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 Good evening fight fans and once again let me welcome you to Shining Eagle's Illuminating Previews and Pick 'Em's! I'm your host Shining Eagle and tonight we will be looking at the main card of EMMA 26-Down4Life Charity Event which is set to take place this Saturday at Montreal's The Underground 1000 person arena. This nights main card will feature mostly heavyweight and light heavyweight bouts in which we will see a couple of newcomers make their EMMA debut against EMMA veterans and a couple of top notch lightweights newly recruited to the ranks of EMMA who will be making their own EMMA debut's against eachother in the hope's of gaining some recognition in the lightweight division.
The first fight of the main card will be a heavyweight bout:
Bigbird Blast v Tom Erikson
Bigbird "Bojan" Blast has earned 5 victories as a professional mixed martial artist, all 5 coming by way of 1st round TKO. He has lost once by submission and once by TKO both in the 1st round. Blast likes to use punches and leg kicks to throw his opponents off and will engage in the clinch from time to time if the occasion calls for it. Once on the ground however he begins to have trouble and has yet to do anything other than lay on his back. He is difficult to take down most of the time but with the kind of difficulties Blast has shown in the past, it's only a matter of time before a wrestler with enough knowledge of the ground game takes him down and has his way with him. "Big Cat" Tom Erikson seems to be just the wrestler for the job. He is 2-1 as a professional and with exceptional wrestling skills to Blast's respectable it looks like Erikson has what it takes to overwhelm our EMMA veteran. But don't be so sure just yet. Erikson has a huge hole in his own skillset and has next to no experience in striking. He will have to weather the storm of Bigbird Blast's wonderful boxing and competent muay thai, and hope that his chin can take it. If he can keep it together under the pressure and land just one takedown he will be able to earn a TKO in his EMMA debut.
My pick is: Bigbird Blast by 1st round TKO
The second bout of EMMA 26 will feature another heavyweight bout:
Vito Scaletta v The Ultimate Warrior
"The Italian Bomber" Vito Scaletta is a heavyweight fighter that really knows how to land bombs when it comes to standup fighting. His remarkable boxing skills have earned him 4 straight up knockouts and one unanimous decision in 7 bouts. His 2 submission losses show us that he struggles with the ground game a little although he has shown us that he can land some ground strikes on occasion. But with a white belt in BJJ it wouldn't take much to overwhelm the heavyhanded italian and he is still vulnerable to submissions. He will have to keep his guard up when he faces The Ultimate Warrior come Saturday night if he wants to keep his 2 fight win streak going. Warrior is no doubt eager for a win after 2 losses in a row and will be looking to put his wonderful boxing to good use and maybe exploit Scaletta's one big weakness on the ground if he can. Warrior seems to have a big edge in the clinch and usually brings the fight there if he can. Like Scaletta he too has lost twice by submission but despite being a blue belt in BJJ he has not shown anything thus far in terms of groundwork. Warrior has some good power and among his 5 victories are 2 TKO's and 2 straight KO's. While he does seem to have all the advantages on paper, his opponent looks like he still has the better knockout capabilities so i wouldn't count out Scaletta just yet.
My pick is: The Ultimate Warrior via UD
The next bout of this main card will be a lightweight affair between 2 newly recruited 155ers that were brought to EMMA to give the lightweight division some competition and to give a challenge to our younger prospects as they improve. This fight will prove to us what kind of fighters they are and show us what tricks each fighter has up their sleeves as they face off against eachother in their EMMA debut:
Saul Hudson v Nate Kyzer
Saul "Slash" Hudson has had an impressive 19 fights on the professional circuit and has come away with 12 wins along the way including 8 (T)KO's and 4 decisions. Hudson is the former Steel Penn - NY lightweight champion and decided to come to EMMA after losing his title by armbar and then losing 2 decisions back to back. He will be looking to get back onto the winning side of the lightweight division after 3 consecutive losses as he gets back into the cage after 5 months of inactivity. "Slash" is at his best on the ground when he is pounding away at his opponents skull and although he is not the best in the standup he is still capable of landing punches and mixes it up well enough to drive through with takedowns and makes it count once the fight hits the ground. His one weakness seems to be BJJ as he has lost 4 of his fights by submission as well as 2 decisions and 1 TKO. In order to win this fight Hudson will need to land some takedowns and put his Gnp skills to good use. If he can avoid his opponents submissions and keep the fight on the ground, this fight could easily be his. Nate "The Hybrid" Kyzer has a little more experience than his opponent with 20 fights under his belt and what is most impressive about him is that he has only been defeated 2 times in his whole career! But as we look at his record of wins we can see that it is not as impressive as you would at first think once you realize that he has only finished 8 of his opponents. 5 of his wins come by (T)KO and 3 by submission and 10 have the gone to the judges scorecards in his favour. Even still, he has never been finished so his opponent will have his hands full with the kind of skill "The Hybrid" possesses. Kyzer is the former 145 lbs champ of the now defunct Montréal Combat Championship and is undefeated at 145 lbs. As he once again takes the step up to 155 it will be interesting to see if he will be able to keep up or if he once again will begin to struggle with a taller opponent as he has in his past lightweight bouts. Kyzer has some considerable advantages both in the standup and in BJJ when it comes to the ground so if he can keep the fight standing where he has shown most of his dominance, this will be just as easy as any of his fights to win. Even if the fight hits the ground "The Hybrid" still seems to have the skills to get the better positions and even throw some ground strikes of his own and if he plays his cards right he may be able to earn another submission victory against Hudson's apparent lack of defensive grappling skill.
My pick is: Nate Kyzer via UD
The co-main event of EMMA 26 will be a light heavyweight bout in which an EMMA newcomer will make his debut against one of our veterans:
Aaron Archer v Alejandro Zapata
Aaron Archer is one of the more experienced light heavyweights at EMMA that has shown his ability to finish in his 4 fights with us but has most recently brought back into question whether or not his ground game is as complete as it should be at his level of grappling. He has gone 2-2 in his 4 bouts with EMMA, finishing Eli Crowe by TKO due to ground strikes and also submitting Max Hatred a fellow purple belt by kimura. He dropped a split decision to Walter Sullivan in a very close fight but in their rematch for the title Sullivan managed to submit Archer in round 2 which brought into question whether or not Archer had the BJJ skills he needs to be a complete ground fighter. He is a sensational wrestler and is capable of landing takedowns with high proficiency and shows even better ground and pound skills as well as the ability to improve positions from time to time. He also has good standup skills with remarkable boxing and strong muay thai and can push the pace with punches and kicks if his takedowns fall short. With just a purple belt in BJJ Archer will need to play it safe against his opponent and if he can be conservative with his groundwork, he may be able to get another W under the EMMA banner. But Alejandro "El Clampdown" Zapata is a very dangerous BJJ black belt that has more than just submission skill. He is a wonderful boxer and can land kicks with good accuracy as well. Zapata is also an exceptional wrestler and usually opts to sprawl rather than to let his opponents take him down. He also rarely commits to a takedown and prefers to box with his opponents in the standup. Once the fight hits the ground he has the ability to get on top and has shown ground and pound in the past but usually opts for submissions off his back. This is a fight Zapata is bound to win with every advantage but wrestling so my pick is: Zapata via 2nd round submission.
And finally the main event of EMMA 26 will be another light heavyweight bout between 2 of the top contenders at 205:
Mac Dirty v Peter Poirier
Mac Dirty is 3-0 in MMA with 3 first round TKO's. His strategy is simple: take 'em down, ground and pound. His chin is solid and so is his ground game but being so good at one thing and still so new to MMA means he has a big disadvantage in the standup. With woeful boxing skills Dirty may start to have problems when it comes to the "mixed" part of mixed martial arts. However he still has the ground advantage so if he can land his takedowns and follow through with some of his powerful ground and pound he should be able to secure another win and keep himself undefeated. "The Punisher" Peter Poirier has other plans. In 11 bouts he has yet to go past the 1st round and solid chin or not he can score the knockout on even the most granite of chins. This is a fighter that swings for the fences and if his heavy hands don't land, he is bound to hit the canvas by the time 5 minutes have passed. Poirier has strong wrestling skills and sprawls well against most wrestlers only allowing 20% of his opponents takedowns to take him to the mat. But the times that his fights have gone to the ground, Poirier has shown that he can get the improve positions and even land with ground and pound so it will be interesting to see if he can deal with Dirty's ground skills should the fight be taken to the floor come Saturday night.
My pick for this fight would definitely have to be: "The Punisher" via 1st round KO
And that concludes the EMMA26-Down4Life Charity Event. We expect another exciting night at the sold out The Underground. Enjoy the fights! This is Shining Eagle signing off. Until next time: stay sharp MMAtycoon!
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