Thiago Alves vs. Papy Abedi is one of the most interesting fights set to take place today at UFC 138.
Alves has been a long-time contender in the UFC’s welterweight division, defeating the likes of Matt Hughes, Karo Parisyan and Josh Koscheck.
However, the last couple years have been rough for Alves, who has not looked quite the same since losing to Georges St-Pierre back in 2009.
Since the GSP loss, Alves has gone 1-2 and seems to be lacking the killer instinct that earned him a title shot in the first place.
It has been speculated that Alves’ lackluster performances might be due the amount of weight he cuts to make 170lbs.
On more than one occasion, Alves has come in over the 170lbs limit, including yesterday when Alves weighed in 1lb over the limit and was given an hour to take the extra weight off.
Abedi will be making his UFC debut today and is a dangerous newcomer. He is 8-0 so far in his professional career and has finished all but one of those fights.
The problem is that Abedi has never even fought an opponent with a Wikipedia page and now he is fighting one of the best welterweights on the planet.
Regardless of hos well prepared Abedi might think he is, it’s hard to prepare for a guy like Alves, especially if you’ve never fought someone on his level before.
The outcome of this fight is hinges upon the ceiling of Abedi’s potential, as well as how drawn out Alves is from the weight cut.
Although, Alves had a rough weight cut, I believe he will be able to put on a solid performance tonight and defeat Abedi in a hard fought battle.
Final Prediction: Thiago Alves defeats Papy Abedi by second-round TKO
Bleacher Report’s Andrew Barr