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 NGF 37 Preview
MAIN CARD
Main Event
Light Heavyweight Title Fight
#4 Dmitry Boitsoff (10-4, 2-2 NGF) v #1 Jack Poldi (10-3, 5-0 NGF)
Jack Poldi, NGF’s FOTY will put his light heavyweight belt on the line against Dmitry Boitsoff. Dmitry Boitsoff will take his bjj black belt and try and submit Jack Poldi. These two met once before back at NGF 24 with Poldi beating him senseless and getting a stoppage due to cuts in the 2nd round. Boitsoff, one of the most predictable, boring fighters in the NGF. One thing you can count on is this WONT be a FOTN. Boitsoff will throw zero to 1 strike standing up, then spend every ounce of is being trying to get takedowns. Once there, it will be submission after submission until he locks one up, it doesn’t matter, on top or bottom, his bjj skills are the best in the NGF. Jack Poldi will look to defend his title for the 4th time in this one. He is a stand up fighter who can hold his own if it gets to the ground. In fact in his last dominating win against Martyn Musgrave, he won the stand up, clinch and ground game, attempting 9 submissions in the win also. This should be a great matchup, I don’t know if it will be exciting, but if Poldi makes a mistake on the ground Boitsoff can make him pay. PREDICTION: Poldi 2nd round TKO
Co-Main Event:
Light Heavyweight Fight
#10 Gunner Malone (15-4, 0-0 NGF) v #6 Brett Riverboat (9-2, 4-2 NGF)
26 year old Gunner Malone will make his NGF debut in this one. Winner of 9 straight, Malone was highly recruited. When he did sign, his one demand was he wanted to fight Brett Riverboat fist, deal signed, fight accepted. Rumor has it that Malone once killed a bear with his bare hands, scary. He has sensational boxing and remarkable wrestling, but his big advantage is his clinch skills, they are deadly. He often will get in the clinch, lands heavy shots there and really likes to attack the head and he’s good at it. This is a pure clinch fighter and Riverboat really needs to avoid this. Brett Riverboat, winner of 4 straight, is almost a mirror image of Malone. Riverboat loves the stand up and he likes to get a fight into a clinch also. He also lands at a high rate in the clinch, but he also has a lot of power. He’ll look to land big hooks to end fights, and when fights end, it’s usually an ugly looking, sometimes bloody TKO. I love this fight; it is a huge one for both fighters. PREDICTION: Riverboat 2nd round TKO
Light Heavyweight Fight
#5 Johnny Jackson (10-3, 1-0 NGF) v #2 Rogerio Mustacho (7-1, 6-1 NGF)
This is a fight Rogerio Mutacho wanted, he called out Jackson calling him a “golden boy”. JJ has won 6 straight fights, and he’ll look to become a possible title contender with a win in this one. Jackson is coming off an impressive win over Martyn Musgrave at NGF 33. Jackson is very well rounded, he can work in all areas, but he prefers the stand up. He is very good with kicks and clinch fighting. He will land a very high number of strikes and will finish most fights. I think the way you want to game plan him is to get him to the ground and look for a submission. Rogerio Mustacho has an impressive resume of wins, his only loss in his career is Jack Poldi. Mustacho can pound opponents standing and on the ground. He loves to throw heavy kicks and once he softens an opponent up, he’ll get a takedown where usually the fight ends. He has shown some good skills in the clinch as well. This is a great fight, FOTN front runner at this point. The fight should produce the next title contender. PREDICTION: Mustacho 2nd round TKO
Heavyweight Fight
#6 Elbrys Gora (12-2, 0-1 NGF) v #3 Leifur Le (6-3, 3-0 NGF)
NGF 37 will see the return of the former heavyweight champion Leifur Le. After successfully defending his title at NGF 27 Le fell off the radar. The story is that the NGF brass offered Le a few different fights, and neither Le nor his people even returned calls. So it was decided that the title be stripped from Le as an inactive fighter. Well he’s back. We still don’t know what happened or the reason behind the hiatus, but we don’t care, he’s back and ready to get back to kicking ass! Elbrys Gora was built up to be the next title holder, someone who could hold it for a long time. He disappointed everyone with his 1st round loss to Sam Winchester at NGF 33. He went back and worked on holes, one being the way he was outworked in an area he should have had the advantage, the ground. The other concerning thing will be is the cut that stopped the title fight. He will need to do a better job of defense in this one. I think Le will try and keep this standing; he has a decided advantage on his feet. Gora being the black belt will obviously look to make this a ground game, but Le is very good there also and is a brown belt. This is a great matchup; I can’t wait to see how Gora has trained for this and if Le is still at the top of the MMA game. PREDICTION: Le 2nd round submission
Lightweight Fight
#6 Heraldo Magnifico (11-4, 1-0 NGF) v #9 Pasi Nurminen (12-6-2, 1-1 NGF)
Fantastic matchup between to lightweight division title hopefuls. Herald Magnifico is a former Divinity champion at featherweight. He came to the NGF and changed to the lightweight division, he looked in his first fight at 155 to have a noticeable speed advantage as he was able to get a TKO win over a fantastic fighter in Clean Jaude Damn Vame. Heraldo is a good all-around fighter with exceptional boxing and wonderful wrestling. He will spend most of the fight standing and in the clinch, he doesn’t use as much wrestling as you would thing, but he has excellent take down defense skills as opponents are only taking him down at a 8% clip. He will use his remarkable Muay Thai skills to control a clinch situation. Pasi Nurminen, the winner of 4 FOTN awards is a really fun and exciting fighter. He’s the type of fighter that you will pay to see each time he’s on a card. As good as he is, he has just 2 wins in his past 7 fights and has got to get a winning streak going. He has sensational boxing skills and his conditioning is 2nd to none with 7 decision decided fights, 6 wins. He’ll be very active, aggressive and he’ll push the pace of the fight. I think this will be up for FOTN because these two love to stand and throw, that’s where I think this fight will spend most of the time, standing. Magnifico has the better power, so I think he could end this one. PREDICTION: Magnifico 3rd round KO
PRELIM CARD
Middleweight Fight
# 10 Jima Jamm (9-3-1, 0-0 NGF) v #11 Jun Xian Lee (7-4, 1-1 NGF)
Jima Jamm makes his NGF debut against Jun Xian Lee and will look to improve upon his 5 fight un beaten streak. Jamm has just 1 loss in his last 7 fights with 1 draw. An exceptional Muay Thai fighter, he’ll look to get the fight in the clinch and go to work. He has a very high strike land percentage in the clinch; also he has good defensive skills. He’ll be able to adapt his game to any fighting style, he holds 3 FOTN, 1 SOTN and 1 KOTN awards. He is a brown belt in bjj, but he doesn’t have the best submission skills, he’s completed a submission just 8% of his attempts, and he was 0-11 in his last fight. Jun Xian Lee is coming off a submission loss in his last fight at NGF 26 vs Facaloto Gals, but that loss broke a 6 fight winning streak. He’ll take this fight anywhere it has to go, but he is deadly on the ground. He’ll look to get a take down, and he loves to ground and pound and he’ll finish with a submission if it’s there. He can get a little sloppy which has led him to a 3 submission losses. I think you’ll see Jamm look to stay standing, box some and for sure try and close the distance and get this fight in a clinch. Lee will fight too, but you’ll see him try more for the takedowns and make this a ground fight. PREDICTION: Jamm 2nd round TKO
Lightweight Fight
#8 Ryan King (8-3, 2-2 NGF) v #3 Makoto Shibasaki (7-3, 5-2 NGF)
A grappling and wrestling matchup between Ryan King and Makoto Shibasaki. This is the 2nd time these two will face each other, in the first fight these two fought a hard grappling match with King getting the armbar victory. King loves to get a fight to the ground, how much so, he’s averaging more takedown attempts then strikes standing up. He’ll wrestle anyone down, soften up and look for submissions. He’s a hard worker, but he’ll wear himself down at times, he loves to throw strikes on the ground, but has a pretty low landing percentage at 28%. Makoto Shibasaki is coming off a win at FN 14 vs DoDo Bird by way of a decision. Makoto doesn’t have great power or finishing skills; 3 of his last 4 fights have gone to a decision, but he does have a strong ground game. Shibasaki is landing strikes on the ground at a much better clip then King at 57%. This fight will be mostly a ground game, both fighters will work hard on the ground, but Shibasaki has better ground defense and ground striking. PREDICTION: Shibasaki decision
Bantamweight Fight
#6 Augusto Cruz (5-4, 4-4 NGF) v #16 Jack Judo (3-0 NGF)
Here’s a fight with a rising star in Jack Judo who says, you know what, I’ll take on the better fighter, I’ll take a chance. We have so many fighters starting to only look to fight other fights that they seem to be the clear cut favorite, well sometimes you don’t get perfect matchups. Judo says, fine, I’ll take this challenge. Augusto Cruz has now won 3 straight and has him inside the top 10. He will try and get inside the top 5 with a win over Judo. Cruz is coming off a split decision win that Ron Sieler was all upset about, saying Cruz ran from him. One thing for sure is that Curz will need to be ready for a top ground opponent in Judo. Cruz likes to keep it standing, doesn’t mind getting into the clinch and will chop away at the legs of any fighter. His last KO was at FN 7 when he knocked out Sieler with a beautiful head kick. Jack Judo is a pure bjj specialist. He is so good he’ll get to the mat anyway possible, once there, he’s averaging almost 10 submission attempts a fight. Here’s what stinks, he has thrown exactly 0 strikes standing up and he is averaging around 2 strikes attempted on the ground. He is takedown…submission…that’s it. Cruz has to keep this standing, he’s pretty decent on the mat, but Judo is a better grappler. The problem is, the longer this goes, the more worn out Cruz will get, and he doesn’t finish fights, so this could end up being Judo. PREDICTION: Judo 3rd round submission
Bantamweight Fight
#14 Yun Fat Chow (2-0, 0-0 NGF) v #9 Bill Nevin (8-4, 0-0 NGF)
Now here’s a fight I’ve been waiting to see, I am so excited to see what these two NGF rookies can do. Yun Fat Chow doesn’t look like a fighter, 6’1” 145 lbs…um, yeah, change Fat to Pencil. Supper skinny guy, but his reach is a huge advantage. He’ll land jabs, but his reach is best when he can just reach out and grab an opponent and pull him into the clinch. In the clinch Chow has been special, he has shown sensational Muay Thai skills, and he landed 14 elbows in his last fight. He has out classed the two quick fight opponents, but he has his first real test in Bill Nevin. Nevin is a former SPFT champion at both 135 and 145 lbs. He is so well rounded, great footwork and is super exciting to watch. He’ll spend most of the fight boxing, he is averaging almost 28 head punches, 20 body punches and 18 kicks a fight. He is also good on the ground, often being able to get out of bad positions, reversing and if not just getting right back to his feet, he’ll land significant strikes. Another area that makes Nevin so good is his strike defense, he is very slippery and hard to hit. This will look weird, as Nevin will come up to the middle of Chow’s chest, but I think Nevin, if he can stay out of the clinch can work over Chow. PREDICTION: Nevin 2nd round TKO
Featherweight Fight
#6 Diego Brandao (0-0 NGF) v #3 Andreas Almdudler (5-1 NGF)
Andreas Almdudler will go back to the drawing board and try to start another title run starting with MMA rookie Diego Brandao. Brandao will get his first career fight in this one vs a very strong opponent. He’s a Rodrigo Oliveira managed fighter, training in Montreal at Warriors of Torment Gym. Oliveira is the manager of other NGF fighters such as Vinicius Oliveira, Milan Savic and Armand Battailen. All reports about Brandao are that he likes to stay on his feet. He’ll stand and bang, but he also holds a brown belt in bjj. We hear that he is still developing his wrestling game, but he does have finishing power. Andreas Almdudler looked to be on top of the featherweight division, but he lost against Vito Ferrari in their title fight at NGF 33. In that fight Almdudler was exposed as a 1 trick pony, going for 3 takedowns, failing, then getting put to sleep with a head spinner of a head kick. I for one am hopping Andreas went back and really worked on his stand up game and defensive skills. He averages 6 takedowns a fight, he gets almost half, and when he’s down, he is simply a beast, but most of his damage has come against weak competition. If he expects to one day be a champion in this weight class he needs to get a better game plan, he cannot just shot for takedowns every chance he can. He is facing better competition now; he has got to round out his game. I still like Almdudler and his experience in this one. PREDICTION: Almdudler 2nd round TKO
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