UFC 179 goes down Saturday from fabulous Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Two pretty well-known fighters sit atop the card in defending featherweight champion Jose Aldo and a pretty well-known challenger in Team Alpha Male’s Chad Mendes.
But you know what? There are other fights on the card. I’m not kidding. There are a total of 11 bouts and 22 fighters on the entire slate. Among that field, three competitors are either making their UFC debut or fighting under the company flag for only the second time.
Want to know more? Sure you do. Be that well-informed guy or gal who makes the other guys and gals feel bad. Don’t you want to do that? Well, read on then.
Christos Giagos (10-2)
Lightweight
UFC debut
Giagos got here through the Resurrection Fighting Alliance, the kind-of-but-not-really-UFC-affiliated minor league. Not two months ago, he was winning the RFA title over The Ultimate Fighter vet Dakota Cochrane.
Two things pop out in his video with Cochrane. First, he wears a tremendously oversized gladiator helmet to the cage, because he has seen 300 too many times, and that will do things to a man. Second, he likes to fight with a hyper-cardio style; just the kind of guy who likes to stir it up, be it standing or groundward. He likes to box and he likes to roll. He does not like to stop. He’s a fun fighter with a fun game.
But he might be in a bit of trouble against his UFC 179 opponent…
Hotel view in Brazil http://t.co/mOkmlQxs2j pic.twitter.com/0K7yVvFXhv
— christos giagos (@CGiagos) October 21, 2014
Gilbert Burns (8-0)
Lightweight
Second UFC fight
Sure, it’s not Burns’ debut proper, but he’s only fought once before in the promotion, taking a decision in July over Andreas Stahl at UFC on Fox 12. I think we can still call him a newcomer if we choose to do so.
Burns is known as a grappler first and foremost; you would be too if you spent most of your athletic use on top of medal podiums at world jiu-jitsu competitions. That precision game should give him the edge over a scrambler like Giagos, especially given that Burns has some underrated kicks and punches in there. Training with the Blackzilians will provide that for you.
Naoyuki Kotani (30-11-7)
Lightweight
Second UFC fight (this go-around)
Perhaps the UFC is trying to build up its stable at 155 pounds? Who knows, but this veteran competed in more than 20 pro contests before breaking back onto MMA‘s biggest stage (he also fought twice for the UFC back in 2007, but cut me some slack, man.) The 32-year-old Kotani, as it may not shock you to learn, is a submissions man, using good old-fashioned catch wrestling to foil foes like Hideo Tokoro during his 14-year career. But he has struggled against the more elite guys like Jorge Masvidal, Dennis Siver and now Parke.
Could he also be two-and-out in UFC stint No. 2? His tangle with Yan Cabral this Saturday will tell the tale.
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