Breakdown: UFC: Smith v Rakic

 Breakdown: UFC: Smith v Rakic

Smith v Rakic:

Smith(+240), MMA Record: 33-15, UFC Record: 8-4, Current Streak: One Loss: Anthony Smith will always bring the fight to his opponents. Having only been to a decision once in his UFC career in a lose to Jon Jones, Smith has been a stable at 205 for last couple of years. He lost his last fight to Glover Teixeria, where some of his teeth fell out of his mouth and he kept fighting. One does have to wonder what a fighters mentality is after a fight like that. Never count out Smith in any fight he is in though, there is a reason he has the nickname "Lionheart". Look for him to try and get the fight to the ground where he can work in a submission if he is losing the stand up war.  

IMPORTANT STATS: 46% Striking Accuracy, 43% Striking Defense, 3.19 Sig. Strikes Landed per Minute, 4.57 Sig. Strikes Absorbed per Minute

NOTABLE WINS: Gustafsson(SUB), Oezdemir(SUB), Rua(KO), Evans(KO), Lombard(TKO), 

Rakic(-300), MMA Record: 12-2, UFC Record: 4-1, Current Streak: One Loss: Rakic is a scary man. A very big guy for 205, he is a great striker that can end the fight with any limb at anytime. I thought he won his last fight against Oezdemir, so to me he is one of the hottest fighter in the division. He is second among active fighters at Light Heavyweight in significant strike differential at 2.76 strikes. He is also sixth among active Light Heavyweights in significant strikes landed per minute. I'm very excited to see where Rakic can go with the division opened up now. 

IMPORTANT STATS: 5.17 Sig. Strikes Laned per Minute, 52% Striking Accuracy, 2.41 Sig. Strikes Absorbed per Minute, 88% Takedown Defense

NOTABLE WINS: Manuwa(KO), Clark(TKO), Ledet(UD)

Lawler v Magny: 

Lawler(+190), MMA Record: 28-14, UFC Record: 13-8, Current Streak: Three Losses: Robbie is without a doubt one of my favorite fighters of all time. His second fight with Rory MacDonald is one of greatest fights I have ever seen. Another hall of famer whenever he decides to hang the gloves up, present day Lawler has seen better days. He is on a three fight losing streak that is not as bad as it sounds if you watched those loses. He was very competitive in all of them and has not looked bad enough to warrant any retirement talks. He has the third most cage time in UFC Welterweight history. That being said if he comes out and lays an egg, at 38 and a lot of MMA miles on him, you do have wonder how much longer he will fight.         

IMPORTANT STATS: 65% Takedown Defense, 60% Striking Defense, 3.57 Sig. Strikes Landed per Minute, 4.16 Sig. Strikes Absorbed per Minute

NOTABLE WINS: Cerrone(UD), Condit(SD), MacDonald(TKO, SD), Hendricks(SD), Brown(UD), Ellenberger(TKO), Koscheck(TKO), Manhoef(KO), Rua(TKO), Trigg(TKO), Lytle(UD)

Magny(-235), MMA Record: 23-7, UFC Record: 16-6, Current Streak: Two Wins: It can be hard to believe but Neil has more fights and wins in the UFC than his opponent. If you can think of almost any high level welterweight over the past five to six years, Neil has probably fought or been scheduled to fight them. Super long and tall for the division, Neil uses his reach to stay on the outside and slowly pick apart his opponents. Neil is forth all time at 170lbs in total strikes landed with 1763 strikes He is also forth in total cage time all time in the division with 4 hours, 39 minutes, and 54 seconds.  He has been coming into his prime and a win here would put him as close to the title as he has ever been. 

IMPORTANT STATS: 2.55 Takedowns per 15 Minutes, 44% Takedown Accuracy, 3.95 Sig. Strikes Landed per Minute, 2.17 Sig. Strikes Absorbed per Minute

NOTABLE WINS: Rocco Martin(UD), Li(UD), Condit(UD), Hendricks(UD), Lombard(TKO), Gastelum(SD), Silva(SD), Means(UD)

Ankalaev v Cutelaba:

Ankalaev(-370), MMA Record: 13-1, UFC Record: 4-1, Current Streak: Four Wins: Magomed looks like he could be the next big thing to come out of Russia. A very well rounded fighter with no huge holes in his game to exploit, he is a tough puzzle to solve. The last fight ended weird with Cutelaba pretending to be hurt to bait Magomed in and doing such a good job of it, that the ref thought he was actually hurt and stopped the fight.I'm glad they are running this one back so we can get closure on this match up.

IMPORTANT STATS: 3.46 Sig. Strikes Landed per Minute, 56% Striking Accuracy, 1.24 Sig. Strikes Absorbed per Minute, 67% Striking Defense

NOTABLE WINS: Cutelaba(KO), Lungiambula(KO), Abreu(UD), Prachnio(TKO)

Cutelaba(+285), MMA Record: 15-5, UFC Record: 4-4, Current Streak: One Loss: "The Hulk" is one of the most underrated fighters at 205lbs. In his eight UFC fights he has faced a ton of high level fighters and still only being 26 years old, Ion has not even hit his prime yet. His striking looks better and better with ever fight. The odds are not kind to him on this particular fight but I think this fight is much closer than the odds would suggest. 

IMPORTANT STATS: 80% Takedown Defense, 71% Takedown Accuracy, 2.59 Takedowns per 15 Minutes, 5.29 Sig, Strikes Landed per Minute

NOTABLE WINS: Rountree(TKO), Antigulov(TKO), da Silva(KO)

Other MMA Action Around the World:

One of the best lightweights not in the UFC is fighting this weekend at KSW 54 in Poland. Mateusz Gamrot, who is 16-0 in MMA, is defending his title against Marian Ziolkowski. If you don't know who he is, I would watch his highlights.👈 I think he could do some real damage in the UFC at 155. 

Also from that same event is an exciting prospect making his MMA debut. Izuagba Ugonoh had an 18-2 record boxing in the Heavyweight division. He is 6'5 with and 84" reach. I will link his boxing highlights here.👈 If he can put all the skills together for an MMA fighter, he could be a serious problem at Heavyweight.