Preview: UFC on ESPN 33 Prelims

The main card’s loss was the undercard’s gain for the Ultimate Fighting Championship’s return to Columbus, Ohio, as there are some surprisingly important and intriguing matchups on this seven-bout slate on Saturday at Nationwide Arena. It includes the featured prelim, which sees Top 10 welterweight stalwart Neil Magny defend his ranking yet again, this time against Max Griffin. Beyond that, there are actually three other pairings between fighters in the UFC rankings. Karol Rosa and Manon Fiorot look to break out as contenders in separate outings against Sara McMann and Jennifer Maia, while flyweights Matheus Nicolau and David Dvorak try to emerge in a tough division. In addition, the quietly surging Chris Gutierrez gets a stern test at bantamweight against Batgerel Danna, and Dana White’s Contender Series alum Aliaskhab Khizriev makes his long-awaited promotional debut. All in all, this is a shockingly strong preliminary lineup.

Now to the preview for the UFC on ESPN 33 undercard:

Welterweights

#9 WW | Neil Magny (25-8, 18-7 UFC) vs. NR | Max Griffin (18-8, 6-6 UFC)

ODDS: Magny (-235), Griffin (+190)

Magny’s still chugging along in a UFC career that should not be taken for granted. Magny was one of the standouts of a subpar season of “The Ultimate Fighter” in 2012, but after losing his first two post-reality series fights, he likely would have been cut during most prior periods in the UFC’s history. Instead, he came along just as the UFC expanded its schedule and needed more fighters on the roster, and Magny turned his last-ditch opportunity—a 2014 win over Gasan Umalatov—into a seven-fight winning streak that saw him ascend to unlikely contender status. Magny was long the preferred callout for welterweights looking to break their way into the rankings, with the thought being that he had built his resume on quantity of wins over quality, but Magny’s package of skills has continued to make him a tough out for most of his peers. While Magny does not always maximize his long frame, he provides enough to often frustrate his opponents into pursuing the clinch, where “The Haitian Sensation” can often succeed in winning an ugly grind. Things do fall apart for Magny at the elite levels—situations go south when he is clearly at a wrestling disadvantage, and the best strikers he has faced have picked him apart without issue—but there are worse fates than essentially being the litmus test for welterweight title contention, particularly for someone whose success was not necessarily guaranteed. He will take on the streaking Griffin, who is getting this opportunity at the right time. Griffin was a bit of an older prospect upon his 2016 UFC debut, and for most of his career, he was the definition of well-rounded to a fault. A standout athlete, Griffin could hold his own anywhere but did not have one particularly deep skill to hang his hat on, leading to a lot of close fights that often went against him. However, in his last few fights, “Max Pain” has found some focus on aggression that has paid dividends, scoring stoppage finishes of Ramiz Brahimaj and Kenan Song before scoring the biggest win of his career—a decision victory over Carlos Condit in July. This version of Griffin should cause some problems for Magny early, particularly since he flashed some impressive leg kicks—a technique that has always caused issues for the Elevation Fight Team rep. However, the Condit fight did also show that, for all of Griffin’s improvements, he does tend to flag over time, at which point he reverts mostly back to the same aimless—albeit still dangerous—fighter he has been for most of his career. He will have to overcome a rough start, but Magny should take this over late and put together another workmanlike win. The pick is Magny via decision.

Continue Reading » Rosa vs. McMann