UFC veteran Alessio Sakara (left) will face off against newcomer Chris WeidmanThe second fight we are going to preview from the UFC Live 3 card is a middleweight match-up between UFC veteran Alessio Sakara versus newcomer Chris Weidman.
Weidman is actually taking this fight on short notice, stepping in for the injured Rafael Natal.*Amazingly, Weidman comes into this fight with only four career fights to his credit.
Weidman is (4-0) with two wins via TKO/KO and a win via submission. He’s a former two time division I All-American college wrestler, and was also a ADCC qualifier.
Sakara comes into this fight with a career record of (15-7) with nine wins via TKO/KO and two via submission. He has quietly won his last three fights and four out of his last five.
However, it’s almost exactly a year since Sakara last competed inside the Octagon as he’s had to pull out of a couple of fights due to injury and/or illness.
Sakara is renowned for his striking ability, but is also a Brazilian jiu-jitsu brown belt.
I’ve seen bits and pieces of footage on Weidman and he seems to like to bring the fight to his opponents. He seemed to like to stand and strike to set up his take-downs, but was shooting from*a huge distance in the footage I saw.
He’s still very raw, but I’m sure he’s improving each time out as it appears that he picks things up really quickly.
Sakara is Sakara in that you pretty much know what he’s going to do. He wants to strike and either knock you out or get knocked out as he rarely uses his jiu-jitsu game. He does have power so his opponents have to be aware of that.
I know Weidman is evolving and will probably use his striking ability to set-up his take-downs. That would be the smart game-plan. There’s no sense in trading strikes with Sakara when he can probably get the take-down and go to work from there with ground and pound.
Sakara should simply sprawl and brawl in this one. He certainly doesn’t want to be underneath Weidman absorbing ground and pound. Classic wrestler vs. striker match-up here.
I almost always go with the wrestler in these instances unless the striker has ungodly take-down defense. I think Weidman will be able to get the take-down as long as he doesn’t telegraph his shots from a huge distance.
In that event, it’s possible that Sakara could catch him with strikes on the way in. I think Weidman controls Sakara on the ground and gets the TKO win or grinds out the decision here.
Filed Under: UFC
Tags: Alessio Sakara, Chris Weidman, featured, Kentucky, Louisville, Mixed Martial-Arts, MMA, UFC Live 3, ufc live 3 preview, UFC on Versus 3
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