UFC 141 Preview: Which Fight Will Steal the Show at UFC 141, Lesnar vs. Overeem?

UFC fans have been looking forward to Friday night’s UFC 141 card featuring the main event bout between Brock Lesnar and Alistair Overeem for months now. In recent days, we have seen the bad blood between Nate Diaz and Donald Cerrone boil over, creating another highly anticipated fight.

These two bouts are both expected to be excellent, but there is a third fight on the main card that should have hardcore fans salivating.

The opening bout on pay-per-view between Nam Phan and Jimy Hettes may not have the star power that the main event or semi-main event do, but it very well may steal the show and earn these featherweights substantial “Fight of the Night” bonuses.

Although he has taken losses in four of his past six fights, Nam Phan is unquestionably one of the most entertaining fighters on the entire UFC roster. In just three fights for the promotion over the past year, Phan has already earned two “Fight of the Night” bonuses—both of which he received in fights against Leonard Garcia. 

His 1-2 record in the UFC doesn’t sound spectacular on paper, but one of those losses came against former WEC featherweight champion Mike Brown and the other came in extremely controversial fashion against Garcia in their first fight in Dec. 2010. 

In fact, the first fight with Garcia was so controversial that the UFC opted to still give Phan his win bonus despite him losing the fight on the official judges’ scorecards. The bout was even called the “biggest robbery of 2010” by Sherdog.com.

Phan avenged that loss in October when he and Garcia slugged it out in another 15-minute war which ended in a unanimous decision, this time for Phan, and both men earned their second UFC Fight of the Night bonus. 

Jimy Hettes is a relative newcomer to the UFC with only one fight in the Octagon under his belt, but don’t let that deceive you. As he showed in his first fight for the promotion this past August, Hettes is extremely skilled and the UFC stage is not too big for him.

In that bout against Alex Caceres, Hettes withstood a few big punches early in the bout before taking his opponent to the ground and controlling much of the first round with an impressively active guard. He attempted quite a few leg locks and although he was unable to secure anything for a submission, he kept Caceres from ever being completely comfortable with his striking from the top. 

In the second round, Hettes almost immediately brought the fight to the ground with a monster Judo toss and then another one later in the round before securing a nice rear naked choke submission.

What’s interesting about Hettes is that he is undefeated in nine professional fights and has actually won every one of them by submission. 

It will be interesting to see if Hettes is able to bring the fight to the ground and if he is, can he finish Nam Phan, who has never been submitted in 26 professional fights?

The contrast in styles in this fight should be very interesting to watch and both fighters are extremely active no matter where the fight goes, so look for it to be non-stop action from bell to bell. 

Although Hettes has never gone to a decision or even a third round, I actually expect these two exciting up-and-comers to go the full 15 minutes. That means that the fight is unlikely to end by knockout or submission, but look for it to be one of, if not the most entertaining bout on the entire card.

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