UFC 212 Preview

DISCLAIMER: This article will be reviewing the co-main and main event ONLY.

C indicates Current Champion.

IC indicates Interim Champion.

UFC 212 comes from the Jeunesse Arena in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. and features two intriguing fights, one between former Women's Strawweight title contender Karolina Kowaliewicz and Clauida Gadelha and the other being the blockbuster Featherweight champion vs champion fight between the king of the Featherweight division, Jose Aldo, and the new blood of the division, Max Holloway.

The card did suffer a big loss when former Ultimate Fighter winner Kevin Gastelum was pulled from his scheduled Middleweight fight with Anderson Silva due to being flagged by the USADA (United States Anti-Doping Agency) for a failed drug test, which turned out to be for Carboxy-Tetrahydrocannabinol (Carboxy-THC), which is a metabolite of marijuana.

Former StrikeForce and UFC Middleweight champion Luke Rockhold accepted the chance to fight Silva in Gastelum's place but Silva rejected the fight, saying it didn't make sense with the former champ coming off a loss (at UFC 199 to current Middleweight champ Michael Bisping).

Silva then wanted Nick Diaz or Uriah Faber but stating that he would retire if he didn't get an interim title fight against Yoel Romero.

After a short period of time, the UFC and Silva agreed that he wouldn't fight at UFC 212.

Anyway, the card is now in shape and looks to end with the crowning of one undisputed king of 145.



Cláudia Gadelha vs Karolina Kowaliewicz (Women's Strawweight Bout)

In Madison Square Garden, New York, at UFC 205, Karolina Kowaliewicz (10-1 MMA, 3-1 UFC) fought Strawweight champ Joanna Jedrzejczyk (14-0 MMA, 8 UFC) in a slug-fest that identified that whilst Karolina is a good fighter, she's not a top-level fighter like Jedrzejczyk.

So begins the route back to the title and the first roadblock comes in the form of Claudia Gadelha (14-2 MMA, 3-2 UFC).

Gadelha has also faced Jedrzejczyk, back in December 2014 at UFC on Fox 13, and again as the decider of The Ultimate Fighter 23 in July 2015.

Both losses came via decision, split and unanimous respectively.

It seems to be a title eliminator and the main battle going in is Gadelha's raw wrestling against Karolina's fast striking.

The key for Gadelha is to land quick takedowns and move swiftly into one of a number of possible submissions, whilst the key for Karolina is to knockout Gadelha before she lands any takedowns.

This is all easy to say however as the fight will be a lot closer than just closing out the opponent's main form of offense.

Regardless, it'll be a fight worth watching, especially if you're Joanna Jedrejczyk.


PREDICTION: Gadelha wins via second round knockout.





Jose Aldo (C) vs Max Holloway (IC) (Fight To Unify The Interim Featherweight and Featherweight Championships)

Here it is.

In Jose Aldo's (26-2 MMA, 8-1 UFC) hometown of Rio de Janeiro, the undisputed king of the Featherweight division will be crowned when the Brazilian faces interim champion Max Holloway (17-3 MMA, 13-3 UFC) in the main event.

It's arguably the biggest Featherweight fight in UFC history, even bigger than Aldo vs McGregor, and I agree with this as it's a battle between the old guard of the division (in the form of Aldo and his eight fight defence of the title) and the new young blood of the division (in the form of Holloway's ten fight unbeaten streak) and will shape the 145 division for the foreseeable future.

As stated above, Holloway is on a roll in the Octagon, developing a unique style that has a kickboxing background that features spinning backhands and flash body kicks. Whether he's able to cope with Aldo's explosive jabs and savage legkicks is one of the very intriguing focus areas going into this fight.

I seems to me that Aldo will be looking to end the fight early with a stunning knockout of his Hawaiian opponent, fighting at home and all, but I see Holloway sticking out the early punishment dished out by Aldo and, to the shock of the Rio audience, knocking out Jose Aldo for only the second time in his career.

It may seem unlikely but as people say anything can happen in MMA and it could very well be Holloway's time, with the man himself saying: "Kings go to other king's villages and take everything they own."


PREDICTION: Holloway wins via third-round knockout.