2013-03-01
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NGF 39 Pirozhkov vs Andersson

Event Preview: *NGF 39*
New Generation Fighters
2013-02-23, St Petersburg, Hard Knocks - St Petersburg
Author:Chad Didion

Main Event

Bantamweight Title Fight

#1 Arthur Pirozhkov (10-2, 8-2 NGF) v #2 Harald Andersson (5-0, 4-0 NGF)

This is Arthur Pirozhkov’s 3rd time being the bantamweight champion.  He 1st won his belt at NGF 12, then after defending it 2 times he lost it to Lutz Knitter, then won it back in a rematch at NGF 27, then lost it to Boris Yurinov then won it back in a rematch at NGF 35…phew.  So here we are again, new challenger, new set of skills to contend with, new champion?  We’ll see.  We’ll see the same Pirozhkov and game plan, seldom throw strikes, look for nothing but take downs, then once to the mat, use his black belt to attempt submission after submission.  It’s really a boring style, but he’s 10-2 in his career doing it and the bantamweight champion, hell, why change?  Harald Andersson is on fire, he’s a fantastic stand up fighter, very exciting and loves to scrap…the complete opposite of Pirozhkov.  He’s coming of an impressive win over Lutz Knitter at NGF 35 where he beat up Knitter in the clinch.  He’ll want to stay off his back or on the mat at all in this one.  He has not been tested on the mat too much thus far in his career, but the little time he has been there he’s done well, he defended 7 submission attempts at NGF 24 vs JE Andersen.  He loves to use hard kicks and Muay Thai to win fights; he’s landing over 67% of his strikes in the clinch.  He has finishing power and if he knocks an opponent down, he’ll follow and pound away.  This fight is interesting if not exciting, Andersson has the power and stand up advantage, but Pirozhkov will get him down and he will test Andersson’s submission defense skills.  PREDICTION:  Pirozhkov 2nd round submission


Co-Main Event: 

Lightweight Fight

#8 Clean Jaude Damn Vame (3-2 NGF) v #4 James Jameson (8-2, 3-2 NGF)

Two very fun and exciting fighters, two guys I love to write about too.  Damn Vame is tricky and powerful, we all know about his KOTY award he won with his flying knee KO at FN8.  He considers himself to be the Fred Astaire of karate…ok.  Well dancing was what Astaire was known for, kickin’ ass is what Damn Vame is known to do.  A very balance fighter, he is great offensively, but his defensive skills maybe his biggest advantage.  He has been very hard to hit, and that leads to worn out opponents.  He loves to kick, head kicks are deadly, but he’ll go after legs and ribs too.  He is averaging over 26 kicks a fight.  James Jameson is just 21 and he’s already a title contender.  Here’s the scary thing, 8-2 in his career and he’s still improving.  He is a former FCC champion and he fought Tolek Banan at NGF 32 for the belt but came up short.  He is coming off a win over Ryan King at FN 14 where he showed his left hand power.  He has finished all 8 wins with a (T)KO, so he has excellent finishing skills.  Thus far all his offense comes standing up, he has remarkable boxing skills but he also has developed good Muay Thai skills, enough skill that he is very efficient.  I don’t think either fighter will really look to get this to the mat, but if it does go there, Vame holds an advantage.  I think this will be mostly a stand up fight and one that could be a up for FOTN if these two want to stand and bang.   PREDICTION:  Vame 2nd round TKO

Heavyweight Fight

#16 Kullervo Pelli (7-4, 4-2 NGF) v Polish Engineer (7-4, 2-1 NGF)

The heavyweight division is such a good division, there are so many great fighters moving up the ranks and there are so many monsters to have to go through to get to the top.  Here are two of those monsters, I mean simply MONSTERS!  Here are two of the hardest punchers in not only the NGF but I’d put them up against anyone in the MMA Tycoon world.  Kullervo Pelli is moving up the ranks after 2 wins in a row, this is a big test and could move him to just outside the top 10.  Polish Engineer lost out on his bid to get a title shot after losing to Rinky Spider at NGF 35.  A win here will get him back winning and move him closer to that title shot.  Pelli has won all 7 fights in his career by KO, yep, he can knock out anyone in a blink of any eye, his last 2 fights have been KO wins, one in 50 seconds, one in 5 seconds.  His weakness is he has no ground game, and that’s where you need to go if you expect to beat him.  Engineer likes to stand up and he has exceptional wrestling skills, he is successful on around 40% of his take downs, and he’ll use good ground and pound to beat on his opponents.  His weakness is he’ll tend to let a lot of strikes land, not a big % of successful, but if he lets even his average of 3 head strikes land against Pelli, he might not be walking out of the cage.  This fight is going to have a KO, that’s my prediction.  I can’t wait for this one!   PREDICTION:  Engineer 2nd round TKO

Super Heavyweight Fight

#7 Sergei Svetlakov (6-2, 2-1 NGF) v #5 Buddy Threadgood (5-2, 4-2 NGF)

This is the 2nd fight between these two, Sergei Svetlakov destroyed Threadgood in the 1st meeting, he was bloody, but he landed a brutal 3 punch combination that turned Threadgood into a rag doll.  Svetlakov has a lot of power, he has 4 KO wins in his career, but he also holds a black belt in bjj, so he’s not a 1 trick pony.  The surprising thing about Svetlakov is he looks very clumsy with his wrestling skills, his take downs aren’t great and he’s not great at defending on the ground.  It’s hard to guess strengths and weaknesses, he just hasn’t logged a lot of time fighting, 4 of his career fights have been over under a minute.  He is a puncher, he can destroy faces.  Buddy Threadgood is another big man with a lot of power.  He was rolling early on, he won his first 4 fights of his career then the loss to Svetlakov seemed to mess him up a bit.  After his last win at NGF 32 over Paulo Cesar Silva, he looks to be back in form.  He also can KO anyone; he has 3 straight KO’s, 1 TKO and another submission TKO.  He’ll try and keep this standing, but opponents are taking him down around 30%, he is strong enough on the ground where I think he can escape.  The weakness in his game is his defense, he often has just not been good at avoiding getting hit, and that’s not a good thing.  He’s shown a decent chin, but you can’t last long if you allow these big hitters to drill you.  I think this one could be up for KOTN and we’ll see if Threadgood gets revenge.    PREDICTION:  Threadgood 2nd round KO

Welterweight Fight

#10 Zbigniew Mlotek (9-4, 2-2 NGF) v #22 Dmitry Timonyn (8-7, 3-4 NGF)

5 straight losses between these two fighters, desperate to turn things around.  Zbigniew Mlotek will try and stop a 2 fight slide with a win in this one.  His last win, a decision win at NGF 25 over this same opponent, seems like forever ago. Zbigniew Mlotek took part in a documentary about MMA. He was selected because the documentary makers valued his expert opinion, as a true student of the game. He was paid $1000 for his time and in the process got his face plastered over TV stations nationwide.  Mlotek will stay standing or in the clinch most of the time.  He is a good striker, but he has shown poor defensive skills and has been brutal on the ground.  Dmitry Timonyn is on a 3 fight losing streak of his own, he’ll try and his last win was 9/29/12 at NGF 18 against Lance Rock.  He’s a good striker with no kicking skills and is a purple belt, although he has been terrible on the ground and has not been able to get the best of many of his opponents.  I’m not sure where this fight goes, I think Mlotek will try and get this fight in the clinch, while Timonyn may look to get the fight to the ground.  PREDICTION:  Mlotek decision win

 PRELIM CARD

Welterweight Fight

#13 Dominick Napolitano (3-2, 3-1 NGF) v #19 Pavel Petrov (5-4, 1-2 NGF)

Dominick Napolitano will try and make it 3 wins in a row by beating Pavel Petrov in this one.  Napolitano is coming off a TKO win over Lionel Cascara at NGF 34.  Napolitano is a very balanced fighter, he might have the best take down skills in the NGF with a 67% take down success rate.  He is also a very good striker and he loves to chop away at his opponents legs, he averages 16.8 leg kicks a fight.  His problem has been he has been getting beat up on the ground.  Pavel Petrov is a wonderful boxer with very good power.  He is coming off a win over Dmitry Timonyn at NGF 35 as that fight was stopped due to cuts.  Like I said, Pavel has good power and he has had a tendency to cut his opponents, but he doesn’t land strikes at a great percentage.  There are a few holes in Petrov’s game that Dominick could look to exploit.  One, Petrov allows a high percentage of kicks land each fight and he is not good in the clinch, whereas Napolitano is very good with kicks and will get a fight in the clinch frequently.  I’m not sure if this is a great matchup for Petrov, he’ll be looking for the big punch to end this one.  PREDICTION:  Napolitano 2nd round TKO

Super Heavyweight Fight

#10 Slawomi Niedzwiedz (2-0, 1-0 NGF) v #8 Stanley Hughes (4-1, 1-1 NGF)

A top 10 matchup between two stand up punchers.  Slawomi Niedzwiedz will try and start his career off 3-0 as he takes on 26 year old Stanley Hughes.  Niedzwiedz is a pure stand up fighter; he hasn’t tried a takedown yet in his 2 fights, and hasn’t spent much time on the mat at all.  Neither of his 2 fights have made it out of the 1st round and in his NGF debut, he recorded a 12 second KO of Paul Morrison at FN 15.  We haven’t seen it yet, but with a white belt in bjj that would have to be a weak area that good jiu jitsu fighters.  Stanley Hughes is a better wrestler then Niedzwiedz, but he likes to attack the body standing.  He’ll throw his share of kicks; he’s averaging over 9 leg kicks a fight.  What’s different about Stanley is he loves to get submissions.  He’s only a blue belt in bjj, but he already has 3 submission victories, so once he is down, he’ll look for subs.  He is getting taken down at a rate of 84% so that’s not great, but what’s good is he’s facing a fighter that will not try to exploit this.  The weak area for Hughes is in the clinch, he has not landed a very high percentage of strikes there and he has not shown great defense skills there either.  I think Hughes could get this fight to the mat, and if that happens, I don’t see Niedzwiedz being much of a challenge there.  PREDICTION:  Hughes 1st round submission

Bantamweight Fight

#12 Tony Chu (2-0, 0-0 NGF) v #4 Boris Yurinov (5-3, 3-3 NGF)

Tony Chu will make his much anticipated NGF debut vs Boris Yurinov who’s fresh off his title loss to Arthur Pirozhkov.  Chu comes into this one ranked 12th in the division, but some speculate that he could or should have been ranked inside the top 10.  Coming over from the Bushido Fighting Championship, Chu has massive power and impressive kicks, he has rocked both of his first two opponents and in his career debut fight he was able to land 35 kicks and also in that fight he landed an amazing 65 of 66 strikes…WOW!  Here’s another amazing thing, in 2 fights, he hasn’t been hit yet…let that sink in, he’s a fighter and he has had two fights yet he hasn’t been hit or taken down yet.  I don’t know what kind of competition was at BFC, but he’ll face someone much better in this fight.  Boris Yurinov, former bantamweight champion, will look to rebound after losing the belt.  Yurinov has great conditioning, he is coming off 2 grueling fights with Pirozhkov, he can get 5 rounds of fighting, so back to a 3 round fight is not a problem.  Yurinov loves to stay standing, he is a brown belt in bjj, but he’ll keep it on upright and get into a good ol’ fashioned striking match.  He has extremely good kicks, he’ll throw around 7-8 a round, usually landing around half of them.  He doesn’t land a real high percentage of his strikes, but he’ll attempt a lot of kicks and head punches which make him a real problem.  He has great defense also, he is very hard to hit.  I would say in the clinch might be the only problem he’s had so far.  Great fight I smell FOTN possibility.  I think Yurinov can wear out Chu, in this one.  Chu is good, but let’s see how he does against some real competition first before I start predicting him to win against former champions.  PREDICTION:  Yurinov 3rd round TKO

Middleweight Fight

#24 Bennie Wilson (4-5 NGF) v #22 Pavel Zarubin (4-4, 2-4 NGF)

 Bennie Wilson and Pavel Zarubin are two guys trying to figure out where they are going in their careers.  Wilson lacks any real drive in his career, he looks like he wants to get out there and get it over with as quickly as possible, and it doesn’t matter if it’s a loss or a win, 6 of his 9 fights have all been over under a minute.  He has no real strengths that I can see, other than he’s done a nice job on the ground, but it’s been so rare that his fights have been there since they usually end so quickly.  He has nice power and he can catch someone and drop them, but he swings so hard, he usually is off balance and leaves his chin exposed, which has resulted in terrible defensive numbers.  Pavel Zarubin had his 2 fight winning streak get stopped by Milan Savic with a 1st round kneebar.  He is a standup striker with decent defensive skills and has shown little skill on the mat.  He has good power and he can KO someone in a blink.  He’s been alright in the clinch, but he has shown glimpses of good skill.  He just has to avoid the mat, he has to this point just been a punching bag there and has shown little defense or reversal skills.  I’m sure we’ll see a quick fight here.   PREDICTION:  Zarubin 1st round TKO

Middleweight Fight

#18 Henkka Seppala (0-0 NGF) v #8 Jambo Alvez (9-5, 3-2 NGF)

This is a huge opportunity to make a statement to the middleweight division for Henkka Seppala.  Seppala is making his career debut vs Jambo Alvez in this one.  He comes in regarded as a big puncher and a good wrestler.  When we were able to talk to Abel Keller, a coach at ACME Thai Boxing Acadamey (that’s how they spell it, not sure if they meant to spell it wrong), he says that Seppala is a very good puncher and has decent kicks, he holds a background in wrestling, so that’s a strength too.  At just 19 years old, he’s one of the youngest in the division, so we’ll have a better idea of where he stands after this fist fight.  Jambo Alvez is not a kid, he’s 30 years old, but he has a lot more experience to bring to the table.  Alvez, once thought to be close to a title fight has lost 2 straight to two fighters inside the top 10.  He’s still hanging on to a top 10 ranking, but with new guns like Justin Killer, Leroy Guns, Heath Marcum, and this man he faces coming along, Alvez needs a win.  Alvez has great conditioning, but he lacks KO power, he’s had 7 wins by decision.  He loves to shoot for takedowns; he’ll average around 9 a fight.  He can stand and use some decent striking to set up his takedowns, but he likes to take fights to the mat and use his ground and pound, “out point you” style, nothing huge, but he does land 65% of his ground strikes which will give him a lot of points in the eyes of the judges.  He is facing another good wrestler, so this will be an interesting fight.  I like the youth over wisdom in this one.  PREDICTION:  Seppala decision win
 

 

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