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10 reasons to watch UFC Fight Night 107 – very much a UFC Fight Pass card


Saturday’s UFC Fight Night 107 event is very much a UFC Fight Pass card, meaning that while it’s light on ranked fighters, it does sport a fair share of developing prospects.

Of the 26 competitors on this card, only three are mentioned in the USA TODAY Sports/MMAjunkie MMA rankings, and two of those fighters meet in the main event. In that contest, Jimi Manuwa and Corey Anderson look to improve their standing in the light heavyweight division.

In the co-main event, the other fighter who shows up in the rankings, Gunnar Nelson, looks to put his run of alternating wins and losses in his last four fights behind him when he meets the streaking Alan Jouban.

As for the prospects mentioned above, the featherweight, bantamweight, lightweight, welterweight and middleweight divisions are all represented on this card.

UFC Fight Night 107 takes place at The O2 in London. The entire card streams on UFC Fight Pass. Here are 10 reasons to watch the event.

1. Check the trajectory

Corey Anderson

In the main event, we have a light-heavyweight matchup that could determine the trajectory of two fighters. The winner will get another chance to face a top-ranked opponent. The loser? Well, the loser won’t receive that opportunity.

Manuwa (16-2 MMA, 5-2 UFC) and Anderson (9-2 MMA, 6-2 UFC) have both done well when facing low- to mid-tier opponents, but when they’ve bumped up against higher-ranked opposition, they’ve faltered – Anderson losing to Gian Villante and then Mauricio Rua, and Manuwa dropping fights to Alexander Gustafsson and then Anthony Johnson.

As for styles, Manuwa, who’s ranked No. 8, excels on the feet while Anderson, a rankings honorable mention, had his best performance in his last outing, when he stopped Sean O’Connell with a ferocious ground assault. And there is the key to this fight: If it’s contested at distance, Manuwa has all the advantages, but if things get in close or hit the ground, things sway Anderson’s way.

2. Always be prepared

It’s striker vs. grappler in the welterweight co-main event. On the grappling side is rankings honorable mention Nelson while Jouban represents the striking contingent.

The thing to watch here is time and space. If Jouban (15-4 MMA, 6-2 UFC) implements the game plan he used to defeat Mike Perry, that could prove problematic for Nelson (15-2-1 MMA, 6-2 UFC). During that fight, Jouban avoided the strengths of his opponent. If Jouban does the same during this welterweight contest, he could find success since Nelson has shown a susceptibility to following the lead of his opponent, something that earned him a decision loss to Rick Story in 2014.

With that being said, if Nelson does get this fight to the ground – something Nelson did in his last fight, a submission win over Albert Tumenov – it could be a rough night for Jouban; Nelson is one of the better submission artists in the division.

3. One more for ‘One Punch’

Brad Pickett’s hope of retiring in front of a hometown crowd seemed to be in jeopardy in early March when he took to Twitter to lament his lot in life:

However, a few days later, Marlon Vera answered the call to replace Henry Briones, who withdrew from his originally scheduled bantamweight bout against Pickett.

Pickett (25-13 MMA, 5-8 UFC) hasn’t had much luck as of late; he’s 2-6 in his past eight fights. However, it should be noted that both of those wins came in the same arena where UFC Fight Night 107 takes place, so he does have that going for him against Vera (8-3-1 MMA, 2-2 UFC).

Vera has alternated wins and losses over his four-fight UFC career, most recently defeating Ning Guangyou in November.

4. The return of ‘Mr. Finland’

Makwan Amirkhani made some noise in his first three UFC fights, and then he went silent for more than a year. But don’t fear: The man you might know better as “Mr. Finland” returns to the octagon to face Arnold Allen in a featherweight matchup.

Amirkhani debuted in the UFC with an eight-second TKO win over Andy Ogle. He followed that with a quick submission win over Masio Fullen before earning a unanimous-decision win over Mike Wilkinson. Amirkhani worked with coach John Kavanagh and SBG Ireland before the Wilkinson fight, and Kavanagh will corner him against Allen.

Amirkhani (13-2 MMA, 3-0 UFC) is a talented fighter, and his personality and charisma make him a potential star. But Allen (11-1 MMA, 2-0 UFC), despite being just 23, is not someone Amirkhani can overlook.

Like Amirkhani, Allen is unbeaten in the UFC, with wins over Alan Omer and also Yaotzin Meza. He too has been off the scene for more than a year.

5. Prove your worth

Joseph Duffy heads into his lightweight matchup against Reza Madadi with three stoppage victories in four UFC fights. Despite that record, Duffy knows this could be his last fight with the promotion.

Duffy and his manager were unable to come to terms with the UFC concerning a contract extension, and barring a last minute deal, Duffy (16-2 MMA, 3-1 UFC) will become a free agent after the fight with Madadi (14-4 MMA, 3-2 UFC).

Duffy is a marketable fighter. After all, he is just one of three people who has a victory over current UFC lightweight champion Conor McGregor, so you can bet there will be a lot of interested parties keeping an eye on this fight, Duffy’s first since he submitted Mitch Clarke in July.

Madadi has alternated wins and losses throughout his UFC career, with a May TKO win over Yan Cabral his most recent fight.

6. Looking to make some moves

Vicente Luque has quietly put together a four-fight UFC winning streak. He’s won two fights by submission and two by first-round knockout, including his latest victory – a brutal knockout of Belal Muhammad at UFC 205.

Luque is a very well-rounded fighter with a solid arsenal of striking techniques and some sneaky submission skills, and at 25, he looks like he could be ready to take a step up in competition in the welterweight division. Before he can do that, he has to get past Leon Edwards, who is coming off the biggest win of his career, a third-round submission of Albert Tumenov.

Edwards, who is also 25 and searching for the first three-fight winning streak of his UFC career, is not as fully developed as Luque, but he’s still a threat, having won five of his fights by knockout and three by submission.

7. Developing talent

Lightweight prospects Marc Diakiese and Teemu Packalen meet in what should be an interesting fight. At 24, Diakiese (11-0 MMA, 2-0 UFC) is five years younger than Packalen (8-1 MMA, 1-1 UFC), and so far, he looks like he has the higher upside of the two. In his two UFC fights, the undefeated Diakiese has displayed a good mix of striking skills, a high level of confidence and a growing fight IQ.

Where Packalen will be able to test Diakiese is on the ground. Packalen has six submission wins to his name, with two of those coming in less than 30 seconds. One of those fast submission victories came in his last outing when he forced Thibault Gouti to tap in 24 seconds at UFC Fight Night 84.

8. Because he’s happy

Tom Breese has made some changes since his last fight, a split-decision loss to Sean Strickland. First, he left Tristar Gym in Montreal, where he had been living and training for about two years to return to his hometown of Birmingham, England. Second, he decided that welterweight was no longer an ideal weight for him. And third, he recently got married.

The result of these changes? Happiness.

Breese was very successful as a part of Tristar, going 3-0 with two first-round TKO wins before the loss to Strickland. If Breese went on that run while feeling unfulfilled, one wonders what he’ll be able to accomplish now that he’s put his mind at ease.

The good news is that question will be answered when Breese (10-1 MMA, 3-1 UFC) faces the heavy-handed Oluwale Bamgbose at middleweight. Bamgbose (6-2 MMA, 1-2 UFC) is coming off a unanimous-decision loss to Cezar Ferreira.

9. 2-promotion champ looks to make mark

Brett Johns knows what it feels like to sport gold around his waist. At 25, the unbeaten Welsh fighter has already been a champion in Cage Warriors and Titan FC. At UFC Fight Night 107, he faces Ian Entwistle.

Johns looked excellent in his UFC debut, earning a unanimous-decision win over Kwan Ho Kwak while using a good mix of striking while also racking up a whopping 11 takedowns.

The key for Johns (13-0 MMA, 1-0 UFC) in this bantamweight fight is to avoid the leg locks of Entwistle (9-3 MMA, 1-2 UFC), who has doggedly pursued submissions in each of his three UFC fights. If Johns can stay out Entwistle’s clutches, he has a good chance of earning a stoppage win; Entwistle has been finished in each of his three defeats, including his most recent loss, an April TKO defeat to Alejandro Pérez.

10. Can’t get tougher than that first one

Lina Lansberg and Cristiane Justino

For her first UFC fight, Lina Lansberg drew a tough opponent: Cristiane “Cyborg” Justino. To her credit, Lansberg did something during that bout that Justino’s four previous opponents were unable to accomplish: last into the second round.

Justino did finish Lansberg in the middle of the second stanza, leaving Lansberg with a badly swollen left eye. Yet Lansberg seemed oddly happy after the beatdown, smiling through the blood and bruises as she embraced Justino after the fight.

Lansberg (6-2 MMA, 0-1 UFC) returns to the octagon for the first time since that September loss, and she faces a familiar foe in her bantamweight bout, Lucie Pudilova (6-1 MMA, 0-0 UFC), a fighter Lansberg defeated by unanimous decision in 2015.

For more on UFC Fight Night 107, check out the UFC Rumors section of the site.

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