UFC 191 Preview. Paige VanZant vs Alex Chambers.

For the first part of the main card preview for UFC 191, I will look at the opening fight of the main card featuring breakout superstar Paige ’12 Gauge’ VanZant (5-1) as she takes on Alex ‘Astro Girl’ Chambers (5-2) in a three round strawweight bout.

VanZant comes into her UFC pay per view debut on the crest of a huge wave of hype and excitement since her fight of the night TKO debut against Hawaiian Kailin Curran last November in Austin, Texas and her unanimous decision beat down of veteran Felice Herrig in April this year in Newark, New Jersey.

Despite having only had two fights in the UFC, Paige has become a massive superstar inside the Octagon and outside of it. In her short UFC career she has elevated from fighting to a relatively small audience on UFC Fight Pass, to the main card of a UFC Fight Night on Fox and now opening up a stacked main card at UFC 191 in Las Vegas. One example of her rising popularity would be her Facebook page that has well over two hundred thousand followers at the moment. Over double that than the current strawweight champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk. She was also given a special Reebok sponsorship deal before the champion Jedrzejczyk was.

For the UFC, she is a potential future goldmine, she is very good on the microphone, she comes across as a very likeable and ordinary character in her interviews but most importantly when it comes to walking the walk, she showed she has that potential in her two impressive wins so far at the UFC. Thanks to the unparalleled success of Ronda Rousey in the bantamweight division, the popularity of Womens MMA has skyrocketed. So much so that the UFC felt confident enough to add the strawweight division to their books. And so far Van Zant has been one of the stars of the division which has led to the divisions overnight success. The video below by FIGHTLAND shows how Paige is just a normal Californian girl following her dream.

Chambers route to UFC 191 has been slightly less glamorous than VanZant’s to say the least. A member of Team Pettis on Season 20 of the Ultimate Fighter which was filmed and aired last year. Chambers lost her only fight on the show against Rose Namajunas via Submission which meant she got minimum airtime to show her fighting potential. She also lost her UFC Debut Fight against Irish UFC Fighter Aisling Daly at the Ultimate Fighter Finale in Las Vegas last December.

‘Astro Girl’ bounced back into the winning column in her home country of Australia in May this year against Kailin Curran, the same woman VanZant made her debut against last November. In a fight which earned Chambers a performance of the night bonus, she capitalised on the overconfidence of Curran, who had been winning up until the third round to submit the Hawaiian via armbar.

Chambers at thirty six years old will have a difficult task ahead of her in the twenty one year old VanZant. Cardio was one thing which Alex seemed to struggle with in her two UFC Fights to date whereas Paige has shown herself to have tremendous cardio in her two UFC fights. Joe Rogan uses the word ‘Swarming’ in the Felice Herrig fight to describe her fighting style. She doesn’t give her opponents the time or place to land anything. Early in the first round of her bout against Herrig, she was in trouble when she was almost finished her by rear naked choke, but Paige remained calm, worked her way out of it and went on to defeat Herrig by a Unanimous Decision, out striking her opponent nearly 2-1 in the process.

I can only see this fight going one way. A second or third round TKO victory for ’12 Gauge’. Her cardio, her overall technical abilities, her training partners at Team Alpha Male, and the confidence coming from overcoming such a massive opponent in Felice Herrig with little ease all add up to an easy win for VanZant for me. For Chambers to do the unlikely, she will need to catch Paige with something big early on before Paige gets her momentum going. I can’t see her out striking, grappling or wrestling VanZant over the three rounds.

Prediction. Paige ’12 Gauge’ Vanzant by TKO.

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Gunnar Nelson. Who is next for the UFC Welterweight No.11?

In my third preview post for the UFC Dublin card, I will look at a fighter whose name has not yet made it on to the card, but one who is top on most Irish MMA fans to see make the walk to the Octagon on October 24th.

Gunnar ‘Gunni’ Nelson (14-1-1), the Icelandic UFC Welterweight and honorary Irish man is that man. Currently without an opponent for the UFC Dublin event on October 24th. Gunni, has been competing in the UFC since September 2012 when he made his debut against DaMarques Johnson. Last month at UFC 189, Gunni made one of the biggest statements of his career when he submitted feared striker Brandon Thatch. Nelson has always been known for his grappling expertise but it was his next level striking that brought Thatch to the canvas and the fight to a first round finish.

It certainly is no secret. Nelson is a big deal in Ireland and to the Irish fans. He trains in SBG Ireland with John Kavanagh, he is the sparring partner of UFC Interim Featherweight Champion Conor McGregor. Their stand up styles mirror each other. Conor’s owes a lot of his own success to having such a high calibre training partner in Gunnar Nelson.

The UFC Commentator Joe Rogan commented at UFC 189 about how Gunni was receiving the trickle down effect of support from the Irish fans. As Rogan was not calling the fights at UFC Dublin in 2014, its safe to say he didn’t understand how big a deal Nelson is to the Irish fans. Nelson got one of the loudest cheers of the night when he finished Zac Cummins in the Co-Main event by his now signature rear naked choke in the second round. It would have been a safe bet to assume after the reception he received last year from the Irish fans and coming through the Thatch fight uninjured that Gunnar Nelson would be on the UFC Dublin Card. As of right now there is no sign of Gunnar on the card. His Coach John Kavanagh has tweeted about it.

Gunni has big fan base here because he trains in Ireland a lot, fought a third of his pro fights here yet still not matched for #UFCDublin??

— Coach JK (@John_Kavanagh) August 14, 2015

With nine fights now scheduled for the show in the Three Arena, space is now limited for a Welterweight bout for Gunni, especially when Irish fighters such as Neil Seery, Paul Redmond and Aisling Daly have not had bouts announced and would all fancy places on the card.

So who would make sense for Gunni to fight at Dublin? Ranked number 11 in the Welterweight division and after such an impressive victory at UFC 189, a top ten contender would be the logical next step for the SBG man, however with the majority of the top ten either booked for fights or out injured, options for a bout for Nelson are limited at this point.

Number six Demian Maia (21-6) and number nine Stephen ‘Wonderboy’ Thompson (11-1) had both been touted to face Nelson but Maia has a staph infection and Wonderboy won’t be fit to compete by October.

The highest ranked and as of right now unmatched contender would be Belgian number eight ranked Tarec Saffiedine (15-4). Saffiedine is coming off a third round TKO loss to title challenger Rory McDonald last October in Nova Scotia, Canada. The same night Gunni had his first professional loss of his career to Rick Story in Stockholm.

A Strikeforce Champion, Tarek had been on a five fight win streak prior to meeting Rory McDonald. Following the loss to McDonald, Tarec was scheduled to fight fellow Welterweight top 10 Matt Brown at UFC Fight Night in Broomfield, Colorado but had to pull out due to a groin injury.

The fight between Gunni and Tarec makes sense for a couple of reasons. Firstly they are both the highest ranked contenders in the Welterweight Division that are not matched up or injured. Both men are very high profile European fighters which is one thing the UFC needs right now to grow the EMEA Scene. Also there are only three fighters out of eighteen that are ranked on the whole UFC Dublin card. Poirier, Miocic and Rothwell. Adding two more ranked fighters in Tarec and Gunni would boost the profile of the Dublin show and give the Irish fans the high profile fights they deserve.

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