UFC 138 Fight Card: What Papy Abedi Must Do to Beat Thiago Alves

It was nearly five years ago when then, middleweight fighter, Papy Abedi stepped inside the octagon for the very first time.

In his mixed martial arts debut, Abedi knocked out Mikael Pastor in the very first round of action as he began to establish himself as a legitimate middleweight fighter overseas.

Abedi went on to win seven consecutive fights on route to earning himself a contract from the Ultimate Fighting Championship.

However, Abedi isn't a middleweight any longer as he recently made the transition to the welterweight division by dropping 15 lbs.

Unfortunately for Abedi, the UFC wasted no time in throwing him in with the lions as he will square off with one of the most dangerous fighters in mixed martial arts today.

Abedi will meet Thiago Alves in a three round fight in hopes of showing the world just how skilled he truly is.

But, Alves is no slouch as he's been fighting in the UFC since October of 2005.

Alves is also one of the most dangerous strikers as he's knocked out 11 opponents over the course of his career.

While Abedi may be an up-and-coming fighter in the UFC, he'll have to be at the top of his game in order to defeat Alves.

Abedi will want to avoid the stand up as much as possible as Alves has some of the heaviest hands in the 170 lb. weight division.

To Abedi's advantage, Alves is one of the only Brazilians who isn't exceptional in the submission game.

Therefore, Abedi will want to take the fight to the ground and impose his will on Alves through his vicious strikes and elbows.

If Abedi can avoid being teed off on and control the ground game, there's a great chance he could walk out of the octagon on November 5th with the first win of his UFC career.