UFC 120 Punch Drunk Preview

Steve Cantwell (7-3-0) vs. Stanislav Nedkov (11-0-0)

Welcome back, Steve Cantwell.

The former WEC light heavyweight champion makes his first UFC appearance since dropping the rubber match of his trilogy with Brian Stann in September 2009. A mysterious illness / injury left him on the sidelines for a long time, and while we’re in the business of projecting and predicting fights, let’s first just say it’s nice to see Cantwell back in the cage and back to good health.

That said how do you welcome a guy back from injury with a bout against an unbeaten talent who holds wins over experienced veterans like Kevin Randleman and Travis Wiuff? I know neither of those men are top-shelf talents any longer (if Wiuff ever was), but Nedkov has been pretty impressive in romping to eleven consecutive wins.

The Bulgarian was supposed to debut against Rodney Wallace a couple months back at UFC 117, but a late injury gave Phil Davis that layup instead. While Cantwell is a reasonable test for a debuting fighter, this looks like a very winnable fight for an intriguing prospect on the rise.

Rob Broughton (14-5-1) vs. Vinicius Queiroz (5-1-0)

There isn’t a lot to talk about here.

Broughton is another Wolfslair product who has earned four-straight victories and holds wins over James Thompson, Robert Berry, Neil Grove and “Butterbean.” Yes, I just wanted to mention a fighter competing on a UFC card who holds a win over Eric Esch.

A Chute Boxe student who holds a brown belt in jiu jitsu under Fabricio Werdum, Queiroz is the first fighter from the famous Brazilian school to compete in the UFC since his jiu jitsu coach was knocked into oblivion by Junior dos Santos.

Cyrille Diabate (16-6-1) vs. Alexander Gustafsson (9-1-0)

This is actually a really interesting fight to me.

Diabate debuted with an impressive knockout of Luis Cane at UFC 114 after getting dropped in the opening seconds of the bout. A coach on Dan Henderson’s TUF 9 team, Diabate is a talented striker who knows how to use his length to his advantage.

His Swedish counterpart also debuted with a splash, knocking out Jared Hamman at UFC 105 before getting choked out by Phil Davis in April. Gustafsson has big power in his hands, and only gives up one-inch to the six-foot-six-inch Frenchman.

Another win for Diabate would certainly move him up the ladder and make him an interesting addition to the highly-competitive upper ranks of the light heavyweight division.  Gustafsson would need another win or two to make the jump as well, but the Swede is a young talent who is dangerous for any 205-pound competitor to stand with.

James Wilks (7-3-0) vs. Claude Patrick (12-1-0)

I actually had high hopes for Wilks coming off of his win over DaMarques Johnson on Season 9 of The Ultimate Fighter. Not that I thought he would emerge as a future champion, but he looked to have a solid all-around game that could propel him beyond being a British fighter on British cards.

So far, I think I’m wrong.

Wilks has been unimpressive since beating Johnson, losing to Matt Brown in his post-TUF debut before earning a unanimous decision win over Peter Sobotta at UFC 115 in a bout that was far from memorable. The California-based welterweight doesn’t fight with any real sense of urgency, and when your skills aren’t worlds beyond your opponent’s, that is a recipe for disaster.

Unlike Wilks, Patrick did impress in Vancouver, winning his organizational debut over Ricardo Funch by second round submission, a guillotine choke that should have earned the Mississauga native a Fight Night bonus if not for Mirko Cro Cop’s lobbying for the prize.

Anyway, the 12-1 talent has not lost a contest since dropping a decision to former UFC middleweight mainstay Drew McFedries in June 2002. If that’s not enough to convince you of his talents, Patrick also survived being put into a medically-induced coma for two days after getting tazered following an event in Gatineau, Quebec in July 2009.

Somehow, I don’t think anything he’ll encounter in the cage could be quite as bad as getting tazed.

Cheick Kongo (15-6-1) vs. Travis Browne (10-0-0)

He’s been fighting for the UFC long enough that we don’t need to go into great detail about Cheick Kongo. After twelve fights with the organization, there are no secrets to the Wolfslair products approach in the cage.

The muscular man who will offer up 47,000 “heart-tap salutes” to the crowd on his way to the cage is a powerful striker with an allergy to the ground, though he did deliver a couple takedowns of his own against Paul Buentello. Still, it’s not like Kongo is going to come out and pull guard or shoot for a single-leg; he’s swinging and Browne doesn’t want to be on the end of one.

Unbeaten through ten professional bouts, Browne was impressive in his UFC debut, bludgeoning James McSweeney out of the heavyweight division. The Hawaiian trains with the Alliance MMA team that includes Joey Beltran, Brandon Vera and WEC champ Dominick Cruz, and brings a purple belt in Brazilian jiu jitsu to go along with the heavy hands we’ve already seen him display.

Chances are we’ll see a little more of his ground game this time around, and a win over Kongo could put him in line for some more interesting and challenging matchups in the new year.

John Hathaway (14-0-0) vs. Mike Pyle (19-7-1)

Hathaway’s victory over Diego Sanchez at UFC 114 was a coming out party for the emerging British welterweight. Now, “The Hitman” has to prove he can keep doing it by beating a tougher-than –you-think talent in Mike “Quicksand” Pyle.

On the surface, this looks like a step back for the unbeaten Briton; following up his domination of the well-known and favored former TUF winner with a bout against Pyle, but the veteran member of the Xtreme Couture team is a stiff test, especially if taken lightly.

Pyle has alternated wins and losses since joining the UFC, and enters off his most impressive performance to date, a third round submission of Jesse Lennox in the debut bout at UFC 115 in Vancouver. A slick jiu jitsu specialist, Pyle is the kind of guy who can give you fits on the ground if you’re not prepared.

Fortunately for John Hathaway, he’s a little different than most British MMA fighters, in that he actually has some wrestling in his toolbox. While not an elite-level wrestler by any stretch, Hathaway more than held his own with highly-regarded welterweight wrestler Rick Story at UFC 99 in Cologne, Germany last year and stuffed Sanchez’s takedown attempts back in April.

A win for the young Brit puts him into the lower-end mix of things at 170; he’s not quite ready for the cream of the crop, but his days of fighting journeyman and up-and-comers will be over.

For Pyle, this is a chance to make good on all the “he’s the best guy in the gym in training” talk you hear from Xtreme Couture in advance of his bouts. He needs to perform at his best in the Octagon and on a consistent basis.