UFC Fight Night “Hermansson Vs Strickland” + Weekly MMA Report
There was no UFC card last week, but Bellator’s main card brought four upsets. Ryan Bader retained the Heavyweight title, outworking Valentin Moldavsky for a questionable decision win.
In the co-main event, Benson Henderson outworked Islam Mamedov in a three-round war thanks to his effective submission offense and anti-wrestling skills.
The bout between Henry Corrales and Aiden Lee was stopped due to an eye gauge. The doctor stoppage happened in the third period, so the bout was scored a unanimous decision win for Henry. Sabah Homasi submitted Jaleel Willis via arm-triangle.
Furthermore, the best stoppage of the card happened in the prelims, where Chris Gonzalez turned the lights out on Saad Awad via a first-round spectacular kick to the head.
Chris Gonzalez delivered a nasty head kick and followup punches to close the show at #Bellator273 😤
(via @BellatorMMA) pic.twitter.com/IRXOFId4uG
— MMAFighting.com (@MMAFighting) January 30, 2022
Eagle FC’s main event also finished unexpectedly, as the underdog Sergei Kharitonov dragged striking expert Tyrone Spong to the ground and dropped hammers from the mount for a second-round TKO victory.
The Paratrooper drops HAMMERS on Spong and finishes him in round 2! #EagleFC44 pic.twitter.com/4KwK0CO6eS
— Eagle FC (@EagleFightClub) January 29, 2022
The upcoming UFC event takes place at UFC Apex Center, in Las Vegas, Nevada, and it airs on ESPN+. The first February’s fight card is headlined by the bout between Swedish submission specialist Jack Hermansson and an outstanding technical striker and underrated trash-talker Sean Strickland.
Image source: https://twitter.com/ufc/header_photo
Strickland’s currently riding on a 5-fight win streak, with back-to-back successes against Nordine Taleb, Jack Marshman, Brendan Allen, Krzysztof Jotko, and Uriah Hall. Hermansson, the former CWFC champ, was having ups and downs in his last 4 battles – 2 victories and two losses. Marvin Vettori and Jared Cannonier were too strong for him, while Jack surprisingly heel hooked the former title contender Kelvin Gastelum for a rare submission win and earned a unanimous decision nod against Edmen Shahbazyan.
Sean Strickland has never been submitted, plus he’s a very tricky striker with great counters and excellent ducking. Elizeu Zaleski dos Santos is the only guy who turned the lights out on Strickland. This is a bad fight for Hermansson, it is so hard to drag “Tarzan” to the ground. Unless a miracle happens, this should be an easy win for Strickland.
Prediction: Strickland by decision +175, or Strickland to win -210 (you can check https://bestfightodds.com)
Now another controversy – Sean Strickland’s Instagram account has been deleted in the past, but he made a new one!
In the co-main event, the Hawaiian knockout artist Punahele Soriano will try to deal with an undefeated Canadian Nick Maximov. Soriano is very dangerous in the first two rounds, so he might go for the stoppage, but Maximov’s grappling is on a whole different level. Nick gets the advantage if the bout gets dragged to the ground or advances into later rounds thanks to better cardio.
Prediction: the fight will not go the distance -163, or Punahele wins inside the distance +110
Check all my predictions in one playlist.
Here’s the whole fight card, but we might see last-minute changes (check this link too – https://www.tapology.com/fightcenter/events/83125-ufc-fight-night).
MAIN CARD ESPN+, 7 p.m. ET (midnight UK)
Jack Hermansson (22 – 6 – 0) VS. Sean Strickland (24 – 3 – 0)
Nick Maximov (7 – 0 – 0) VS. Punahele Soriano (8 – 1 – 0)
Carlston Harris (17 – 4 – 0) VS. Shavkat Rakhmonov (14 – 0 – 0)
Sam Alvey (33 – 16 – 1) VS. Phil Hawes (11 – 3 – 0)
Bryan Battle (6 – 1 – 0) VS. Tresean Gore (3 – 0 – 0)
Julian Erosa (26 – 9 – 0) VS. Steven Peterson (19 – 9 – 0)
PRELIMINARY CARD ESPN+, 4 p.m. ET (9 p.m. UK)
John Castaneda (18 – 5 – 0) VS. Miles Johns (12 – 1 – 0)
Hakeem Dawodu (12 – 2 – 1) VS. Mike Trizano (9 – 1 – 0)
Marc-Andre Barriault (13 – 4 – 0) VS. Chidi Njokuani (20 – 7 – 0)
Phil Rowe (8 – 3 – 0) VS. Jason Witt (19 – 7 – 0)
Alexis Davis (20 – 11 – 0) VS. Julija Stoliarenko (9 – 5 – 1)
Jailton Almeida (14 – 2 – 0) VS. Danilo Marques (11 – 3 – 0)
Denys Bondar (14 – 2 – 0) VS. Malcolm Gordon (13 – 5 – 0)
Another interesting news! Weight training fan and UFC fighter Luis Saldana (IG @saldanamma, check his stories and posts) is slated to fight Bruno Souza, and we offer a lot of great products to put your home and gym training sessions to the next level.
And please keep in mind, the second pay-per-view event of the year happens on February 12nd, and it is headlined by a 185-pound title fight rematch between Israel Adesanya and Robert Whittaker. Get yourself ready!
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