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#6 The Prelims: Fox Sports 1 card
Headlining the UFC’s final effort on Fox Sports 1 are Heavyweights Andrei Arlovski and Walt Harris. It’s a big step up for Harris given his biggest win to date is probably over Chase Sherman, while Arlovski is taking a step down the ladder following a disappointing loss to Shamil Abdurakhimov in June. I’m favouring Arlovski here; Harris is a good athlete but he’s never beaten anyone near to Andrei’s level and while the Abdurakhimov loss was poor, Arlovski looked decent against Tai Tuivasa just a couple of months beforehand and I suspect he’s still a much quicker striker than Harris. Arlovski is done at the top level, but I think he can still handle someone on Harris’ level. Arlovski by decision is my pick.
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At Women’s Featherweight, former Bantamweight title challenger Cat Zingano steps up to 145lbs for the first time to take on former Invicta champion Megan Anderson. Anderson made her debut to a lot of hype in June but was pretty easily beaten by Holly Holm, who primarily used her grappling to wear Anderson out. Zingano has been through some tough times and appears to be at the back end of her athletic prime, but she was able to use a similar takedown-heavy gameplan to grind out a win over Marion Reneau in July. Anderson may well be able to catch Zingano with something nasty, but I suspect ‘Alpha Cat’ will use her experience to grind out a decision victory.
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At Bantamweight, noted strikers Douglas Silva de Andrade and Petr Yan face off in what should be an extremely fun match. Yan has looked fantastic in his two UFC outings thus far and so this one is very tricky to pick given de Andrade was beaten by a strong kickboxer in Zubaira Tukhugov in his UFC debut, but he appeared to have made some big improvements in his fight with Marlon Vera in February. I’m struggling with this one as Yan is so unproven, but I’m leaning to the Brazilian, possibly by split decision.
Finally, the legendary BJ Penn makes another ill-advised return to the Octagon over a year after his last loss to Dennis Siver. At 40 years old it’s quite clear that ‘The Prodigy’ doesn’t have a lot left in the tank, but at least his opponent here is almost purely a grappler. Ryan Hall won TUF 22 with his BJJ skills, but he’s only fought once since, a terrible fight with Gray Maynard. Call me crazy but I’m taking Penn here; as we’ve seen with fellow veteran Diego Sanchez, even if the old durability and speed is gone, the grappling skill can still remain, and I can’t see Hall tapping out Penn. And even a shot Penn is likely to be a more rounded fighter than Hall. I’m taking Penn via decision here and hopefully, he retires for good post-fight.
