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 IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIT'S TIME!!!!! Coming to you live from the Hard Knocks Arena in Helsinki, it's Vicious 110: Apanson vs Torni. Without further ado lets get it started!
Opening main card fight
Lightweight contest
Montana (10 T(KO) victories) vs Negreanu (14 decision wins)
On paper this fight is well in Negreanu's favor on the feet with Negreanu sporting Sensational Boxing and Exceptional Muay Thai going against Montana's Exceptional Boxing and Competent Muay Thai. The ground game is slightly in Montana's favor who posses Sensational Wrestling and a BJJ brown belt going against Negreanu who sports Exceptional Wrestling and a BJJ brown belt as well. Both these fighters have submitted opponents in the past so those belts are not just for show, however Negreanu is the more accomplished of the two when it comes to submitting people with 3 submission wins to Montana's 1. Montana comes into this fight with a very limited game plan, he either punches you in the face or he tries to take you down with little variation. He isn't a great striker only lands about 35% of his punches while landing a surprising 43% of his take down attempts, he averages 5 take down attempts per fight so generally he gets 2-3 take downs per fight. Once on the mat, Montana is successful on 41% of his improve position attempts and lands a earth shattering amount of ground and pound at a 62% clip. Considering he throws on average 20 ground strikes a fight, your going to get punched in the face a lot if he gets on top of you. On the downside, Montana has a weak clinch game and strike defense, especially against kicks. Negreanu on the other hand, throws everything including a kitchen sink or two at his opponent averaging 84 strikes in and out of the clinch per fight and lands about 50% of those strikes, which is pretty freaking good considering the guys he has fought over the years. Negreanu also lands 46% of his take down attempts, he only averages 2 a fight so its not the weapon that it is for Montana. With Negreanu holding such an advantage in Muay thai and clinch skills, I don't see Montana winning this one, Negreanu has enough ground skills to negate Montana's ground and pound if Negreanu ends up on his back and on the feet its Negreanu's to lose. Negreanu will win this by UD.
Welterweight Fight
Khan (12 T(KO) wins) vs Alavaara (11 decision wins)
Next up we have two skyscraping welterweights both well over 6' tall (180 cm for you foreign folks), both of these fighters love to stand and bang as neither fighter has a submission win on their resume. Khan comes into the fight sporting a good edge in striking with his Sensational Boxing and Sensational Muay Thai, opposing Khan, Alavaara sports Sensational Boxing as well and Wonderful Muay Thai. For the ground game Khan has Exceptional Wrestling and a purple belt in BJJ, Alavaara sports Wonderful Wrestling and is also a purple belt in BJJ. However both of these fighters appear to be defensive only ground wise on paper but you never know with fighters these days. Khan is a deadly accurate striking landing over 60% of his strikes per fight and over 70% of his clinch strikes. His opponents haven't had anywhere near as easy a time of hitting Khan as Khan has of hitting them with opponents landing less than 40% of the time in and outsides of the clinch. Khan also allows his opponents to land 20% of their take down attempts. Alavaara on the other hand, is also a very proficient striker landing over 50% of his attempted strikes while giving his opponents fits as well when it comes to landing strikes as opponents average landing about 40% of their attempted strikes. However, unlike Khan, Alavaara has a hard time of stopping people from beating him up in the clinch as opponents are landing over 60% of their attempted clinch strikes. Neither of these fighters have ever landed a take down attempt so its very likely that this fight will be spent entirely on the feet. Given the fact that Khan has the better chin BUT he also cuts a lot of weight to make welterweight he has a good shot at ending this fight early with his deadly striking game. I'm going to gamble and go against my head on this way and say Khan by 1st round TKO.
Light heavyweight bout
Clem (10 decision wins) vs Saunders (10 T(KO) wins)
This is your classic striker versus wrestler matchup as Saunders is chopped liver on the feet compared to Clem who possesses Sensational Boxing and Exceptional Muay Thai up against Saunders Remarkable Boxing and Respectable Muay Thai. Ground wise its slightly in favor of Saunders with his Sensational Wrestling and BJJ brown belt, Clem counters with Exceptional Wrestling and is also a BJJ brown belt. Saunders does have a submission win under his belt so he isn't entirely a wrestler he does have some all around grappling production rather than just having a paper brown belt. Clem's brown belt seems to be purely defensive at this point as he has never submitted an opponent but with how skilled high level guys are, you can;'t take anything just at face value. Clem has a solid kick boxing striking game to go with some decent take downs and a very good clinch game. Clem isn't a great striker looking at the percentages where he lands about 35% of his strikes while his opponents land about the same amount. Looking at the skills, Clem appears to be more of a Bisping style fighter, not great at anything, but very good almost everywhere. On the other hand, Saunders makes no secret of what he wants to do, which is come out, put you on your ass and pound your face in, he lands 51% of his take down attempts and Clem allows opponents to land 32% of their take down attempts against him so This could easily tip Saunders' way. Once on top of you, Saunders lands about 50% of his ground and pound and averages 20 ground strikes per fight so he doesn't really allow opponents a catch to relax once he gets them down. Saunders does appear to have some sloppy defensive grappling as he is not very successful at advancing his position and isn't great at stopping his opponents from improving their position. But given all that and everything I have stated, I see Clem winning a split decision.
Middleweight title fight
Apanson (5 submission wins) vs Torni (10 decision wins)
Coming into this fight the champ Apanson (who I correctly picked to win his previous fight) is a bit of an underdog as he just can't really compete with the level of striking Torni brings to the table with his Sensational Boxing and Elite Muay Thai. Apanson has a good striking game sporting Exceptional Boxing and Wonderful Muay Thai, both fighters sport equal ground games but I suspect Apanson has a high level BJJ brown belt to Torni's apparent low level defensive brown belt. Both fighters have Exceptional Wrestling so from the way I look at it, its Torni's fight to lose. Only allowing his opponents to get 15% of their shoot take downs and 29% of their clinch take downs while Apanson only lands 30% of his take down attempts per fight its going to come to do whether or not Apanson can get that take down attempt early because while Apanson has not been finished in his career, he will almost certainly be dominated by Torni on the feet. Torni lands 83% of his head punches (he attempts 28 per fight), 71% of body punches (he attempts 16 per fight), 48% of his punch combos (attempts 5 per fight), 51% of his head kicks (attempts 11 per fight), 72% of leg kicks (attempts 32 per fight), and 69% of body kicks (attempts 5 per fight) so clearly Torni is not a paper striker, he is a legitimate weapon of mass destruction when it comes to striking proficiency. While Apanson doesn't really allow opponents to hit him (land only 30% of strikes) Torni is obviously on another level of striking with those kind of stats. Apanson has got to get a take down ASAP because Torni will pick him apart with surgical precision if he doesn't put Torni as his back within the first two minutes of this fight. Torni will probably come out very aggressive trying to wear Apanson out as quickly as possible in order to decrease the effectiveness of Apanson's take down attempts and sealing Apanson's fate. Neither of these guys are used to being finish so I see it going to decision but a clear cut decision in Torni's favor, making him the new middleweight champion of the world.
Main Event of the Evening
Light Heavyweight contest
Nom Nom (8 T(KO) wins) vs Lai (18 T(KO) wins)
The battle of striking styles highlights our main event of the evening with the boxing prowess of Nom Nom going against the Science of Eight Limbs master in Lai. Nom Nom has used his Sensational Boxing to pick his opponents apart in route to victory while Lai generally relies on his Elite Muay Thai to batter his opponents into submission. Plus, Nom Nom holds a 9 inch reach advantage (or 19 cm for your foreigners) over Lai who is much more of a stocky light heavyweight than Nom Nom who tends to tower over his opponents and pepper their bodies with highly accurate punches as well as effective low kicks, on the other hand, Lai tends to head hunt looking for that KO finish that his record clearly shows. He averages 21 head strike attempts per fight with his next favorite weapon being leg kicks throwing about 10 again, but those are his main weapons in a fight. Head punches, head kicks and leg kicks. His clinch is nothing special but neither is Nom Nom's. Nom Nom has the disadvantage in Muay this with only superb while Lai has the disadvantage in Boxing with only Remarkable Boxing. Nom Nom has been very effective with his take downs landing 40% which he might look to use in this fight given his edge in BJJ, a brown belt to Lai's purple. Lai does have 2 submission wins on his record so you can't sleep on Lai's ground game. Both fighters are about equal in terms of aggressiveness but Lai holds a huge advantage in experience as this will be Lai's 32nd fight in his career as he has 10 more fights than Nom Nom does. However the biggest and probably most telling difference in this fight is the difference in chin, Lai has 6 losses due to TKO or KO while Nom Nom only has 1, Nom Nom has been submitted before so there is a very slight chance Lai can lock up one of those long limbs if the fight hits the mat. In the power department, you have to go with Lai, he is a much stocky fighter as well as a much more accomplished finisher due to strikes with 18 TKO wins to Nom Nom's 8. Neither fighter is afraid to go the distance as each fighter has gone the difference numerous times. Nom Nom comes in with a 8 fight winning streak and Lai has a 7 fight winning streak so each fighter hasn't l;ost in a long time so my bet is on Nom Nom by TKO though either fighter can finish this fight at anytime so I would not be surprised if Lai won.
So thats all we have for tonight folks, hope you stop by or tune in to a great night of fights this Sunday at the Hard Knocks arena in beautiful Helsinki!! This is Alexi Zaitev signing off!
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