*Photo courtesy of Jason Bouwmeester @ TKO Photography
David Stanford – Back in January at MFC 32, where both fighters punched their tickets to the MFC welterweight title fight, Ryan McGillivray and Nathan Coy could not have done so more differently.
McGillivray fought a back and forth affair with Diego Bautista that saw him badly bloodied in a bout that was very much in doubt all the way through the third round until the former Ultimate Fighter standout reached deep into his bag of tricks to pull out an arm-bar submission victory that stunned Bautista and elated the crowd.
Coy on the other hand managed to avoid any serious damage on the feet from dangerous Muay-Thai striker Dhiego Lima who was highly touted and favoured heading into their ATT Coconut Creek vs. ATT Atlanta showdown. Coy forcefully worked his way to takedowns repeatedly throughout their fifteen minute affair that saw him dominate Lima on the mat with effective ground and pound en route to a unanimous decision.
While Coy’s grinding, wrestling based takedown and control from the top-style of fighting may not elicit ooh’s and ah’s from fans looking for highlight real finishes, it is certainly effective when it comes to finishing your night’s work with your hand raised, as Coy has done repeatedly against some of MMA’s top fighters such as Rick Story, Mike Pierce and J.T. Taylor.
For McGillivray, after being sidelined for an extended period due to injury, Friday’s night’s bout is a chance to make good on his dreams and finally strap on the belt he has pursued since his first ever fight back in 2006 at “MFC 10: Unfinished Business”, and perhaps that is exactly what McGillivray will finally do on Friday night is take care of business and finish what he started. To do so, however, will require him to show that Coy’s takedown prowess merely plays to his strengths as a submission specialist who’s adept at snatching victory on the ground when one least expects it from virtually any position.
For Coy to walk away the new MFC champion he will have to demonstrate that his training in Florida at American Top Team has paid big dividends as his work with numerous high level Brazilian jiu-jitsu practitioners should have him well prepared to avoid any of the slick submissions that McGillivray will inevitably be looking to throw up at him.
Whichever way it plays out, styles make fights and since this scrap is almost certainly headed to the ground at some point fans will have a great chance to see an evenly matched wrestler vs. BJJ clash of styles, with the winner walking away as the new MFC welterweight kingpin.
