Bantamweights
BETTING ODDS: Jourdain (-140); Phillips (+110)
In the co-main occasion, Phillips (12-4; 6-3 UFC) seeks to choose up his
first win in two years towards the red-hot Jourdain (17-8-1; 8-7
UFC), who is ideal since dropping all the way down to 135 kilos. On one
hand, the “Matrix” is 6-3 within the UFC and instructions sufficient clout to
be the A-side of a UFC co-headliner. On the opposite, it’s troublesome
to not see his UFC run as a little bit of a letdown; 5 years in the past when
he took an enormous step up and upset Top-10 contender Yadong
Song, Phillips appeared like a future star who can be combating
for titles by now, not attempting to stave off a 3rd straight
loss.
Phillips was, and stays, a nimble, fluid athlete who employs his
pure items in service of an unconventional placing assault. His
karate-based type is heavy on the motion, switches stances
easily and employs the pure dexterity in his kicks. At his
finest, Phillips is a really underrated offensive wrestler who makes use of his
pace and the factor of shock to get straightforward takedowns towards
foes who begin to chase him on the ft.
The flaws in Phillips’ sport have been illustrated in his final two
fights. Rob
Font pissed off him badly on the ft just by coming ahead,
pressuring him with a persistent jab and slicing off the cage, a
bit like a bantamweight model of Sean
Strickland vs. Israel
Adesanya. Vinicius
Oliveira was capable of pursue and monitor him down, at which level
Oliveira’ benefits in measurement, power and energy got here into play. In
each instances, Phillips’ placing quantity, which has all the time been
inconsistent, fell off badly as soon as he was challenged and placed on his
again foot.
Jourdain’s transfer down from featherweight has been good thus
far. At featherweight, he was a freakishly fast, high-flying
striker whose entrance headlock was simply as quick as his entrance snap
kick, however he ran right into a ceiling towards Sean
Woodson and Jean Silva,
whose benefits in sheer measurement and energy have been an excessive amount of to beat.
Through two fights at 135 kilos, the returns have been good, as
Jourdain has nonetheless been simply the quicker man within the cage, and he
has appeared excellent in tapping out Victor
Henry and Davey Grant
with almost equivalent guillotine chokes.
Jourdain is a high-volume striker who switches stances steadily,
shifting round on the surface and chipping away with jabs and low
kicks, organising openings to blow up with flying knees or head
kicks. While Jourdain clearly favors placing, he’s a venomously
opportunistic grappler, with a entrance headlock each bit as
harmful as his arsenal of flying ninja stuff on the ft. He now
counts 4 submissions, all of them by guillotine choke, since his
final knockout within the UFC.
Jourdain is a slight favourite right here, however I believe the matchup and the
momentum each favor him extra strongly than the road suggests.
Phillips is confronted right here with a striker who can match his pace and
outgunning him with quantity and energy, and even when he turns to his
wrestling, there’s no assure that he’ll have the ability to get
Jourdain down—assuming he doesn’t simply shoot straight right into a
guillotine. That’s really a definite chance, and the decide
right here is that Jourdain will get barely the higher of a enjoyable placing
battle in Round 1 earlier than snaring Phillips in his patented choke for
a second-round submission.
Jump To »
Burns vs. Malott
Phillips vs. Jourdain
Nallo vs. Herbert
Jasudavicius vs. Silva
Moises vs. Young
Buzukja vs. Barbosa
The Prelims
