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#3 UFC Heavyweight Division: Gian Villante vs. Maurice Greene

Heavy hitter Gian Villante makes his debut as a Heavyweight this weekend

Like any non-elite level UFC Heavyweight bout, the hope for this one is clearly that the two men exchange bombs until one goes down, preferably early on. If that doesn’t happen, we could be in for a horrible slop-fest with both men gassing out and turning the Octagon into a bar right before closing time.

Greene’s UFC career in itself has been somewhat of an enigma thus far. A huge man who stands at 6’7” and has to cut to make the 265lbs weight limit, ‘The Crochet Boss’ came into the UFC from TUF 28 with relatively low levels of experience at 5-2.

Portrayed as a heavy-hitting brawler during the show, he surprised everyone by using a slick triangle choke to pick up his first UFC win on the Finale card. He then pulled off two more wins over solid opposition in the form of Jeff Hughes at UFC Fight Night 146 and Junior Albini at UFC on ESPN 5.

Since then he’s been beaten by Sergei Pavlovich – one of the more underrated fighters on the roster – and most recently Alexei Oleinik at UFC 246, but only after surprising the Ukrainian with his own grappling acumen. Quicker and more athletic than you’d expect for a man of his size, Greene has finishing ability in all areas and really, only a lack of experience at the top level holds him back.

Villante, on the other hand, has plenty of experience. He’s been in the UFC since 2013, and before that, he was a StrikeForce veteran with 5 fights in that promotion. With 28 fights to his name – 15 of them in the UFC – he’s got more than double the experience of Greene.

A collegiate standout in American football, Villante is a high-level athlete who moves well and hits hard, using primarily a boxing game on the feet. He’s never been a really accomplished grappler, but he was an NCAA Division I All-American in college and tends to use his defensive wrestling well to keep the fight standing.

So why’s he never quite reached his potential in the UFC? Essentially, it’s down to a lack of defense. Villante has always been too happy to involve himself in firefights, swinging haymakers with the idea being that he’ll simply land the harder, faster punches.

Unfortunately, that hasn’t always been correct. He’s picked up big wins over the likes of Corey Anderson and Anthony Perosh, but he’s also suffered some pretty bad losses and has been stopped by strikes on 3 occasions. And it’s worth noting that those fights were at 205lbs – he’s now stepping up to fight heavier hitters.

I’m tempted to favour Villante here. His experience levels mean he should be more comfortable when it comes to fight time and theoretically he’s the better striker. But the problem for him will be his penchant for brawling and the fact that he’s giving up a lot of height and reach.

To win this fight, the New Yorker will have to get inside to rough Greene up, and he may struggle to do that given the surprisingly decent technique of ‘The Crochet Boss’ as well as his speed. If this turns into a gassed-out slop-fest then I’d say Villante has enough to wear him out, but I suspect that instead, we’ll get a wild and short fire-fight, with Greene turning the lights out on his more experienced foe.

The Pick: Greene via first round KO