Viewers Guide to the Undercard: UFC 171 Edition

Previews

This is a new era for the welterweight division and for the UFC. With Georges St-Pierre vacating his title in order to take some time away from the sport, it has been left to Johny Hendricks and Robbie Lawler to battle it out to be crowned the new UFC Welterweight Champion in the evening’s main event.

In the co-main, we will likely find out the next contender for the belt as Carlos Condit takes on Tyron Woodley. A victory for either man and their case for a title shot will be hard to ignore.

Rounding out the main card is lightweights Diego Sanchez and Miles Jury; welterweights Jake Shields and Hector Lombard; and light-heavyweights Ovince St. Preux and Nikita Krylov.

Now, on to the prelims and what fights you should be looking out for.

Kelvin Gastelum vs. Rick Story – 170lbs.
Kelvin Gastelum made his welterweight debut last time out, having made the decision to drop down a division after defeating Uriah Hall in their clash to decide who took home the TUF 17 crown. Gastelum was successful in his first appearance as a 170lb’er, submitting Brian Melancon in the first round of their contest back in August of last year.

Rick Story has alternated wins and losses in recent contests and having begun his UFC career with six wins in his first seven, since then Story’s form has plummeted and has gone 3-4 since. Story found himself back in the win column in his most recent performance, chopping Brian Ebersole down with leg kicks en route to a unanimous decision victory at UFC 167.

Story has the power at 170lbs to trouble near enough anyone in the division, but I’m not sure that he will be able to control Gastelum the way he’d want to. However, this is Gastelum’s first fight back since tearing his PCL and this could come in to play quite significantly if Gastelum is unable to get back to the way he was. That being said, I’m still going to go for Gastelum. Gastelum has shown crazy potential so far in his time with the UFC and has only been improving between fights.

Prediction – Gastelum via unanimous decision.

Jessica Andrade vs. Raquel Pennington – 135lbs.
Andrade was given something of a rough ride in her UFC debut, having been paired off with former title challenger, Liz Carmouche. Andrade would go on to fall at that particular hurdle, but would rebound in her next fight, and most recent performance, against Rosi Sexton. Andrade put on a display of complete and utter dominance, beating Sexton for pillar to post for the duration.

Stepping in for an injured Julianna Peña, Pennington will be looking to build on the momentum of a positive debut showing for the UFC. Having been a part of TUF 18 reaching the semi final stage, Pennington squared off with fellow castmate, Roxanne Modafferi for her maiden Octagon appearance, defeating Modaferri via unanimous decision.

Pennington has the ability to out-strike Andrade, but often struggles for consistency and her record (4-3-0) suffers for it. With the Brazilian improving her striking on a fight-to-fight basis and her superior ground game, I’m picking Andrade in this one.

Prediction – Andrade via submission

Dennis Bermudez vs. Jimy Hettes – 145lbs.
What has Dennis Bermudez got to do to get on to a main card and see his competition kicked up a few gears? Bermudez is currently riding a five-fight win streak and has been improving with each and every performance, slowly but surely fulfilling the potential he showed during his TUF days as a power wrestler who can throw leather.

Hettes recovered from his first career defeat back at UFC 152 at the hands of Marcus Brimage with a submission victory over Rob Whiteford late last year. That victory too Hettes’ current UFC record to 3-1, with previous victories registered over Alex Caceres and Nam Phan.

Hettes is more than capable of posing Bermudez problems if he can drag this one to the mat, but unfortunately for Hettes, I just can’t see that happening. Bermudez will prove too strong and have too good a defensive wrestling game to fall prey to Hettes’ takedown attempts and will bully Hettes for the most part.

Prediction – Bermudez via decision

Will Campuzano vs. Justin Scoggins – 125lbs.
Will Campuzano was back in the UFC last time out, having made his second debut with the promotion against the highly-touted Sergio Pettis. While many expected this bout to merely be a coming out party for Pettis, Campuzano performed above many people’s expectations, but still fell short. Campuzano will be looking to get back on the winning track this Saturday.

Fighting out of American Top Team, Justin Scoggins is rapidly turning in to quite the prospect. The 21 year old Scoggins is now 8-0 having emerged from his UFC debut victorious, TKO’ing Richie Vaculik inside the first round, and can credit six KO/TKO finishes to his young MMA career to date.

Campuzano is a well rounded fighter that will prove a stern test of Scoggins’ credentials, but I feel that Scoggins will prove too quick and too heavy handed for Campuzano in the early stages of this one.

Prediction – Scoggins via KO/TKO

A History graduate from Royal Holloway University of London, Adam Keyes has been an MMA enthusiast since being introduced by friends to videos of Bas Rutten demonstrating a warped form of self defence. From there Adam has immersed himself in all the MMA he could get his hands on and has never looked back.