One of the slightly undervalued battles that could end up being one of the more exciting fights of the evening on the UFC 110 main card will likely be the lightweight scrap between former UFC Lightweight contender Joe “Daddy” Stevenson (31-10, 8-4 UFC) and The Ultimate Fighter Season 6 contestant George Sotiropoulos (11-2, 4-0 UFC). Stevenson is currently riding a two-fight win streak with a decision victory over Nate Diaz at The Ultimate Fighter Finale 9 and a stoppage by elbows over Spencer Fisher at UFC 104. Sotiropoulos has rattled off two straight wins since dropping to lightweight — submissions of both George Roop and Jason Dent at UFC 101 and UFC 106 respectively.
This battle should have a similar feeling as the light heavyweight battle between Ryan Bader and Keith Jardine. Stevenson is a member of the old guard of lightweights while Sotiropoulos is the rising star who will be stepping up to the challenge of Stevenson’s experience.
Interestingly enough, Sotiropoulos is the elder in terms of age at 32 years old while Stevenson sits at 27 years of age with 41 fights to Sotiropoulos’ 13 fights over their careers — the polar opposite of the dynamics involved in the Jardine vs. Bader fight.
Despite the age and experience gaps, this could be a fight that has the potential to produce some exciting exchanges and frantic scrambles. Both fighters have solid wrestling capabilities and good enough striking to be threats in the stand-up game. Sotiropoulos is the much more proven submission threat as Stevenson has had problems becoming more dynamic in his submission techniques. But Greg Jackson may be able to improve those abilities and create a better Joe Stevenson for the future.
We’ll surely find out on Saturday. Stevenson has stated that he’ll be looking to finish Sotiropoulos at UFC 110 because he realizes the need to explode back onto the scene with an impressive performance. It should be a tough task as Sotiropoulos has never been finished in active competition with the exception of the exhibition bout against Tommy Speer during the filming of The Ultimate Fighter.
Sotiropoulos has improved greatly since those days. He was training at Xtreme Couture in Las Vegas and 10th Planet Jiu-jitsu under Eddie Bravo before his stint on The Ultimate Fighter. He moved to Matt Serra‘s Jiu-Jitsu Academy following the show, and he has recently moved to Enson Inoue‘s Purebred affiliate, Fisticuffs Gym, in Vancouver, Washington to train with boxing coach Leonard Gabriel.
All of his training has resulted in some very impressive performances. After over a year layoff due to injury, Sotiropoulos came back at UFC 101 with a blazing fury of guard passes and utter domination of George Roop. He continued his efforts at UFC 106 as he tried to show off his improved boxing against Jason Dent, but ultimately submitted the TUF alum via armbar.
Stevenson is entering this contest as a huge favorite right now, which is a bit surprising. While Stevenson has beaten his fair share of top competition in the past, he hasn’t been able to handle the flood of new talent and better competition at the top in recent years. He’s only now begun to move back up in the division after realizing he needed to change his tactics.
I’m going with the upset in this fight. Stevenson has the tools to win here, but I’m relying heavily on Sotiropoulos’ Brazilian jiu-jitsu know-how, conditioning, and speed to get him the win on Saturday. He was absolutely blazing fast in his transition work against sub-par fighters, and while Stevenson presents a higher challenge — Stevenson has had problems dealing with speed in the transition game in the past. Solid fight that could go either way, but I’m on the Aussie bandwagon.