UFC 199 Preview

Saturday night sees the UFC return to California with a pay per view card headlined by a middleweight title fight between Luke Rockhold and Britain’s own, Michael Bisping. UFC 199 was originally scheduled to be a rematch between Luke Rockhold and Chris Weidman, however following an injury to Chris Weidman, Michael Bisping got the call to replace the former middleweight champion.

Bisping comes in to this fight with Rockhold on the back of a controversial, at least to some, victory over Anderson Silva, back in February of this year and prior to that had wins over Thales Leites and CB Dolloway. Unfortunately for Bisping, his loss before those three wins? You guessed it, Luke Rockhold. Back in 2014, the current middleweight champion took Bisping’s head home with him for his mantelpiece and secured a second round finish of the Brit and looked impressive doing it. Sadly for Bisping, it’s hard to imagine this weekend’s fight going any other way than their previous match up. Whilst Bisping possesses good cardio, underrated wrestling and punches in volume, he doesn’t quite have the means to finish a fight as decisively as Rockhold. The AKA fighter has an excellent submission game as well as very good stand up skills, that quite literally pack a punch.

Whilst for many it may be great seeing Bisping finally secure his title shot after such a long time in the UFC, unfortunately it won’t end well for him. Sorry.

The co-main event is a grudge match between Bantamweight champion and all round bad ass, Dominick Cruz and perennial UFC contender, Urijah Faber. Cruz made his return to the UFC in spectacular fashion earlier on this year with a dominant victory over Faber’s previous prodigy and a former champion at 135lbs, TJ Dillashaw. Whilst Cruz had been out of action for a number of months leading in to that fight, he showed no signs that his injury plagued body was failing him and he looked just as good as when he first entered the Octagon. Faber is coming in to this fight on the back of a hard fought win over Frankie Saenz and whilst he wasn’t anyone’s first choice as an opponent for Cruz, their previous matches being one a piece, made it an easy decision for the UFC matchmakers. Unfortunately for Faber, much like Bisping in the main event, he doesn’t quite have the skills anymore to beat a fighter like Cruz, who is arguably hitting his prime, if he can stay injury free. Faber however, is on the downward trajectory of his career and whilst he is still a dangerous fighter, it should still be a clear win for Cruz, barring any midnight injury.

A featherweight fight between Max Holloway and Ricardo Lamas is a sleeper fight that has gotten lost with the fights that follows it but make no mistake, this has the potential to be fantastic. Both fighters are coming in to this fight with momentum and in Holloway’s case, having won his last EIGHT fights compared to Lamas going 3-1 in his last four, the Hawaiian is no doubt the favourite to win and further his claim for a shot at the title. Look out for fireworks in this fight!

Another fight that could produce some fireworks is Dan Henderson v Hector Lombard. Both of these men are coming in to this fight looking to inject some momentum in to their careers, after both suffered big losses in their last fights to Vitor Belfort and Neil Magny respectively. Both these fighters have trained together previously, albeit briefly and at least from Lombard’s end, their doesn’t appear to be any problem about facing a former training partner. Both these fighters posses one punch knock out power, so don’t blink during this fight or you may miss the deciding blow and with this being Henderson’s last contracted fight with the UFC, expect him to go out with a bang, one way or another.

The curtain jerker, is a decent lightweight fight between two top fifteen fighters in Dustin Poirier and Bobby Green. Both of these fighters possess the ability to finish the fight with either a knockout or submission and with the UFC lightweight division being full to the brim with killers, the winner of this fight will need something spectacular to move their way into the top ten at 155lbs, so expect them both to go balls to the wall in search of the win.

Pick of the Prelims; All of them. No, seriously. Unusually, this card is stacked from top to bottom with intriguing fights, but for those Brits reading this, keep an eye out for Tom Breese who’s the featured bout on the UFC Fight Pass prelims.