UFC Fight Night London: Gustafsson vs Manuwa Pre-fight Analysis
Live from the O2 Arena in London, another UFC Fight Night takes place outside North America and showcases the return of Alexander “The Mauler” Gustafsson. Gustafsson is still remembered for giving Jon Jones the toughest time in the octagon, and he will headline Saturday’s Fight Pass card against Jimi Manuwa.
UFC Fight Night London: Gustafsson vs Manuwa Pre-fight Analysis
This will be one of the more stacked cards for UFC Fight Pass and Sportsnet 360 owners to date. Not only will Gustafsson take on Manuwa, but the co-main event will feature Michael Johnson versus Melvin Guillard. There will be two more fights during the main card, while six fights take place on the UFC Fight Pass prelims starting at 12:30PM ET/9:30AM PT.
Without further ado, here is your MMASucka Pre-fight Analysis for UFC Fight Night London: Gustafsson vs. Manuwa.
Main Card (Sportsnet 360/UFC Fight Pass)
Alexander Gustafsson (15-2-0) vs. Jimi Manuwa (14-0-0)
Some people may be wondering who is Jimi Manuwa, and how did he get to headline a card against Gustafsson. For one, Manuwa is an Nigerian-English fighter and will be a huge fan favorite going into this bout. More importantly, Manuwa is 3-0 in the UFC and has finished all his fights thus far, all three via injury. His most recent win came against Ryan Jimmo and finished in weird fashion. After landing a knee to the head, Jimmo suddenly went down with a hamstring injury while trying to recover. Nevertheless, Manuwa has looked nothing short of deadly in his past fights and surely deserves an increase in competition as he maintains his undefeated record.
What more can be said about “The Mauler”? If you did not respect him as a fighter prior to his bout at UFC 165 with Jones, then you surely did after. Everyone knew how dominant a champion Jones had been in the past, and for Gustafsson to almost win the fight was something nobody expected but him. The fight was so incredible that it received fight of the year honors from almost every major media and news team in MMA. His confidence leading up to the fight was immense, and he held up his end of the bargain as he tried to take out one of the most dominant champions of our time.
Now fighting in Europe once again, Gustafsson will have his hands full with the up-and-coming striker, who will be looking to use Gustafsson as a stepping stone to bigger and better things in the UFC.
Michael Johnson (15-8-0) vs. Melvin Guillard (48-13-3, 2NC)
In probably the most anticipated and exciting fight on the card, Johnson will be making his return to the octagon after going on a tear in his previous two fights. He outclassed Joe Lauzon for three rounds, which is extremely hard to do, and finished Gleison Tibau via KO in the second round in his last fight. Initially, Johnson was the boring fighter with a wrestling background who enjoyed taking fighters to the mat. Now, he is he was one of the most intriguing fighters coming out of 2013 and will be starting his 2014 fight season against a highly-skilled veteran in Guillard.
Guillard has fought a who’s-who of fighters and has some of the best experience under his belt at just 30 years old. Having trouble with the top of the ladder, Guillard’s most recent losses have come against fighters like Jamie Varner, Donald Cerrone, Jim Miller and Joe Lauzon. Since then, Guillard was able to finish Mac Danzig in the second round and fight to a no contest against Ross Pearson due to an illegal knee. This fight has all the makings of a great co-main event and if both fighters bring their best game, the end result could be surprising for anyone. In the end, the winner of this fight will surely see a rise in competition with title hopes coming alive, so expect both men to come out extremely hungry and ready to throw down.
Brad Pickett (24-8-0) vs. Neil Seery (13-9-0)
Based on their nicknames, this is actually a fight between “One Punch” Pickett and “2 Tap” Seery, which is pretty amazing when you think about it. This will be a great moment for both fighters as Pickett is an England native and Seery will be representing Ireland. Pickett is the definition of UFC veteran, having fought the best fighters the bantamweight division had to offer. Moving down to flyweight, Pickett will be looking to take his skills to a new group of fighters and prove why he is the sixth ranked bantamweight in the UFC. Pickett has also won fight of the night in his past two fights, so hopefully for figh3t fans, he can make it three in a row this weekend.
Seery is coming off a solid run in the Cage Warriors promotion, winning four fights in a row and finishing three of them. He has a well-versed submission game but can bang with the best of them as well. He has 11 total finishes, six TKO/KO and five submission, and will be looking to keep that streak going in an extremely important fight for his career. Pickett may be a bit of a handful in terms of a UFC debut fight, but if Seery can pull of the upset, it would be quite the start to a very promising UFC career.
Gunnar Nelson (11-0-1) vs. Omari Akhmedov (12-0-0)
What a great bout to kick off the main card. Both fighters come in with undefeated records and have demonstrated incredible skill up until now. Nelson is an Icelandic fighter who has gone 2-0 since joining the UFC. He defeated DaMarques Johnson via rear naked choke in the first round then beat Jorge Santiago via unanimous decision over a year ago. Due to an injury, Nelson was forced out of his scheduled bout with Mike Pyle at UFC 160, but will be making his highly anticipated return to the UFC in London.
Akhmedov is another Russian-based fighter who will be looking to supplant Nelson and remain undefeated. He has demonstrated ridiculous finishing ability and has not let a single fight go past the second round. Interestingly, the UFC has the Russian fighter listed as 12-0, even though he has a loss on his record to Michail Tsarev back in 2010. Perhaps due to it being a tournament fight, the UFC have left it off his record. Akhmedov is a very dangerous fighter and earned Fight of the Night honors after his UFC debut win against Thiago Perpetuo. Both these fighters are going to be hungry for the win and the chance at moving up the UFC ladder. Expect this fight to be action-packed a great way to kick-off the main card in London.
Preliminary Card (UFC Fight Pass)
Cyrille Diabate (20-9-3) vs. Ilir Latifi (8-3-0, 1NC)
This bout features two European fighters squaring off in the neutral zone of England. Diabate is a French fighter while Latifi is Swedish and made his debut at the UFC’s last event in Stockholm. He was a late addition to the card and may have been a bit out of his element taking on a highly-ranked fighter like Gegard Mousasi. After a good but fruitless showing against Mousasi, the Swedish native will take on a fighter much lower in the food chain with significant UFC experience nonetheless.
Diabate has already announced that this will be his last fight before retirement. Interestingly, two of his last past losses have come against both fighters headlining the London card, Manuwa and Gustafsson. While most of his losses have come against top tier opponents, Diabate has stayed in the middle of the pack without truly making a name for himself during his career. He has fought seven times in the UFC and maintains a record of 4-3. One of his most memorable fights, maybe not so much for his accomplishments, was his Pride FC loss to Mauricio Rua. He took some brutal foot stomps in the first round to end it pretty quickly. This will be a great battle to close off the UFC Fight Night in London prelims and will be a showcase of two MMA veterans, with one making his final appearance, and the other trying to move up the light heavyweight ladder.
Luke Barnatt (7-0-0) vs. Mats Nilsson (11-2-1)
This is another bout which features two solid European fighters, with Barnatt getting the home town edge. The Cambridge native was undefeated before his appearance on TUF 17 and made it to the quarter-finals. Even after that loss, Barnatt won his fight on the TUF 17 finale card and subsequently defeated Andrew Craig in his last bout. Barnatt is now 2-0 in the UFC and is widely regarded as the next UK star in the UFC.
Nilsson may not have any UFC experience under his belt, but his portfolio leading up to this fight is quite impressive. He has only lost twice via decision and has not been finished in 14 fights. He has accumulated two TKO/KO and five submission victories to help get himself in the UFC. He is a black belt in judo and has received his brown belt in BJJ. Both fighters have incredible accomplishments outside the UFC and it will be a compelling bout between two up-and-coming fighters in the UFC.
Bradley Scott (10-2-0) vs. Claudio Henrique da Silva (9-1-0)
Scott will be the next English fighter to put on a show for his home country and will hope to continue his winning ways. He is currently 1-1 in the UFC after losing his most recent match to Michael Kuiper. This guy is one of the more all-around fighters on this card and will have to use those skills against a fighter who has not lost since his very first fight.
Silva is a solid grappling fighter and has posted nine straight wins outside the octagon. He will be making his UFC debut in London and hopes to upset the crowd by defeating the hometown fighter. Silva has shown good versatility in his previous fights and his last fight was his first time seeing the third round. With that said, both fighters have great finishing capability, which should make this an aggressive bout with a high chance of a stoppage.
David Grant ((8-2-0) vs. Roland Delorme (9-2-0, 1NC) – PULLED FROM CARD
In another battle of BJJ specialists, Grant had posted an impressive eight straight wins to earn himself a spot on TUF 18. Not without some controversy, Grant was able to make it to the TUF finale and faced Chris Holdsworth in only his second professional loss. Delorme shares his pain, as he lost in his previous battle at UFC 165 with Alex Caceres. Prior to that, Delorme made an appearance on TUF 14 but lost to TJ Dillashaw in the quarter-finals. After his TUF disappoint, Delorme went 2-0-0 with one no-contest in the UFC before losing to Caceres.
Both fighters have demonstrated impressive finishing ability and enjoy the grappling game. Grant, the hometown fighter, and Delorme have yet to be knocked out in 10 and 11 career fights, respectively. This is a strong indication of their ability to take punch and avoid serious damage. If this fight turns into a slug-fest, the striking caliber of both fighters will be intriguing to witness, especially if someone gets knocked out.
Igor Araujo (24-6-0, 1NC) vs. Danny Mitchell (14-4-1)
This fight will be great battle between two solid BJJ practitioners. Araujo is coming in on a five fight win streak and was a cast member on TUF season 16. Mitchell is the hometown fighter who will be making his UFC debut. He is 5-1 in his last six fights, only losing to Kendall Grove via TKO. Mitchell is also a good finisher and has finished nine of his 14 wins by submission.
Araujo trains at the Jackson’s Mixed Martial Arts and is a black belt in BJJ. He has won 17 fights via submission and has lost just once in the same fashion. He is always dangerous on the ground and has demonstrated good cardio. Mitchell also enjoys the ground game and has obtained his black belt as well. It will be interesting to see a BJJ chess match if these two decide to take it to the ground.
Phil Harris (22-11-0, 1NC) vs. Louis Gaudinot (6-3-0)
An English native, Harris comes with a long fight history but will be making just his fourth UFC appearance. Lucky for him, he gets to fight on home turf to try and get back in the win column. In his last bout, he lost to John Lineker in the very first round via TKO and maintains a 1-2 record in the UFC. His opponent, Gaudinot, is a past TUF member and goes into this fight with the same UFC record of 2-1. Interestingly, his only win came against Lineker via guillotine choke, which won him fight of the night.
Both fighters have unimpressive UFC records but have shown success outside the promotion. Harris is a ground specialist and has a black belt in BJJ. 13 of his 22 wins have come via submission while just four have come by TKO/KO. Gaudinot, is a well-rounded fighter but his fourth-degree black belt in karate suggests a liking for the striking game. Whichever way the fight goes, both fighters are in need of a win and a loss to either man would certainly put them in the UFC dog house.
