Rush” St-Pierre
Seriously, when it comes to the UFC welterweight division, there has never been a greater fighter than Georges St-Pierre.
With a 24-2 record, Rush hasn’t lost since 2007. His eight consecutive title defenses are currently the most among all title defenders in the UFC and just two behind the all-time record held by Anderson Silva, who defended his middleweight title 10 times.
The reason that St-Pierre has had so much success over his career has been the fact that he’s capable of doing pretty much anything in the Octagon, helping him match up against all kinds of fighters. He’s specifically good in the takedown department, successfully bringing his opponents down 76 percent of the time and defending against 86 percent of takedowns (h/t FightMetric.com).
With a win here, St-Pierre would continue to prove that he’s the greatest welterweight fighter in UFC history. He would also be just one win away of Silva’s record for title defenses, putting him in position to break it in the near future.
However, this is going to be a tough battle, and we will see if the 32-year-old can take down Hendricks.
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