It doesn’t happen too often, but the UFC seems to be one of the few places in which incompetence from outside forces can lead to a second chance. After a back and forth war between Krzysztof Soszynski (19-9-1, 4-1 UFC) and Stephan Bonnar (11-7, 5-6 UFC) at UFC 110 that saw both competitors eek out one round a piece heading into the third, an accidental headbutt stopped the fight for Bonnar, resulting in a technical knockout loss. Even though replays clearly showed the headbutt, Bonnar’s case was heard by the New South Wales commission, but by some miraculous fog of idiocy — they ruled against him. Where the commission fails, the UFC succeeds.
Instead of sending Bonnar to the graveyard of aging veterans, the UFC will give him another opportunity to put on a show as he’s set to rematch Krzysztof Soszynski at UFC 116 in the lone light heavyweight bout on the main card. Bonnar is 2-5 in his last 7 bouts, and he’s currently riding a three-fight losing streak with decision losses to Jon Jones and Mark Coleman along with the controversial TKO stoppage against Krzysztof Soszynski at UFC 110.
Soszynski is on the opposite end of the spectrum in that he’s been fairly successful in the UFC since his debut at The Ultimate Fighter Finale 8. He’s rattled off stoppage wins over Shane Primm, Brian Stann, and Andre Gusmao while suffering his only UFC loss to Brandon Vera at UFC 102. While his strength of competition isn’t that strong, the UFC definitely has a place for a competitor who can finish fights and will stand in front of opposition.
I think this match-up probably goes down much like the last clash between these two fighters. Their styles are pretty evenly matched in that Soszynski and Bonnar can both throw good, accurate strikes at times with the possibility of working on the ground for the submission. We didn’t see much from either fighter on the ground, and that’s mostly because they were able to nullify any chances at controlling one another’s posture and position once someone was on their back.
Bonnar’s notoriously slow starts really hamper his momentum, and he normally finds a home for his punching in the second round. The Jon Jones fight was a blueprint of that problem, but Jones’ wrestling made it very difficult for Bonnar to even get his punches rolling in that fight. Bonnar did, however, gain a spark in the late rounds, and if he’d had another round to work — he may have been able to derail Jones for the time being.
Unfortunately, these are three round encounters that normally find Bonnar on the short end of a decision. Bonnar simply takes too much damage early, or he can’t seem to fire on all cylinders out of the gate. Soszynski came out with some ferocious punching early in their first match-up, and I think the knowledge in knowing he can batter Bonnar early should give him the confidence to continue later in the fight if he can fine tune those combinations.
I’ll go with Soszynski in this rematch. I think Bonnar’s time is over, but as an original cast member of the reality show that launched the UFC into becoming a huge niche sport — he’ll always have a job with the UFC. Soszynski won’t break the upper portion of the middle tier of the division, but he’s definitely a nice guy to have to fight in entertaining, fan-friendly match-ups. While this isn’t the most relevant bout, it should be as entertaining as the last fight.