UFC Fight Night 24: Keys To a Win for Every Main Card Fighter
Another Saturday, another UFC event. This one is the best kind though: a free Spike TV Fight Night with a pretty strong television card.
It's UFC Fight Night 24, live from Seattle, Washington.
The main event of the show was originally going to be Antonio Rogerio Nogueira taking on Tito Ortiz, but Ortiz had to pull out because of an "injury" suffered in training. Ortiz is perfectly fine now, four days before the event takes place.
Instead of Ortiz, it will be Phil "Mr. Wonderful" Davis taking on "Little Nog" in the main event. That works out perfectly for us, because it will be a better fight; Davis should be better competition. I'm not saying he will be the next big thing in the light heavyweight division, but he will win a lot of fights. He's exciting, charismatic and a really, really good fighter.
Other fights include a rematch of last year's Fight of the Year, Leonard Garcia vs Chan Sung Jung. It will be difficult for them to match that epic fight from WEC 48, but it will still be great if it comes anywhere close.
Plus, Dan Hardy takes on Anthony Johnson and Amir Sadollah battles Damarques Johnson.
We will break down the keys to victory for every main card fighter on the show.
What Phil Davis Must Do To Defeat Antonio Rogerio Nogueira
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Phil Davis steps into the spotlight with the biggest fight of his young career against Little Nog. He has an 8-0 record with two victories via knockout and three via submission.
He is coming off of a terrific submission victory over Tim Boestch at UFC 123, in which he used a unique version of the Kimura arm bar. This fight could be his coming-out party because he is going to be something special.
However, he is going up against Nogueira, which means a submission win in this fight is close to impossible.
Fortunately, Davis is a skilled wrestler. He won an NCAA Championship in 2008 while wrestling at Penn State, and he can use his wrestling skills to control the tempo.
Nogueira really struggled against Ryan Bader—another world class wrestler—in his last fight at UFC 119. If Davis doesn't try to get fancy and force submissions while leaving himself exposed, he should do fine in this fight.
What Antonio Rogerio Nogueira Must Do To Defeat Phil Davis
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Antonio Rogerio Nogueira will look to turn his fortunes around after suffering a decision loss in his previous fight with Ryan Bader at UFC 119.
Nogueira is a little more powerful than Phil Davis, so he can keep the fight standing and have success with his kicks and punches.
But since he is a Nogueira, he can get the fight to the ground and lock in a submission hold. However, I don't think that would be the best strategy in the world because Davis is so adept at fighting on the ground.
If this fight goes to the ground, it could be a question of who makes the first mistake that opens up a submission opportunity for their opponent. Nogueiras don't get submitted, so it's likely that if that situation were to arise it would be on Davis' end.
"Little Nog" should do everything he can to make this a stand-up fight so he can use his superior striking to knock off Davis.
What Dan Hardy Must Do To Defeat Anthony Johnson
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Dan Hardy and his crazy mohawk fell on some hard times in 2010.
He started the year losing to Georges St-Pierre in a welterweight championship fight at UFC 111, and ended it losing to Carlos Condit in front of a hometown crowd in England at UFC 120. He needs to get back into the win column this Saturday or he could find himself with a pink slip soon.
The good news is that Anthony Johnson hasn't fought in 17 months due to suffering a knee injury while training last year, so he may have some rust to work off.
Hardy is a striker first and foremost. All of his victories in UFC have come either via knockout or decision. He hasn't had a submission victory since December 2007 and that came as a result of punches. He has good power and can knock you out if he gets a hold of you.
The fight will be a stand-up war since neither guy wants to work on the ground.
Hardy is smaller and his reach isn't as long as Johnson's, so he needs to carefully plan his strikes. If he gets too aggressive, the much-bigger Johnson will be able to catch him with a knockout shot.
Stick-and-move should be the game plan for Hardy in this fight.
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What Anthony Johnson Must Do To Defeat Dan Hardy
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After flirting with a move up to middleweight because he is so big, Anthony Johnson makes his return to the octagon as a welterweight with this fight against Dan Hardy.
Johnson has a wrestling background, but he rarely applies that pedigree to his fighting style. He is a pretty good kickboxer and has good power with his striking.
The thing that works for Johnson in this fight is his size advantage—he will be considerably heavier than the 170 pounds that he weighs in at (assuming he makes weight) and he has about a four-inch reach advantage.
Whatever way this fight goes, it could be the knockout of the night.
What Amir Sadollah Must Do To Defeat Damarques Johnson
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Amir Sadollah is not a glamorous fighter to watch.
He doesn't excel in any one area, but he does enough things well to win fights. He has four or five professional wins, depending on where you look—UFC.com has five, Sherdog.com has four (for the purposes of this argument, we will say it's four) with three of them coming via decision and one via submission.
Sadollah is skilled in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and Sambo. He is not a great mat fighter, nor does he possess much power. His striking is good enough to get him by.
For him to win this fight, he needs to employ the same strategy that has gotten him wins before: move in with strikes from the clinch and use the ground when needed.
What Damarques Johnson Must Do To Defeat Amir Sadollah
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Damarques Johnson is the bigger man going into the fight with Amir Sadollah, with a two-inch height advantage. He needs to use that leverage so he can use his boxing skills to rattle Sadollah in the early going.
Johnson is equally adept in striking and submissions with five knockouts and six submissions among his 12 victories. For him to win this fight, he needs to avoid Sadollah's striking from the clinch because that's where he's most dangerous.
His height and defensive skills will be the keys to victory. If he can gain the advantage with his leverage and not get caught, he could walk away with his 13th career victory.
What Leonard Garcia Must Do To Defeat Chan Sung Jung
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This fight between Leonard Garcia and Chan Sung Jung could be the most anticipated fight on the card because their first fight was so great.
It took place at WEC 48, the only pay-per-view event in company history, and it was something to behold. These two guys just swung at each other for 15 minutes, occasionally mixing in some submission attempts and clinches.
Garcia got the split decision victory that night, but will he do it again this Saturday?
Neither guy has great power, but Garcia can box with an opponent. He is skilled in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu—holding a brown belt—has good mat skills and submission ability.
I think these two guys are very similar; it's difficult to give a distinct advantage to one over the other.
Garcia is a bit better on the ground, so I would tell him to work for the takedown and use effective striking to try and work a submission.
What Chan Sung Jung Must Do To Defeat Leonard Garcia
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"The Korean Zombie" needs to get back in the win column. He had the great fight with Leonard Garcia last year, but he lost that one, as well as his last fight against George Roop at WEC 51.
Like Garcia, Jung doesn't have knockout power and relies on effective striking to get takedowns and lock in submissions.
His best bet to win this fight will be to use his low center of gravity (he's three inches shorter than Garcia) to attack Garcia's legs to get the fight down to the ground. From there, he can work on getting a submission locked in.
Garcia is adept at defending the submission, so these two could do what they did in the first fight and just swing until the bell rings.
I don't think any of us would be opposed to that.
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