AFTER HIS BRIEF but eventful trip to Ireland, Dana White has hopped across the Irish Sea bringing his UFC road show to Wembley Arena tonight.
Much has been said in the past about the standard of the cards on these European jaunts but this event boasts the first title fight to be aired on Fuel TV along with the best the British have to offer at the moment.
Renan Barao and Michael McDonald do battle for the interim bantamweight championship while Che Mills, Paul Sass and Terry Etim are amongst the home favourites in action on an exciting card.
Icelandic sensation and adopted Irishman Gunnar Nelson, who trains with John Kavanagh out of the SBG team in Dublin, takes on “The Sandman” Jorge Santiago in a fight that will have plenty of interest here.
Can McDonald snap Barao’s unbeaten run?
Renan Barao boasts one of the most impressive records in the sport at the moment. Since losing his first pro bout back in 2005, the Brazilian has won 30 consecutive fights; including his last four UFC match-ups, on his way to the interim championship.
His recent record is boosted by wins over the likes of Urijah Faber, Scott Jorgensen and Brad Pickett. With Dominick Cruz still side-lined through injury, he has still yet to face the best bantamweight in the division but in Michael McDonald he is up against a possible future champion.
At the age of just 22, McDonald is perhaps the future of the division meaning this fight may have come a bit too soon in his career for him. Barao is quite young too, twenty five, but he has a lot more experience against a better standard of guys than the American. This is not to say he can’t win this fight. He has proven KO power having despatched his last two opponents picking up bonus cheques en route but Barao possesses a much more varied striking game that will prove to be decisive as he is extremely difficult to take down.
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Best of British
One man sure of a hostile reception is Matt Riddle who has always made his distaste for England known after an alleged altercation with a fan at UFC 105 in Manchester. Che Mills is the “butter-toothed Brit” tasked with the job of pleasing the London fans with a win here and both his previous UFC victories have come when fighting in England.
Jimi Manuwa will look to build on his impressive UFC debut KO win over Kyle Kingsbury as he faces the dangerous striker Cyrille Diabate. Manuwa has never gone the distance in a professional bout having won eleven on his twelve fights via KO or TKO but question marks over his fitness in the later rounds means the longer the fight goes on the more it will favour Diabate.
On the undercard which is free to view live on Facebook, Terry Etim will no doubt want to banish the memory of his spectacular loss at the hands of Edson Barboza last time out with a win over Renee Forte while Tom “Kong” Watson is seeking his first UFC win. Paul Sass, Vaughan Lee, Andy Ogle and Phil Harris are also in action. Gunnar Nelson is one of the most exciting prospects to come out of Europe in the last few years and he is expected to continue his impressive form with a win over the journeyman Jorge Santiago.
Under the tutelage of John Kavanagh, Nelson dominated the Irish scene before making his long awaited UFC debut impressing everyone with a cool victory over a much heavier DaMarques Johnson back in September.
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Santiago has lost his last four UFC fights and seems to be a bit of fodder for the Icelandic welterweight whose biggest task this weekend will be to avoid complacency and get the job done in a professional manner. Another impressive performance should propel him right up the divisional ladder. Cub Swanson versus Dustin Poirier and James Te-Huna versus Ryan Jimmo are on the main card also.
