145 lbs.: Jose Aldo vs. Manvel Gamburyan
Odds: (-600 Aldo / +400 Gamburyan )
In the main event of the evening, the two top-ranked Featherweights in the world will go at it with the WEC title on the line. The champion, dynamic striker Jose Aldo, has looked completely unstoppable since his WEC debut, destroying everyone he has faced with relative ease. The challenger, Manny “Pitbull” Gamburyan, has also looked like a machine since leaving the UFC and dropping down to 145 pounds. Aldo is clearly the more dangerous striker of the two, but Gamburyan is hardly lost in the standup game and has a very dangerous ground attack as well, so this is a compelling bout that will crown an undisputed Featherweight king.
The champion, Jose Aldo, is currently riding a 10 fight win streak and has not lost a fight since 2005. Since debuting under the WEC banner, Aldo has made continual steps up in competition and has not only won all his fights, he has never really been in trouble for a single second. In his last two appearances, he destroyed two former champions in Urijah Faber and Mike Thomas Brown without really breaking a sweat at all. While he does have a serviceable ground game, there is no doubt that Aldo’s best work comes in the standup, where he is extremely dynamic and explosive. He has great boxing with a lot of power, brutal leg kicks as he showed in the fight against Faber, and can explode with flying knees and other unorthodox but effective strikes. If he can keep the fight standing, there is likely no one in the Featherweight division who has a chance of stealing his title.
The challenger, Gamburyan, made it to the finals of The Ultimate Fighter at 155 pounds, where he was eliminated due to a freak injury against Nathan Diaz. His results as a Lightweight in the UFC were uninspiring, but dropping to his more natural weight of 145 has reinvigorated his career and he looks extremely formidable now. A tenacious and aggressive fighter, Gamburyan has powerful punching, solid takedowns, especially from the clinch, and a dangerous ground game with solid top control, ground and pound, and submissions. While it is not impossible that he catches Aldo with a hard shot on the feet and wins the fight, chances are he will be outclassed in the striking exchanges, so his best bet is going to be to try and force the clinch and put Aldo on his back, somewhere he has not spent very much time.
It is almost impossible to pick against Aldo. He is too fast, too explosive, and too athletic to reasonably expect anyone to beat him. Gamburyan is not known for his world-class striking prowess, and Aldo will probably exploit that early and often en route to an eventual TKO victory. That said, Gamburyan is a ridiculously large underdog considering his skillset and the fact that he is capable of giving Aldo looks that none of his previous opponents have been able to bring to the table. At +400 or more, Gamburyan is a very attractive underdog pick from a betting standpoint.
Prediction: Jose Aldo via third round T/KO.
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