UFC 156 (Jose Aldo vs. Frankie Edgar) Preview – Joseph Benavidez vs. Ian McCall Breakdown, Preview and Prediction

Previews

You know how freakin’ stacked UFC 156 is? You have a flyweight fight that could’ve been a main event on a lot of card is a pay per view opener on this one. That’s pretty badass if you ask me.

Fight Breakdown: One guy’s a wrestling based fighter with big power and the occasional slick submission. The other guy is a wrestling based fighter with big power and the occasional slick submission. The one crazy thing about this fight is that both guys come in and do so much alike that sometimes the only difference is that McCall is just bigger.

Both guys come in with wrestling pedigrees, Benavidez on a much higher level, and big time power.

McCall was a bantamweight who found success outside the WEC at flyweight after an “interesting” detour in life. He’s a recovering drug addict who’s had some substantial addiction problems, to say the least that he kicked and got his life in order. He’s got big power and a wrestling base with underrated submission skills.

Benavidez is almost the same fighter, skill set for skill set, as McCall. He comes from a great camp at Team Alpha Male and is a near 125 lb. version of Urijah Faber. Good everywhere he has to, big power and a pedigreed wrestler.

Why It Matters: The winner might get the next shot at Demtrious Johnson. Both fighters present intriguing options; McCall drew with him before losing a fairly one-sided decision in 2012. A lot of people scored Benavidez the proper winner in the first flyweight title fight. Either way there’s intrigue into the fight because the winner is going to get a rematch with “Mighty Mouse.”

The other thing that matters in this fight is McCall’s standing in the division. Before the flyweight title tournament he was the clear #1 in the world. Now the doubts about him being an elite fighter are coming up. He’s probably in that elite conversation but he was by far the #1 and the pre-tournament favorite to win it. If he can’t beat Benavidez it’ll be a while before he’ll get a chance, especially if it’s definitive.

Prediction: McCall