UFC has been on a roll lately with incredible fight cards and compelling main events, a trend that seems destined to continue on Saturday night at UFC 185. The card is headlined by Anthony Pettis and Rafael dos Anjos for the lightweight championship.
One selling point for this card is the main event figures to go a little longer than 14 seconds, though it might be more interesting if either Pettis or Dos Anjos ended the fight in Ronda Rousey-like fashion.
The main reason this has the makings of a special event is a loaded undercard, which features a women’s strawweight title fight and a heavyweight showdown between two of the most powerful punchers in the business, Roy Nelson and Alistair Overeem.
As the final predictions roll in for UFC 185, here’s a look at the card and a breakdown of what the experts are saying will happen.
Main Event Prediction
There are moments in certain athlete’s careers where they go from being good at what they do to a true superstar. These are the franchise players, ones who move merchandise and bring eyeballs to their sport regardless of who they are taking on.
Anthony Pettis seems poised to take that next step, as he’s been one of the best pound-for-pound fighters in mixed martial arts for years and has won his last five UFC fights since losing to Clay Guida in his debut with the promotion.
As Kevin Iole of Yahoo Sports wrote, Pettis has been on a Rousey-esque run in his last four victories:
In his last four fights, he’s won by knockout twice and submission twice and never once entered the third round. More impressively, those wins came over Joe Lauzon (first-round KO by head kick); Donald Cerrone (first-round TKO by body kick); Benson Henderson (first-round submission by arm bar) and Gilbert Melendez (second-round submission by guillotine choke).
Dos Anjos isn’t exactly a slouch in the Octagon, having won his last three fights, with victories over Jason High and Benson Henderson using an impressive barrage of punches to score knockouts. That’s a key point for this fight since striking used to be a liability for the Brazilian star.
Yet there are certain fighters who tend to operate on another level. Anderson Silva was there at his peak, Georges St-Pierre was there before he walked away, Jon Jones is living in that world right now and Pettis isn’t far behind.
UFC lightweight Ross Pearson, who predicts a win for Pettis, believes this is the kind of fight that will allow the champion to show all the things that make him special (via ESPN.com):
I think this is a great fight for him, stylistically, to go out there and put on a show. So, yeah, my money is on Pettis to do something pretty fancy. I don’t think dos Anjos moves a lot. I don’t think his defense is that good.
His offensive and power striking is very good, but I think he’s a sitting duck. He’s a little flat; he needs angles. Pettis is all about movement, and I think the shots will be there for him.
UFC isn’t hurting for stars right now, especially with Rousey turning into a crossover star like few fighters have been able to in the past, but it never hurts to have depth in that area. Pettis should already be at that level given his history, only being 28 years old and having a terrific personality.
A win in this spot, especially if he continues to dominate the way he has the last four fights with only one reaching the second round, puts Pettis on that next level. There’s nothing that Dos Anjos does which Pettis can’t counter.
Dos Anjos isn’t a great striker, despite adding some power as he’s gotten older, and he has been passive at times by letting opponents come toward him instead of staying on the attack. If that happens against Pettis, it’s going to be a short fight.
Regardless of what this fight turns into, a slugfest or methodical mind duel, Pettis is going to come out on top because he’s better and a more complete fighter.
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