For just the third time ever The Point Depot in Dublin, Ireland will play host to the world’s biggest fight league this Saturday night as UFC Fight Night 76 goes down in the capital’s docklands in front of what is sure to be a raucous sold-out crowd. In the main event of the evening’s action, after Joseph Duffy was pulled out of his fight with Dustin Poirier due to a concussion and Stipe Miocic also feel ill to the injury bug before his meeting with Ben Rothwell, SBG Ireland’s Paddy Holohan will take on Louis Smolka over three rounds in what is looking like a, very much, makeshift card filled with Irish interest.
A disciple of John Kavanagh’s Straight Blast Gym in Dublin, Holohan has earned much notoriety for his impressive performances and fun personality since the Irish MMA scene blew up over the last few years. Currently with a record of 12-1-1 Holohan had good wins over dangerous local fighters Artemij Sitenkov and Damien Rooney before beating Josh Sampo in his Octagon debut on last year’s UFC Dublin show. A come-from-behind loss to Chris Kelades followed that before two wins on the bounce put “The Hooligan” back on track.
A Hawaii native, Louis Smolka only made his MMA debut in 2012 but already has wins over experienced guys like Alptekin Ozkilic, Richie Vaculik and Neil Seery. “Da Last Samurai”, who has only ever lost to former title challenger Chris Cariaso, will obviously be best known to Irish fans for that win at UFC 189 over Seery which led to Holohan calling him out and this fight, which takes on the shape of somewhat of a grudge match, being made.
At 5″10′ and 5″9′ respectively these two are a pair of the biggest men in the 125 lbs division today; which makes for somewhat of an unknown for both men. In previous fights Smolka has shown he is predominantly a striker but a grappling clinic against Neil Seery showed just how well rounded the karate expert is. With eight career submissions and an ever improving stand-up game, Holohan is no slouch anywhere either and will love the challenge fighting on home soil.
To be frank here, it is very tough to separate these two guys because of their qualities and the unknown rate at which they are improving fight-by-fight. Having trained for years with the likes of Conor McGregor and Gunnar Nelson, the karate style of Smolka shouldn’t be too alien to Holohan and that could be a big advantage for the Jobstown man here. Look for him to land his big right hand early and pressure Smolka into making a mistake. If it hits the ground it should be absolute fireworks in the transitions. Even though Smolka showed great improvements last time out, it is unlikely he is on Holohan’s level there yet and that could play against his. I think this one will be very close but I see Holohan playing off the crowd and getting the tap to rise the Dublin crowd.
Also on this card and in this flyweight class is the aforementioned Neil Seery who, after the loss to Louis Smolka last time out, will be looking to bounce back to winning ways against exciting striker Jon Delos Reyes. Fighting out of Team Ryano in Dublin, the 36 year-old Seery is one of the longest serving Irish fighters on the scene today. Having plied most of his career at higher weight classes, the institution of the flyweight division gave Seery new life around 2010 as he won six out of seven fights and became a Cage Warriors champion. In 2014 a short notice fight against Brad Pickett earned Seery a place in the UFC and although it ended in a loss, the wonderful performance and two impressive wins over Phil Harris and Chris Beal silenced any doubters. He’ll be looking to do that again on Saturday against seven-year MMA veteran Jon Delos Reyes of Guam (8-4) who earned his first UFC win on the third attempt last time out in a bloodbath of a fight against Roldan Sangcha-an. Something similar wouldn’t be too much of a surprise on Saturday night.
When looking at tape on both of these guys it’s almost impossible not to get extremely excited about this one. Both men are very similar in stature, both men will stand in the pocket and trade and both men will neither ask for, nor take, a step backwards. Naturally, I expect this one to be hell for leather early with bombs being thrown from both sides of the trenches. In previous fights, Reyes has had a knack of ending up in a position to submit someone while Seery always seems to end up almost getting choked – usually with an arm-triangle. And although that is a potential point of danger for Seery, the ability he has shown to escape will probably serve him well. Aside from that it really should be the Dubliners fight to win. Even though I do see this one hitting the mat at some stage (where Seery is unbelievable good from his back) I see this one being won on the feet. There, Seery hits harder, is technically more sound and should win this classic affair to open up the main card.
Initially scheduled to top the prelims but now in the co-main event slot, Ulster’s number-1 mixed martial artist Norman Parke gets yet another tough assignment at 155 lbs against Swedish hardman Reza Madadi. Fighting out of Rodney Moore’s Next-Generation gym in Northern Ireland, Norman Parke earned his way into the UFC as a 16-2 pro by winning the inaugural season of The Ultimate Fighter: The Smashes. In the finale of that season, Parke dominated the unmistakable Colin Fletcher in the first fight of a tremendous run which saw him take his UFC record to four wins and one draw with a knockout of Naoyuki Kotani at last year’s UFC Dublin. Since then, though, Parke has had a tough time of it as he lost a fair split decision against Gleison Tibau and a completly unfair one against Francisco Trinaldo. On Saturday night he has a chance to get back to winning ways as he takes on Reza Madadi who is fresh from a 14-month stint in jail for stealing high-end handbags. Before his period behind bars, Madadi gave the performance of his life to beat Michael Johnson to take his record to 13-3 and, should be come in on that form this weekend, will be a tough match for anyone.
Expect this one to be a hard-nosed, grueling, dogged match-up. Parke is a pretty well-rounded fighter with a great judo base, tight technical hands and good submission while all Madadi knows how to do is put his head in your chest, take you down, beat you up and try to submit you. And when I say that’s all he knows how to do – I mean it. As a striker he is basically non-existent so you would think Parke will be looking to stay clear of clinch, stop takedowns if they get there, fight in open water and land hard shots. If he can do that, quite simply, he will win this fight. If this fight was happening two years ago right after the Johnson fight I would probably favour Madadi but with that time out of the cage, coupled with Parke’s quality takedown defence, I think the Bushmills man will be celebrating with a few small ones come 9pm on Saturday.
Before that, history will be made on the night as the clash of Aisling Daly and Ericka Almeida becomes the first ever female UFC Fight to take place on Irish terra firma – an appropriate distinction for Daly who is a true pioneer of women’s MMA, especially in Ireland. Having started her career in Denmark way back in 2007 many people would have expected Aisling Daly fighting in the UFC to be an impossibility. Fights in places like Kansas, Cleveland, London and Amman saw Daly gain much acclaim in the WMMA scene and when the UFC started a strawweight division she made her way into the Octagon as a 14-5 veteran through TUF. In her two UFC fights to date Daly has beaten Alex Chambers and lost to highly-touted prospect Randa Markos but now gets a chance to fight outside of North America for the promotion for the first time as she takes on Ericka Almeida, of Team Nogueira in Brazil, who is an exciting 7-1 prospect with something to prove after losing her one and only UFC fight so far against Juliana De Lima last May.
As a fight this could be a very interesting one in all areas. In the striking, Daly is known as an unorthodox practitioner but that takes away from the actual effectiveness of her game while Almeida, who does throw some nice straight shots and combinations, can be dangerous too. On the floor, though, is where this one will shine. Both ladies have multiple submissions on their records and are high-level grapplers in the division. Daly is very dangerous when she gets on top and Almeida, with a few triangle chokes on her docket already, is silky underneath while the transitions should be fascinating to watch. The biggest factor in this fight might be the experience levels and after Almeida put herself in a few bad positions in her UFC debut a repeat of that could spell trouble for her. With someone like Almeida she could shock everyone with the improvements in a per-fight basis but, as of now, I think Daly has too much for her and takes the submission win.
And the last of the Irish fighters on show, but certainly not the least, is SBG’s Cathal Pendred as he takes on unbeaten Englishman Tom Breese in a much anticipated encounter around these parts. Even before entering the UFC, Pendred, a former Cage Warriors welterweight champion, had an impressive resumé in his back pocket with wins over the likes of Octagon vets David Bielkhedan, Nico Musoke and Che Mills on the European scene. Regardless of that the Dubliner needed a stint in the TUF house to secure his place in the promotion but once he came through that four consecutive wins kicked off his Octagon career before the run was halted by John Howard in July – his first loss since 2010. Breese, on the other hand, has yet to face defeat in an eight-fight career that has been stretched out over five injury-hit years. A BAMMA stand-out in his early days, Breese earned his way into the UFC with a win at Cage Warriors 74 late last year before finishing Luiz Dutra in impressive fashion to start his Octagon life.
For a long time this fight has been touted as a possible match-up in the UK and Ireland – and with good reason. Both men have very similar skill levels, are evenly matched in size and strength and have relatively comparable meta-games. Pendred is the more attacking fighter who likes to get into a battle on the feet before pushing it to the fence, wearing opponents out and taking them down for some more punishment. Breese, similarly, loves to back guys up against the cage and put them on their backside. Although neither man is the best striker in the division, on the feet Breese likes to wait and look for the opening rather than going full steam like Pendred but hits very hard when he does connect. The clinch, though, is where you’d expect this one to be won and lost. Both men are well known for this strength and ability to dominate in close and whoever can come out on top there will probably win. For me, this is going all three rounds and will be a close decision. At this stage in their careers, I think Pendred might be a little further ahead as a grappler and, although Breese is improving constantly working with Firas Zahabi, I think that will make the difference in the end.
FIGHT PICKS
Patrick Holohan vs. Louis Smolka – The grappling experience of Holohan wins him the fight
Norman Parke vs. Reza Madadi – Close decision goes the way of Parke
Nicolas Dalby vs. Darren Till – Very interesting fight, I’m going for the well-rounded Dalby
Stevie Ray vs. Mickael Lebout – Stevie Ray all day
Neil Seery vs. Jon Delos Reyes – Fight of the night ends in a late win for Seery
Scott Askham vs. Krzysztof Jotko – Askham via decision
Aisling Daly vs. Ericka Almeida – Daly via armbar
Cathal Pendred vs. Tom Breese – Won’t be a classic, 28-29 Pendred
Darren Elkins vs. Robert Whiteford – Another close one, I’ll take Elkins
Bubba Bush vs. Garreth McLellan – Vote Bush #1
START TIMES
Prelims – 6pm on UFC Fight Pass
Main card – 9pm on UFC Fight Pass/3e/Setanta/Pick TV
BET OF THE WEEK
This week I’m going with Neil Seery via TKO/KO at 10/3
0 comments