UFC 185 Bold Predictions: Can Superstar Anthony Pettis Keep the Show Going?
This is Anthony Pettis' chance to really get his reign on a roll.
After his early UFC days were afflicted by injury and unforeseen circumstances, Pettis has been sublime during the last 18 months or so. If he can jet past Rafael dos Anjos on Saturday at UFC 185, it could go a long way toward establishing him as the breakout superstar nearly everyone believes he can be.
UFC 185 on the whole feels like a potential statement event. With a compelling main card and prelims temporarily moved off Fox Sports 1 and onto FX, this could be the organization's chance to begin putting the difficult first few months of 2015 behind it.
There is a lot to like about this fight card, but how exactly will it play out?
Glad you asked. Here, Bleacher Report lead MMA writers Chad Dundas (that's me) and Jonathan Snowden polish up their time machines and make bold predictions about how the weekend will go down.
Prediction: Anthony Pettis Chops Down Rafael dos Anjos
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Chad
Anthony Pettis will retain his title on Saturday, but it won’t be easy convincing Rafael dos Anjos to give up the ghost. Dos Anjos is going off as a fairly significant underdog, according to the sharpies over at Odds Shark, but if his six-year run through the UFC has taught us anything, it’s that he’s a determined, durable opponent…if, you know, not exactly Mr. Personality.
Dos Anjos has only been finished twice while piling up a 23-7 career MMA record. That means this likely won’t be the same quick-and-easy sort of affair Pettis has grown accustomed to during his most recent Octagon appearances. The last time Pretty Tony fought longer than about seven minutes at a stretch was 2011, when he took a split-decision victory over Jeremy Stephens in just his second UFC fight.
Pettis has obviously become a different—and far more dangerous—dude since then, stopping Joe Lauzon, Donald Cerrone and Benson Henderson all in the first round before deigning to go to the second with Gilbert Melendez before choking out El Nino.
Look for Dos Anjos to better all those guys put together. The hard-charging Brazilian will push Pettis into the championship rounds. He’ll make him tired. He might even take a stanza or two on the judges’ scorecards.
In the end, however, it’ll be an accumulation of Pettis’ powerful, pinpoint strikes that does Dos Anjos in. Call it a body kick or the slow, painful accrual of low kicks that eventually crumple him. But not before he gives the folks in Dallas their money’s worth.
Jonathan
I was reading your take, nodding along at all the right places. It seems reasonable on the surface. But something nagged at me the whole time. It just didn't feel right.
I get what you're saying about Dos Anjos. I really do. He's had a lot of recent success in the division, grinding away at opponents, kicking them in the leg real hard and even putting them on blast from time to time. His credentials are legitimate.
But hanging tough with the champ? Pushing him to the limit?
If that is your position, and it seems to be, allow me to retort. I will use but a single word.
Nah.
Sorry, my man, but Pretty Tony Pettis is going to dust this guy. He's on another level, quickly becoming not just the best lightweight of the present day but the best darn lightweight of all time.
Pettis is so good from range that I can't picture RDA successfully closing distance and doing the dirty work he'll need to do in order to survive 25 minutes with this 155-pound monster.
Pettis will spend a round feeling him out and letting everybody have a look at his hair. Then he'll decide it's time to go celebrate and put the stamp on him. Round 2. Knockout. Believe it.
Prediction: We're All Going to Have to Learn to Pronounce "Jedrzejczyk"
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Jonathan
Joanna Jedrzejczyk is the top contender for the UFC's strawweight title. That's a pretty big deal.
Having seen her fight, I'm a big fan and like her chances against Carla Esparza in the co-main event. Unfortunately, as much as I love her muay thai game, I'm a little intimidated to bring her up in conversation with my peers—because, like most fans I'd wager, I have no idea how to pronounce her last name.
Jed-r-zej-zik? Jeder-zegz-ick?
As Chad would say on the Co-Main Event Podcast, "Nailed it."
One of those was surely right. Right?
"Which one?" you might ask. "No idea," I'd respond.
It is a mystery that will likely remain unsolved at UFC 185 as well. Mike Goldberg, being Mike Goldberg, will probably pronounce her name 17 different ways on Saturday—at a minimum. If you include butchering poor Joanna's name in a drinking contest, well, I hope you are already in line for a liver transplant. It isn't going to be pretty.
But even though the UFC's lead play-by-play announcer won't make an effort to get her name right, we probably should. After all, if she can stay off her back, we'll be talking about the doggone champion of the world. The whole world!
That deserves a little bit of respect, don't you think?
Chad
It was tough not to become a Jedrzejczyk fan after watching her (rightfully) take a split decision off Claudia Gadelha in December. From staredown to judges’ verdict, that was a pretty fun fight.
Yet Jedrzejczyk’s status as No. 1 contender is also a testament to the 115-pound class still being a work in progress. The 27-year-old native of Poland is undefeated at 8-0, but after just two UFC appearances, here she is in a title fight.
We don’t know that much about any of these people yet. We don’t know who will win this fight. We don’t even know how to say their names.
And for the love of Pete, people need to stop sending around that one YouTube video as if that helps at all. It doesn’t. My uneducated American mouth doesn’t even make those noises.
But when I look at the limited anecdotal evidence we have on Jedrzejczyk—eight wins, five decisions—I feel like this is Esparza’s fight to lose. The champ will wear her out with wrestling and take a unanimous decision. Book it.
Prediction: Johny Hendricks Makes Doubly Sure Matt Brown’s Dream Run Is Over
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Chad
It was easy to get the impression Johny Hendricks took this fight just because he didn’t want to wait for champion Robbie Lawler to get healthy before they could complete their trilogy.
Wouldn’t you know it, though, pretty much as soon as Hendricks was on paper to face Matt Brown at UFC 185, the fight company booked Lawler vs. Rory MacDonald for UFC 189 in July.
Was that a tactical error on Hendricks’ part?
Nah, probably not, since he will blow past Brown on Saturday.
Brown seemed destined for lifelong journeyman status after going just 5-5 in the UFC from 2008 to 2011. Unexpectedly, the 34-year-old Ohio native won his next seven straight to forge his way into a title eliminator against Lawler in July 2014. Once there, Brown’s roll ended via unanimous-decision loss.
Hendricks will make it two in a row, sending the upstart back to the pack of middling 170-pounders for good—and it won’t be pretty. Look for the former champ to become the first man to knock Brown out.
Call it a first-round KO for Hendricks, which reminds us all why we want to see him fight Lawler one more time.
Jonathan
The UFC was smart to press pause on the budding Robbie Lawler vs. Johny Hendricks rivalry. It started strong with the two winning Fight of the Night honors at UFC 171, but their second fight was a clear example of diminishing returns, as it was less exciting and crisp than the first encounter.
A third fight? I'm afraid they'd end it like Kimbo Slice and Houston Alexander, with hands on knees, just hoping and praying it will all be over.
No, it will be good for the two to get out, see other people and punch those people right in the face. Maybe after a couple of impressive performances, they can come together in a fight that lives up to its commercial and athletic potential.
But that time is not now.
I do agree with you that this is Hendricks' fight to lose. Brown is ill-suited to this bout. The things he does well (cool trips out of the thai clinch, volume punching) will be hard to accomplish. The things he does not do particularly well (wrestling, getting punched hard) are areas in which his opponent happens to excel.
This will be Brown's last hurrah among the elites. Soon, it will be back to the midcard, perhaps headlining the Fox Sports 1 prelims for a bit and engaging in the kind of action fights he was born to win.
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Prediction: Elias Theodorou on the Path to Being the Next GSP
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Jonathan
Elias Theodorou, a 26-year-old Canadian middleweight who won a season of The Ultimate Fighter nobody watched, isn't necessarily a name you know.
He will be.
Not only is Theodorou "novel cover" handsome, but he has a goofy and fun-loving persona that makes you, no matter how much you want to resist, smile. That's a big deal for a nation whose MMA stars like Rory MacDonald and Georges St-Pierre traditionally define dour.
Need an example? How about Theodorou looking up at the camera and saying "Hi mom" while in the middle of pounding poor Sheldon Wescott into puree? Or how about the way he cheekily plays up his handsome face, telling reporters "looks can kill."
This kid has it. And it is exactly what the UFC needs in its once-powerhouse Canadian market. Fans in the Great White North made GSP one of the sport's most consistent pay-per-view draws. MacDonald, the heir apparent, doesn't have the same charm.
Can Theodorou be the next GSP? Is that too crazy? With a win at UFC 185, it's a question the UFC will need to consider.
Chad
Is that too crazy? Yeah, that’s probably too crazy.
Then again, GSP is one of the two or three best fighters ever to strap on MMA gloves, and he saw his stock as an all-time great unexpectedly rise last month when Anderson Silva tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs. Plus, he was the UFC undisputed king of pay-per-view for, what? Like six years running?
The guy moved an estimated 800,000 PPV units when he fought Jake Shields, for pity’s sake. Jake Shields!
So any time we start mentioning GSP’s name in the same sentence with 26-year-old guys with two wins in the UFC, I do question the sanity of our inquiry.
But Theodorou is definitely on the right track. He’s a 10-0 TUF winner and offers a boatload of personality. The UFC, the entire nation of Canada and I all wish we had 500 fighters just like him.
He’s going off as more than a 3-1 favorite against Roger Narvaez this weekend, so that leads me to believe things will continue to go his way. Give me Theodorou in a walk. Then, if he walks through about 15 more victories and brings the UFC’s PPV business back from its modern slumber, I’ll be willing to entertain St-Pierre comparisons.
But probably not before.
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