UFC Fight Night: Holloway vs. Oliveira - Idiot's Guide Preview to the FS1/Fight Pass Prelims

Bloody Elbow 2.0 | Anton Tabuena

Lots of lighter weight fighters with mixed to modest records collide this August 23, 2015 at the SaskTel Centre in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada.

The Line Up

Preliminary Card (Fox Sports 1)

Lightweight Sam Stout vs. Frankie Perez
Bantamweight Yves Jabouin vs. Felipe Arantes
Light Heavyweight Marcos Rogério de Lima vs. Nikita Krylov
Flyweight Chris Kelades vs. Chris Beal

Preliminary Card (UFC Fight Pass)

Lightweight Shane Campbell vs. Elias Silvério
Light Heavyweight Misha Cirkunov vs. Daniel Jolly

The Odds

Daniel Jolly +360 Misha Cirkunov -450
Felipe Arantes -205 Yves Jabouin +173
Marcos Rogerio De Lima -145 Nikita Krylov +125
Frankie Perez -135 Sam Stout +115
Chris Beal -165 Chris Kelades +145
Elias Silverio -250 Shane Campbell +210

The Rundown

Lightweight Sam Stout vs. Frankie Perez

Stout is at a point in his career where he’ll get either the most thorough of journeyman, or the most thorough of prospects to do his job as gatekeeper. I thought he had little left before his loss to Ross Pearson, but that’s exponentially true now. Perez is kind of halfway between journeyman and prospect, but my description still stands. He’s got an exciting style, which means the UFC will want him around. Perez is pretty solid all around fighter from Ricardo Almeida Jiu Jitsu. While his striking is fairly rote, he has competent mechanics, and is enough of an athlete to threaten in spite of said “roteness”. He’s at his slickest dealing with close quarter grappling exchanges.

As you can see, he finds quick openings, and displays real economy in the way he generates offense. In his prime Stout would have had a tough time dealing with the ground, but would have remained efficient on the feet to grind out a workmanlike decision. Now that Stout is barely a sentient being in the cage, I’m not sure Perez isn’t able to comfortably pick him apart with his modest but sufficient reach advantage.

Bantamweight Yves Jabouin vs. Felipe Arantes

Jabouin is the next fighter on the main card who can aptly be described as a fun specialist striker turned vegetable. That’s obviously an exaggeration, but he’s lost quite a bit of what used to make him fun and entertaining even when he wasn’t violently efficient. I realize he was fighting the hot prospect Thomas Almeida in his last outing but he’s declined noticeably in the areas that made him so unique. Regardless, he’s still got enough to be entertaining. With his array of spinning back fists and kicks, Jabouin fights at such a lightning quick pace, it’s no wonder his cardio could never quite keep up with his momentum. His opponent is a little like Jabouin, but at a much better point in his career. Arantes is 3-3-4 in the UFC with wins over modestly named fighters like the once solid Antonio Carvalho, Godofredo Pepey, and the frustratingly enigmatic Maximo Blanco. Arantes is a go-getter in honkey tonk parlance. He knows how to assemble a variety of offense in order to generate a variety of opportunities. It’s an interesting fight on the feet where Arantes is raw but adventures while Yves is specific but senescent. It’s hard not to favor youth here.

Light Heavyweight Marcos Rogério de Lima vs. Nikita Krylov

Lima was last seen blitzing Igor Pokrajac with nothing but heaters and philosophy. Krylov was finishing his last two fights after getting Von Flue choked with nothing but heaters and variance. In other words, expect this fight to be as quixotic as a spastic prizefight could be. Lima definitely has the potential to knock out Krylov, but as much of a punchline as Krylov was and sort of remains in some circles, I’ve always said his youth allows him to the lesser fighter he’s been for so many years. Krylov’s biggest advantage, besides the connection between being a prizefighter and having a bizarre fascination with Al Capone which I have to assume plays a factor in some weird psychological way, is his ability to kitchen sink offense either horizontally or vertically. He’s a talented fighter on the ground, where his defense is terrible but will improve, with his eagle eye for openings. On the feet, he’s got enough raw power that his shortcomings don’t have to undercut his potential as long as he learns enough. But he has to learn quick because with five fights in the UFC, the competition won’t suddenly get easier. De Lima is a challenging fighter because of his power, which means this could hilariously inside of one minute. In fact, that’s my prediction. A LHW Mir vs. Duffee rigor mortis end result after barely a minute of uncontrollable rage.

Flyweight Chris Kelades vs. Chris Beal

Beal is a good rhythm fighter. On the feet, he maintains posture, poise, and punching. For as good as he strings his offense, he keeps himself fairly limited in general. Kaledes is your Matt Hughes type; a little less one dimensional (though Hughes always had everything except striking), but he has that farm strength you can’t teach to a man who uses goats for dumbbells. He’s good in close quarters, able to clinch, grind and top control a lot of fights to his liking. There’s an interesting dynamic to this fight despite its midwestern championship aroma, but I like Beal to counter Kelades at range, and keep himself off the cage enough to avoid some Couture-like clinchfest.

Lightweight Shane Campbell vs. Elias Silvério

Campbell is the worst fighter on the feet with 8 Muay Thai gold medals you’ll ever see. And I honestly don’t know where that feels onto the compliment/insult spectrum. I think the problem with Campbell, who was last seen getting knocked out by Jon Makdessi, is that his kickboxing record and fights reveal a fighter who can conceal his lack of athleticism with technique. But doing that in the kickboxing realm, and expecting even in the slightest bit of parity when it comes to efficiency is just a fool’s errand. Silverio is a really solid fighter who no one wants to talk about if my preview involving him is any indication. He’s highly fluid with his active, if not erratic exchanges, but that makes him a constant threat on the feet. Despite Shane’s pedigree, I don’t find this match competitive at all. Silverio always has the takedown available if he needs it.

Light Heavyweight Misha Cirkunov vs. Daniel Jolly

Besides having a great name, Jolly has some really good and violent leg kicks. He also has one of the best nicknames in MMA. At 30 years of age, however, I wouldn’t exactly call him MMA’s best prospect. His opponent is a guy hardcore fans may or may not remember grappling Renato ‘Babalu’ Sobral on Tuff-N-Uff.

Cirkunov has kept his game relatively intact. Even though he’s well rounded, his grappling and fluidity are still his bread and butter, and that should be enough to carry the Latvian passed Jolly.