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MAIN CARD
Main Event
Heavyweight Fight
#7 Carlos Cierra (13-4, 0-1 NGF) v #13 Elbrys Gora (13-4, 1-3 NGF)
This should be one great fight, two very talented fighters who really need wins. Cierra was brutally beaten in his last fight by Rinky Spider as he was cut badly and had to have the fight stopped. He has healed now and he’ll look to get back to winning in this one. He is very well rounded and he’ll use a nice mix of stand up, clinch and ground fighting in his fights. He has very good kicking, he’ll use a lot of leg kicks to set up strong punching, and he’s averaging 8.8 leg kicks and 9.4 head punches. He has outworked his opponents in the clinch, he’ll look to land elbows along with punches while in the clinch. He’s a better stand up fighter than a ground fighter, but he can hold his own there. Elbrys Gora has really struggled in his last 4 fights; he looked so good in a win over powerful Vadim Kalashnikov at SNF 2 but then followed that up with a disappointing loss at SNF 4 to Oleg Alekseev. Gora is a black belt in bjj and he looks to fight purely on the ground. He hasn’t spent a single second in the clinch, so there is no chance of that happening unless Cierra is dominating so badly he just wants to demoralize Gora. Gora will throw a few strikes, but he’s all about take downs, averaging 4.8 per fight and he’s successful on 40% of them. Once on the mat it’s all about submissions, he works to improve, throws a few harmless ground strikes, used just to throw off his opponent, then its submissions attempts. Gora is pretty great bjj fighter, he can be almost automatic, if he gets a fight down, it’s usually over, but he can get cut very easily and that has been his biggest problem. His style doesn’t allow him to protect himself either, he lays still at times and opponent from their backs can deliver strikes that cut him open. I don’t know, I got to say Cierra in this one can do it again, land strikes that cut Gora and possibly get this fight stopped again. PREDICTION: Cierra 2nd round TKO(cut)
Co-Main Event:
Featherweight Title Fight
#1 Mark Reynolds (4-0 NGF) v C-Vaughn Shaunessey (16-5, 4-0 NGF)
I’ve been waiting for this one for a long time; I cannot wait to see if Mark Reynolds can pull this off. Reynolds has rocketed right up the rankings since coming into the NGF. He has developed supper fast and has shown fantastic heart and smarts in his fights. This is not an easy fight; he will be facing a dominating champion in Vaughn Shaunessey. Reynolds is just 20 years old and he’s getting his first title shot of his career. He has done well in his fights, mostly in the clinch where he’s landed 100% of his head punches. He is still trying to develop his kicking game since he hasn’t shown any as of yet. Vaughn Shaunessey will look to defend his title successfully for the 3rd time in this one. He has not lost in any fight inside the NGF going 4-0 so far. He is a finisher, he has finished all 4 of his NGF fights and he has 14 (T)KO wins in his career and he can do it with punches and kicks. He tends to stalk his opponents, he’ll use a lot of kicking to set up big powerful punches, he is averaging 19.5 kicks per fight while averaging 7.5 punches. He is pretty good with his Muay Thai too, he doesn’t win fights there, but he can score point and wear out his opponents. This is going to be a stand up fight; neither fighter has attempted a single take down in their career. Reynolds is good, but he’s young and he’s still developing, I don’t think his skills have developed enough to beat Shaunessey yet. I think Vaughn will get defense #3 in this one with some punching power. PREDICTION: Shaunessey 2nd round TKO
Heavyweight Fight
Third Dag (6-3, 3-3 NGF) v #8 Stevie Gonzales (11-1, 0-0 NGF)
Okay, here we go again, Third Dag fight history in the NGF looks like this, L,W,L,W,L,W well if the pattern continues, Dag will not be a happy camper. Dag has had only 2 of his fight get out of the 1st round, both loses. He will come out fast and shoot for take down after take down, if you can defend and survive, he WILL tire himself out. Dag is strictly a ground fighter, he has sensational wrestling skills, but he is terrible standing and in the clinch. He is averaging 10 ground strikes a fight and that’s where he’ll kill his opponents, his ground and pound can be deadly. Stevie Gonzales will make his NGF debut in this one and he enters 11-1 in his career, but comes in angry after suffering his first career loss. Gonzales has monster power, he has 6 KO wins in his career and he is scary with his punching and kicking. He is accurate with his punching, landing 84% of them and he will work the body well too, averaging 5.3 body punches landed per fight. He has no take down skills, he averages 2.8 a fight and hasn’t gotten a single one yet. Gonzales has shown very good striking defense and take down defense, but he can be taken down and that will come into play in this fight. It’s not the greatest match up for Gonzales, but if he can defend take downs in the 1st round, he will wear out Dag, this will allow him to nail powerful punches in the 2nd round, that’s where I think this fight will end. PREDICTION: Gonzales 2nd round TKO
Super Heavyweight Fight
#14 Leopold Stotch (7-3, 2-2 NGF) v #10 Sami Hyypia (10-4-1, 1-0 NGF)
When Leopold Stotch fights you know 1 of 2 things will happen, he’s going to get a KO or he’ll get KO’ed. Stotch has very good power, he can get a stoppage very quickly, but he also can get stopped quickly. He’s a pure stand up fighter; he is aggressive and will throw a lot of punches as he averages 19.5 head punches per fight. He can get a little wild which has left him open for some hard counter punches and he has been TKO’ed twice. Sami Hyypia is 4-1 in his last 5 fights with 2 KO wins, a submission win and a fight stopped due to a cut. He likes to stay in kick boxing range for most of his fights, but he has done well if he’s had to fight on the mat or in the clinch. He has maybe the best take down defense in the division if not in the NGF, defending 93% of take down attempts. He is the pace setter in his fights, he’ll out strike everyone, and he is landing 71% of his head punches. I really like this fight; these guys are massive super heavyweight monsters who can put on a show. I think we might see someone get knocked out in this one; it could come from either one. I think Hyypia can land a few more strikes and that could mean a few more opportunities for a big one to land. PREDICTION: Hyypia 2nd round KO
Lightweight Fight
#8 Varshik Gerich (10-4 NGF) v #10 Jack Fry (13-6, 2-1 NGF)
Varshik Gerich is a winning machine in the NGF, the most in the org with 10, but he is just 2-3 in his last 5 and he doesn’t face a lot of the top fighters, but he will look for revenge in this one. These two faced each other at NGF 44 and Fry got the decision win. Gerich isn’t a powerful guy, he will spend his time looking to chop out legs, he averages 23.9 leg kicks and 18.5 body kicks along with 12.9 head kicks. He also can defend kicks very well. He also isn’t good at take downs, but he is good on the ground, he can improve and quickly start landing ground and pound. He is very smart and will earn a lot of points with his fighting style. Fry does have more power than Gerich, but he too will look to use a counter punching style and use smarts to earn points from the judges. What is scary is Fry does the exact same things as Gerich, he seldom uses punches, what he does is spend his time using kicks, he averages 14.1 head kicks, 32.9 leg kicks and9.8 body kicks and he’s landing in the 70% area for leg and body kicks. This fight may just be kicks the entire fight. Fry has been terrible on the mat, so he will try and avoid that. I don’t think either guy wants to go to the ground, so we will see a lot of kicks and some clinching. This is a hard one to try and predict, I’ll take the guy with more power in this one as he may get a late TKO or impress the judges more with harder kicks. PREDICTION: Fry decision win
PRELIM CARD
Middleweight Fight
#8 Henkka Seppala (3-0 NGF) v #11 Dennis Bird (8-2, 1-0 NGF)
Henkka Seppala is one hot fighter right now, 3 straight wins and 2 end of the season awards. He has very heavy hands and he can punish mistakes. He is still developing other parts of his game, but his kicking is coming along very nice. He has overpowered his opponents with aggression; he has been the one throwing all the strikes. Dennis Bird won is first NGF fight by decision; he does a nice job of counter style fighting mixed with aggression when he needs it, he has 2 decision wins and 6 TKO wins. He is completing 40% of his take downs and he is landing 51% of his ground strikes, while attempting 4.9 ground strikes per fight. I think Bird will try to make this a ground fight, if he can get in down, I like his chances, but I like Seppala’s power in this one and I think he’ll be able to land enough to end this fight. PREDICTION: Seppala 2nd round TKO
Welterweight Fight
Zbigniew Mlotek (9-6-1, 2-4-1 NGF) v #12 Adam Yauch (7-4 NGF)
Zbigniew Mlotek is really struggling right now in his career and he needs to turn it around right now. He seems to be lost right now on how or what kind of fighter he is. He hasn’t been real good anywhere, he gets hit way too much and doesn’t land enough himself. Adam Yauch has improved and he has had fights where he has looked really good, but just has come up on the wrong end. He still is way behind the top level fighters on the ground, but he does have solid kick boxing skills. He is still at a point where he sacrifices accuracy for power which has tired him out in later rounds. I just think Yauch is on the way up and Mlotek is heading down, I’ll take the rising fighter in this one. PREDICTION: Yauch 2nd round TKO
Heavyweight Fight
Troy Glover (4-0, 0-0 NGF) v Kullervo Pelli (8-6, 5-4 NGF)
Troy Glover kicks off his NGF career riding a 4 fight winning streak, all TKO wins. Glover has been simply fantastic in all areas of a fight, but now he’ll be tested with a really good fighter. Glover has landed 100% of his head punches, body punches, all his kicks, take downs and ground strikes while hardly ever getting touched…it’s almost like someone set up total cans for him to knock down. Kullervo Pelli is no can; he is a powerful guy who will make Glover pay if he makes a mistake. He’ll look for the big punch and he can put Glover out if he lands. We’ll see if Glover is for real in this one. PREDICTION: Pelli 1st round KO
Bantamweight Fight
#13 John Keel (6-2-1, 1-0-1 NGF) v Bill Nevin (9-5-1, 1-1-1 NGF)
These guys will do it again; they fought to a draw in their last fight at NGF 49. In that fight John Keel dominated the 1st round then looked to tire out. Keel is super aggressive and will stay on his feet at all costs where he’s averaging over 40 punches per fight. Is the better conditioned fighter, he is built to go 3 rounds and he will try to wear out his opponent with leg kicks and a barrage of strikes. He can be beaten up in the clinch. I can’t see anything different than the 1st meeting from these guys, pure stand up action, possible FOTN. I feel Nevin will win the judges over this time and get his revenge. PREDICTION: Nevin decision win
Featherweight Fight
Gideon Draper (4-4, 0-3 NGF) v #15 Tarquin Fortune (2-0 NGF)
Gideon Draper is in desperate need of a win after starting off 0-3 in his NGF career. He looks to have good skills, but it’s apparent he has a very questionable chin has he’s been KO’ed with head kicks 3 times already. Tarquin Fortune will take his aggressive style and try to end this quickly. One good thing for Draper is that Fortune doesn’t use many kicks during his fights, but he will score take downs, he’s getting 88% of his attempted per fight, but he doesn’t stay on the mat after he gets the take downs. I think Fortune keeps rolling in this one and Draper will keep falling. PREDICTION: Fortune 2nd round KO
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