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

If you're looking for a chance to catch up on sleep, UFC 123 is probably not your best time to rest up.

What you're guaranteed, besides an intriguing strike fest between Lyoto "The Dragon" Machida and Quinton "Rampage" Jackson and an exciting rubber fight between Matt Hughes and BJ Penn, is a slew of electrifying bouts, featuring some of the hottest rising stars in the UFC.

Gerald "Hurricane" Harris takes on newcomer Maiquel Falcao. "Mr. Wonderful" Phil Davis will look to extend his current win streak further at the expense of Tim Boetsch and, of course, George Sotiropoulos will open up the card at The Palace of Auburn Hills, in a lightweight bout against Joe Lauzon.

So, how is it that Sotiropulos may very well have an edge against Lauzon, if both men are exciting lightweights with excellent submission skills, strong wrestling and some brutal boxing technique?

Good question.

The fight on paper actually makes it seem like a stalemate.

Then again, Sotiropoulos' last fight (a UFC 116 war with Kurt Pellegrino) was the exact same on paper, however, Sotiropoulos proved to be the more effective and the more dominant fighter for all three rounds.

The difference between Sotiropoulos and Lauzon?

Let's see... three knockout wins, eight submission wins and five decisions wins.

You would think this is Lauzon's fight, right?

Well, not exactly.

See, although Lauzon is nine fights deeper into his pro career than Sotiropoulos, Sotiropoulos is the possessor of some of the sickest Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu in the lightweight division.

You're talking about a guy who has had a history of training in the art of Eddie Bravo's 10th Planet Jiu Jitsu, the most unorthodox system of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu in the world. This is a much more unique version of what you would get in traditional Jiu-Jitsu systems.

That still means that as good as Lauzon might be, if Sotiropoulos takes the fight to the ground, Lauzon could still get caught.

What Sotiropoulos needs to do to catch J-Lau in a precarious position on the ground is use his wrestling to get the fight to the ground and, not only control Lauzon, but take him apart piece-by-piece to set up one of his submissions.

If you'll notice, Sotiropoulos only has the TKO win over Roman Mitichyan at UFC Fight Night 13 to his credit, but he holds no other win by knockout on his record.

If Lauzon's submission defense is at a level where a tapout is not an option for Sotiropulos, I don't necessarily see that as a disadvantage.

I don't think Lauzon expects that Sotiropoulos will look to knock him out and that's a problem if Sotiropoulos is improving in the standup aspect of his game.

If Sotirpoulos can't find an opening to submit Lauzon, he just has to make sure that he looks for his openings to land an effective shot on Lauzon and keep his distance whenever possible.

The general consensus is that Lauzon, despite having four career wins by knockout, doesn't have much, if any, power in his hands. Against a guy who could come in as the better boxer, that's what Lauzon doesn't want.

As for George, he can prove himself to be the better boxer and possibly the better all-around striker in this fight, but he has to use that striking and be sure to defend any attempt Lauzon makes to take him down because Lauzon has proven in the past to be able to take opponents down without using strikes to set them up, which has thus far disguised any hint of a flaw in Lauzon's overall striking game.

The way I could see this fight ending is with Sotiropoulos coming in as the better-conditioned athlete and exhausting Joe's gas tank within the fifteen minute duration akin to how Sam Stout did to Lauzon at UFC 108.

If he does that, Sotiropulos could move one step closer to his long-awaited shot at the UFC Lightweight title.

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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