Breaking Down “UFC Live: Sanchez vs. Kampmann”: Bowles Vs. Page / Sakara Vs. Weidman

Added on Mar 02, 2011 by John Petit in

UFC & MMA

Brian Bowles Vs Damacio Page

Both of these guys are making their UFC debuts, but they are coming off of losses and have fought in the past. It will be interesting to see how Brian Bowles responds as he is coming off of his first career loss in which he lost the belt. I happen to think he will have learned from the loss, which was stopped because he broke his hand, and will come back stronger and even more focused. In the first fight against Page, Bowles was able to snatch the neck of Page, and sink in the guillotine choke at 3:30 in the first round. Bowles has no problem overwhelming people with punches, and then submitting them.

Damacio Page has gone 3-2 in the WEC and is coming off of a guillotine loss of his own against against Demtrius Johnson at WEC 52. Page is one of those guys who can win fights in the first and early second part of a round, and fizzle out at the end and hope they did enough to win the fight. This is what happened in his last fight against Johnson, hecame out strong, but was gassing out by the time he was submitted. Ideally, he is going want to take Brian Bowles down and grind him up on the floor, but thats going to be a tall order as the only thin to stop Bowles so far was a broken hand.

Bowles is going to use his wrestling to keep this one standing, and using his striking to pick apart Page. I think Bowles will overwhelm him on the feat and follow Page to the mat for the submission finish.

Alessio Sakara Vs. Chris Weidman

Alessio is basically coming off of a year lay off after his last fight was canceled by local doctors because Sakara was sick with the flu hours before his fight. Sakara is a world class grappler, and has rolled all over the world against the very best. He is on a three fight win streak, and he finished two of them in the first round. This will be his third opponent for this fight as both Falcao and Natal were both cancellations because of injuries. Sakara will look to hand Weidman his first loss, and will want to keep this fight standing.

Sakara has 23 fights, but Chris Weidman is stepping in on short notice to the UFC to fight his fifth professional fight. Many are calling him MMA’s middleweight top prospect, but some non-believers feel he still green as he has only been out of the first round once. This is a tough match up for Weidman, but the 26 year old is looking to open a lot of eyes. He will look to use his wrestling and try to land some ground and pound, and either get the early stoppage or grind out the decision.

Unless Weidman has the fight of his life I don’t see him finishing Sakara on Thursday night. Sakara is to experienced both on the feet, and on the floor, to lose to someone like Weidman, especially on short notice. I think Sakara hands the newcomer his first loss of his career by way of TKO in the first round.