Wolff fights tomorrow at UFC 98

May 22, 2009

Local boy Brandon Wolff will try to bounce back from a quick and painful loss to Ben Saunders in his UFC debut with a fight against Yoshiyuki Yoshida in a preliminary bout during tomorrow night’s UFC 98 event, headlined by a main event featuring light heavyweight champion “Sugar” Rashad Evans defending his title against undefeated Brazilian Lyoto Machida.

Yoshida is 1-1 in the UFC, but coming off a knockout loss to Josh Koscheck in December of last year. Wolff was overwhelmed by Saunders in his debut UFC fight, taking a ton of knees in the clinch before going down by TKO in less than 2 minutes.

Yoshida is at the end of a three-fight deal with the company and will be fighting with the extra motivation to try and stay with the UFC. Wolff needs a good performance as well after his quick loss to Saunders, so both men will feel some pressure heading into the fight.

I’m extremely excited for the main event as it makes me very happy that Machida is getting a shot at the title before Rampage Jackson gets his shot at regaining a title he lost last year to Forrest Griffin. Machida can do it all and has been absolutely dominant in his UFC fights. I don’t think he’s ever lost a round as his unorthodox karate style has befuddled everyone he has been in the cage against.

I don’t think Evans will be able to get close enough to tag Machida with the power he has that has crippled the likes of Griffin and Chuck Liddell. Evans is going to have to get tricky with the even trickier Machida, but I don’t see it happening. Give me Machida by TKO in the second round.

The other big fight is a grudge match between former welterweight champions Matt Serra and Matt Hughes. Hughes is getting up there in age, but I think this is a perfect fight for his style. Unless Serra can catch him with a punch ala Serra/GSP I, I don’t see how Serra can attack Hughes. I think Hughes is better in every aspect and dominates a unanimous decision win while putting a beating on Serra.

Posted in Fights