|
MAIN CARD
Main Event
Lightweight Title Fight
#3 Pasi Nurminen (14-6-2, 3-1 NGF) v #1 Tolek Banan (11-1, 4-0 NGF)
This is a fight of gargantuan proportions, two lightweight monsters with huge KO power and both are super skilled in all areas. Pasi Nurminen comes in on a 3 fight winning streak, winning 1 by submission and the other 2 by decisions. Nurminen started his career off as a finisher, but he has developed into a points machine. He is a stand up fighter, he’ll stay on the outside, but he will and likes to get a fight in the clinch. He averages around 17 punches per fight standing and 23 punches in the clinch and he lands around 60% if those strikes. He doesn’t have a lot of holes or weaknesses, but the one thing you can call a weakness is he doesn’t do much else besides punch; he has really no kicking to his game. Tolek Banan is a fantastic champion, very exciting and extremely skilled. He enters this fight winning his last 6 fights and he holds 3 FOTN awards and 4 KOTN awards. He is a fantastic stand up fighter, almost looking only to stay standing, although he is successful on 43% of his takedown attempts. He is averaging 34.4 head punches per fight landing 55% of them. He will throw some leg kicks usually around 2 a fight, but he’ll mostly be a punching machine. He has no holes, he is a hard fighter to hit, his defensive skills are very good. This fight should be awesome! I can’t wait and I can almost smell FOTN. PREDICTION: Nurminen decision win / BETTING LINE: Nurminen +115, Banan -141
Co-Main Event:
Welterweight Fight
#21 Ed Gein (11-7. 1-1 NGF) v #9 Adam Yauch (6-3 NGF)
After Adam Yauch had his 3 fight winning streak snapped, but looked impressive, he’ll look to get back on the winning road against a tuff Ed Gein. Gein is 1-1 in his last 2 and just 2-4 in his last 6, but he his 10 career (T)KO’s make him a extremely dangerous fighter. Gein, based in Helsinki, likes to keep a fight standing, where he can use that massive power. He is primarily a puncher, averaging 14.2 head punches per fight, but he loads up, looking for that big punch, so he often misses, only landing 37% of his head punches. He has been solid on the mat improving his position, doing it 64% of the time, but he has done no offense on the mat. Adam Yauch is a big time puncher, huge KO power and he’ll knock people down and follow to TKO his opponents, getting 5 (T)KO wins so far out of his 6 career wins. He is coming off his first really big test against a very talented fighter in Enzo Moretti and he really held his own and looked good, he took the fight to a decision, but lost. Yauch is a stand up fighter; he loads up and looks for big damaging punches. Like Gein, he doesn’t land a high % of strikes, but he lands at a little better % then Gein. His biggest problem is he just doesn’t have great defensive skills, or at least, he doesn’t show them. He will stand in front of his opponent and absorb strikes. One of these days it will haunt him. A great stand up fight possibility, this one should be great and we will see a TKO. PREDICTION: Yauch 1st round TKO/ BETTING LINE: Gein -127, Yauch +104
Light Heavyweight Fight
#12 Michael Galustyan (7-1, 0-0 NGF) v #8 Dragon Warfist (3-1-1 NGF)
We will finally see Michael Galustyan in action, he is on a 6 fight winning streak where he’s had 2 KO wins. Dragon Warfist is coming of a majority draw last fight vs Mads Rosenkilde, he’ll look to get back in the win column. Galustyan is said to have sensational boxing skills, but through 8 fights, he hasn’t had much time standing. Galustyan will use his wrestling skills to get takedowns, 59% success rate on takedowns, once on the mat, he controls his opponent and simply beats them into submission, he averages 23.6 ground strikes per fight, landing 43% of them. Dragon Warfist likes to keep a fight standing, he has strong boxing skills and is sensational with Muay Thai. Warfist also has deadly kicks and he likes to throw them, he’s averaging over 22 kicks per fight. He isn’t good on the ground, his takedown defense has been brutal also, which isn’t good for this fight. He has been pounded while on the ground, so that is another problem area for this fight. I can see this fight going to the mat, if it does, Galustyan will own Warfist, but if Dragon can keep this standing, make Michael box, I think Warfist can take this. PREDICTION: Warfist 2nd round TKO/ BETTING LINE: Galustyan -182, Warfist +147
Bantamweight Fight
#17 Tony Chu (2-1, 0-1 NGF) v #4 Yngwie Malmsteen (6-2, 5-2 NGF)
Tony Chu had a fantastic showing in his NGF debut, he fought a very tuff and former champion in Boris Yurinov, but he took that fight to a decision and actually knocked down Yurinov late in that fight. He’ll face another big test in Yngwie Malmsteen, who himself is trying to become a title contender with a win. Chu has good power; he can end a fight and will look to finish a fight with strikes from the standing position. He is averaging over 13 punches standing and 11 punches from the clinch. He has wonderful Muay Thai skills including very good knees. He is also landing 89% of his 9.3 averaged leg kicks per fight. His weakness is he does get hit a lot too, he has been punched in the head 10.7 times per fight, that’s 86% landed per fight, so his punch defense needs to get better. Malmsteen is averaging over 20 head punches per fight, and if he lands 80% of them, Chu will be in real trouble because Malmsteen has very good power. Malmsteen will also fight in the clinch and he can do damage as well with Thai clinch punches. Neither one of these fighters has spent much time on the ground and I don’t think this fight will go there either. It’s going to be a real stand and bang battle and could be in the running for the FOTN. PREDICTION: Malmsteen 3rd round TKO/ BETTING LINE: Chu +108, Malmsteen -133
Super Heavyweight Fight
#11 Buddy Threadgood (5-3, 4-3 NGF) v #9 Samson Miodek (5-3, 0-1 NGF)
Both fighters are coming into this one losing their last fight, both of these guys are 1-2 in their last 3 and both are in desperate need of a win. Buddy Threadgood has fallen on hard times, he was 4-0 in his first 4 fights, but now just 1-3 in his last 4. Threadgood says its been a case of just overthinking things and he’s going to get back to the basics. He has massive power and will load up for the big punch, but he is landing over half of his 9 average head punches per fight at 56%. When you have the power he has and you land 4 to 5 big shots, chins are certainly tested. He still is working on his defense, but right now, he’s been hit just too much, and when you are facing other big power fighters, you will get KO’ed. Samson Miodek is one of those big power guys. He was 5-1 to start his career, all vs lower level competition and once he joined a org and faced better fighters, he’s now gone 0-2. He’s trying to show everyone that he is a force and he can beat good fighters. He has very good wrestling skills, and although he can fight standing, he’ll look for takedowns, take this fight to the mat, because that’s his bread and butter. He’s gotten 65% of his attempted takedowns and while he’s on the mat he is landing 74% of his 9.5 averaged ground strikes. That is simply death when you have the power he has. This will be a fight of Threadgood trying to stay on his feet and Miodek trying to get to the ground. Threadgood can win this fight if he can stay standing, Miodek just doesn’t have very good defensive skills, but he’ll eat Threadgood up on the ground. PREDICTION: Threadgood 1st round KO/ BETTING LINE: Threadgood -125, Miodek +102
PRELIM CARD
Lightweight Fight
#25 DoDo Bird (1-1 NGF) v #23 Wade Dew (7-2, 2-1 NGF)
I’m pretty excited about this one. These two guys are a couple of the young rising stars in the division, both looking to build on a wins their last fight. DoDo Bird won his last fight with a head kick KO at Fight Night 18 and he’ll look to move up the ranks with another win. He has been a stand up fighter so far, he has good power and he’s a accurate striker, landing 100% of his head punches and 68% of his kicks. He has shown good defensive skills so far too, so there aren’t many exposed holes in his game after just 2 fights. Wade Dew is coming off a win of Alf Hooker that put Hooker into retirement. Dew is said to have a wrestling back ground, but he hasn’t shown a single bit of wrestling yet in 9 career fights. He is a stand up fighter and he’s been pretty much a 1 trick pony. He is a puncher and that’s it. He loves his combinations, averaging over 14 combinations per fight, but he lands just 35% of them. He is hard to hit, he has quick feet and decent defense. He is not good on the mat, he’s been submitted once and he is being hit 58% of the time on ground strikes. This should be a good one, I can’t wait to see these two go at it. PREDICTION: Bird 2nd round TKO/ BETTING LINE: Bird -153, Dew +125
Lightweight Fight
#26 Jacob Hill (3-2 NGF) v #21 Oswaldo Barra (10-9, 1-1 NGF)
Jacob Hill will try to turn things around, after winning his first 3 fights of his career, he’s lost his last two and seems to be searching for his identity. Oswaldo Barra, just 2-6 in his last 8 looked horrible in his last fight at NGF 40, getting KO’ed in the 2nd round to Mitch Mitchel while not landing a SINGLE strike in the fight. This will be a ground fight, no doubt about that, both these guys don’t have much of a stand up game at all. The fight will go to the mat when Hill wants it to, he is getting takedowns at 61% success rate from stand up. Hill has been outstanding on the ground, he lands 79% of his ground strikes and has 1 submission win. Barra really has shown no fighting skill other than bjj. He only looks for take downs and submissions, he averages 5.3 takedowns per fight, that’s more than all his strikes attempted combined and 4.3 subs per fight, but he does have 9 submission victories, so he is dangerous. I don’t know how entertaining this one will be, but you can count on one thing, it’ll probably be in the SOTN running. PREDICTION: Hill 2nd round submission/ BETTING LINE: Hill +203, Barra -257
Middleweight Fight
#23 Tak Snack (0-1 NGF) v #9 Alpha Male (11-7, 4-5 NGF)
We have young vs aged, new vs old, and managed vs free agent. Tak Snack looked decent in his NGF debut, he lost, but he showed he does have a solid stand up game. In that fight, he was a little wild, he threw a lot of strikes that didn’t hit, but the ones that did, cut and rocked his opponent. He also showed good submission defense. Alpha Male is a veteran of NGF and at 31 years old he’s closing in on the end of his career. He is just 1-4 in his last 5 NGF fights, he did leave for one fight and got a victory. Male does still have very good power and he has 10 (T)KO victories, but he has become increasingly slower and easier to hit and takedown. He’ll load up for big punches, and he can end a night quickly, but his overall game isn’t as well rounded at this point anymore. I like the kid in this one, I think he can bounce in and out and frustrate Male. PREDICTION: Snack decision win/ BETTING LINE: Snack -194, Male +156
Welterweight Fight
#8 James James (2-0, 0-0 NGF) v #22 Archie Stewart (3-1, 1-1 NGF)
Finally, James James will fight, I can’t wait to see this kid, he comes in on a 2 fight winning streak, his last win was vs Ziggy Stardust, another fighter that joined the NGF about the same time. James fights nasty, he is a bull dog out there, looking for his opening, then he will attack, leaving no room to breathe. He is fantastic standing and a monster on the ground with his wrestling skills. He has averaged 19.5 punches standing and 32 ground strikes in his 2 fights. He can beat anyone senseless. Archie Stewart rebounded with a win in his last fight by using a massive kick, punch combo to end Lionel Cascara’s night at Fight Night 19. Stewart has shown very good power, but more than that, he has shown a fantastic skill on the mat. He’s a black belt in bjj and he has shown, if it gets to the mat, he can ground and pound and then lock in a sub if he has to. He is averaging over 11 ground strikes per fight landing 89% of them. He is a counter striker, often getting hit two or three times before he counter strikes, so after 4 fights he’s been hit a lot more than he’s hit his opponents, that might be a problem if a powerful striker like James is able to catch him just right. I think we’ll see Stewart try and get the fight to the mat, but James will own the stand up. Stewart will definitely have his chin tested in this one. Can’t wait, let’s go! PREDICTION: Stewart 2nd round submission/ BETTING LINE: James +257,Stewart -335
Featherweight Fight
#25 Black Morgan (2-2, 1-2 NGF) v #10 Stefan Burczymucha (2-1, 1-1 NGF)
Here are two fighters that were here in the 145 division when it first got started. Both fighters have questionable training and I'm not sure if either fighter has improved that much since joining the NGF, this fight will tell us a lot. Black Morgan was gifted a win last fight when Johnny Bravo went for 40 take downs in a 15 minute fight. Morgan looks very awkward fighting, he throws off balance strikes that look like pillows coming at his opponents, and he has almost no power behind his strikes. He looks to like a scared fighter most of the time, throwing out a weird punch or kick to just keep the other guy away. Stefan Burczymucha has shown more power and a better skill all around thus far in his career than 19 year old Morgan, but he too has plenty of room to grow. Ranked 10th right now, this will be the last of the lower ranked opponents he’ll face if he wins. He did have one step up in competition in his last fight vs Mark Reynolds and he was simply man handled in that one. Burczymucha likes to take a fight into the clinch, where he’ll use nasty elbows to punish his opponent. I think this one could be a pretty easy one for Burczymucha. PREDICTION: Burczymucha 1st round TKO/ BETTING LINE: Morgan +100, Burczymucha -122
Article views:
315
» Donate to this author |
