UFC 123 Fight Card: What Joe Lauzon Must Do To Beat George Sotiropoulos

If you can believe it, UFC 123 is this Saturday night from the Palace of Auburn Hills outside of Detroit, Michigan.

The card will be headlined by a Light Heavyweight encounter between Lyoto "The Dragon" Machida and Quinton "Rampage" Jackson, and co-headlined by the rubber match between former UFC Welterweight Champions Matt Hughes and "The Prodigy" BJ Penn.

If you've seen Spike TV's Countdown to UFC 123, you know that in fact, a Lightweight bout between George Sotiropoulos and Joe Lauzon will kick off the card.

Now on one hand, Sotiropoulos is unbeaten in the UFC, he's a sick Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu ace, and he's improving as both a takedown specialist and a stand-up fighter.

On the other hand, Lauzon is a sick submission ace in his own right.

Plus if Sotiropoulos tries to throw, Lauzon could easily dodge the shot, grab a hold of Sotiropulos' legs and take the fight to the ground just like Lauzon was able to do against Gabe Ruediger in his last fight.

The basic problem in Lauzon's game is that he hasn't always had much power on the feet, if any, that he's shown in his fights since the one KO of his four TKO career wins in his UFC debut against Jens Pulver.

How does J-Lau get around that?

Simple: he needs to do what he did to Kyle Bradley in their fight and avoid the best shots that "The Wizard of Oz" throws in this fight, thus taking the fight to the ground where his striking would be its most effective.against Sotiropoulos.

The only alternative strategy would be if Lauzon's striking dramatically improved in this fight, but I don't see him outstriking Sotiropoulos.

As far as the Wrestling of Lauzon, he could take Sotiropoulos in three rounds using his wrestling, but he better tread cautiously when he gets the fight on the ground as Sotiropoulos is one of those fighters who is very dangerous on his back.

If Lauzon can somehow neutralize Sotiropoulos' ground abilities and find a way to snap Sotiropoulos' unbeaten UFC win streak, he may find himself being just one win away from a shot at the title.

There's never a guarantee in MMA, but it's not impossible.

All he has to do is beat Sotiropoulos, and Lauzon's title dreams could become a reality.

Dale De Souza is a Man on Fire—or as the regulars of MMA writing call it, a “Featured Columnist"—for Bleacher Report MMA, as well as a contributor to Sprawl-N-Brawl MMA, RealSportsNet, Sports Haze and Hit The Ropes MMA.

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