UFC Fight Night 67: Condit vs. Alves Preview and Fight Picks

After the glitz and glamour of UFC 187 in Las Vegas last Saturday night it’s back down to earth this week as the UFC heads to the Goiânia Arena in Goiânia, Brazil for it’s latest fight night event in the South American stronghold.

Headlining the event is a meeting of real fan-favourites as former interim UFC welterweight champion Carlos Condit takes on former title challenger Thiago Alves. After over a year out of action because of a knee injury suffered in his last outing, this is a huge opportunity for Condit to stake his claim as a title contender now that the man who beat him for the title, Georges St. Pierre, is (basically) retired from the sport. Prior to the period out, Condit was in the midst of the worst run of his career as he lost his interim title and three out of four fights; although as they came against messrs Woodley, Hendricks and GSP, it’s pretty understandable. Earlier in his career Condit lived by his nickname “The Natural Born Killer” with stoppages over the likes of Frank Trigg, Dan Hardy and Rory MacDonald.

If the opportunity to rise towards the top of the rankings is available for Condit it must also be there for his opponent Thiago Alves who has had a pretty similar career trajectory. Alves, like Condit, had huge success in his UFC career up until he lost to Georges St. Pierre. The Brazilian took out MMA legends Chris Lytle, Josh Koscheck and Matt Hughes but came up short on, literally, the biggest occasion against GSP at UFC 100. Since then Alves has lost his fair share of fights but bounced back with two wins in a row recently after missing nearly two years through injury.

The fight itself has the makings of an absolute gem. Alves, training out of American Top Team, is a power striker of epic proportions. His leg kicks are some of the very best in MMA while his hands possess devastating, fight finishing power. In the wrestling area he is good when on the attack and has strong takedown defence, although that probably won’t come into play on Saturday night. Like Alves, Condit is a hard hitting, fight finisher who has stoppages in 27 of his 29 wins. On the feet, Condit is a technically sound kick-boxing practitioner who likes to shoot in and out with strikes while circling away from his opponent’s best weapons. He attacks from all angles with unusual, sometimes flying, pursuits and is often hard to figure out. His kryptonite, unfortunately, is wrestling and more specifically a takedown defence which often sees him on his back. When it gets there, though, Condit is extremely dangerous with sweeps and submissions which could end the fight at any second.

I expect this one to be fought out mainly on the feet with Alves seeking thighs and heads with power strikes while Condit is on his bike early. Once the fight settles, Condit should open up more and you’ll see him throw head kicks on the regular as he uses his long limbs to his advantage. If someone is to go for a takedown, I’d expect it to be a tired Alves midway through the fight but, with Condit’s jiu-jitsu prowess, that might not end too well. It’s difficult to know how well Condit will look after such a long period out, and you can’t discount Alves’ power, but, all going well, this should be a good night for the American.

There is no doubting this card’s main event is, by a distance, the best fight of the night but it’s also backed up by a pretty interesting undercard for real cage fighting connoisseurs. Irish interest is surrounding one man, though, as Antrim’s Norman Parke goes into the lion’s den to battle Brazilian veteran Francisco Trinaldo in a clash of former TUF housemates. Parke, the winner of TUF: Smashes, has had a pretty impressive UFC stint to date after entering the promotion as a 16-2 European stand-out. The Ulsterman has wins over Colin Fletcher, Kazuki Tokudome, Jon Tuck and Naoyuki Kotani while a draw with Leonardo Santos and a loss, last time out, to Gelison Tibau will have him eager to make it 1-1-1 against Brazilians this weekend.

Trinaldo, a former Jungle Fight champion, entered the UFC through TUF Brazil in 2012 and has been extremely active since. Like Parke, “Masuranduba” came up short against Gleison Tibau but impressive finishes of Delson Heleno, CJ Keith and Mike Rio, as well as unanimous decision wins in his last two have brought him to a 6-3 record inside the eight sided fighting enclosure.

Training out of Rodney Moore’s Next Generation gym in Northern Ireland as well as spells in San Diego with Alliance MMA, Norman Parke’s game has been slowly improving fight-by-fight. Coming into the sport as a judo player, Parke has added a nice technical kick-boxing arsenal as well as good clinch work and nifty submissions to his game. As a southpaw, his pressure game is tough to deal with for many in the division but against Trinaldo, who is also a southpaw, it should make for an interesting battle. Like Parke, Trinaldo is a fan of putting on pressure. His offensive wrestling, as well as his ability to scramble when it hits the ground, are all done in the hope of latching on to one of his many, extremely dangerous submission attempts. On the feet Trinaldo may not be the technician Parke is but he probably has the power advantage with his constantly cocked left paw.

I fully expect this one to go all three rounds and to be very close. Look for Trinaldo to pop in with that straight left early and for Parke to dodge it without too much trouble. As be does, I expect that to lead to much clinching and attempted takedowns which should favour Parke. If it does hit the ground, both men will be very dangerous but you’d expect Parke to be able to stay away from bottom position for most of the night. If he does end up there, it could be big trouble. In a scrappy kind of fight like that, the stronger man usually wins the day. Here, with his judo base, that should be Norman Parke.

Outside of that there is a ranked fight of featherweights as Nik Lentz meets Charles Oliveira while Jussier Formiga vs. Wilson Reis, rankings wise, may just be the most important fight on the whole card. Also one to look out for is Mirsad Bektic who defeated Paul Redmond last time out while European stand-outs Tom Breese nd Nicholas Dalby will be looking to get off the mark in their Octagon debuts.

FIGHT PICKS

Carlos Condit vs. Thiago Alves – Condit outpoints Alves
Nik Lentz vs. Charles Oliveira – Lentz gets the takedown, Oliveira gets the submission
KJ Noons vs. Alex Oliveira – Oliveria via submission
Francimar Barroso vs. Ryan Jimmo – Jimmo via boring decision
Norman Parke vs. Francisco Trinaldo – Parke wins the clinch game and the decision
Wendell Oliveira vs. Darren Till – Oliveria via submission

Rony Jason vs. Damon Jackson – Jason via triangle
Jussier Formiga vs. Wilson Reis – Should be a great fight, I’m taking Reis
Elizeu Zaleski dos Santos vs. Nicolas Dalby – Dalby gets a debut win
Lucas Martins vs. Mirsad Bektic – Bektic at his ease

Juliana Lima vs. Ericka Almeida – Lima via decision
Luiz Dutra vs. Tom Breese – Breese gets the finish

BET OF THE WEEK

This week I’m going with a 5/1 accumulator of Breese, Dalby, Bektic and Reis.

START TIMES

Early Prelims – Fight Pass at 12am

Prelims – BT Sport 2 at 1am

Main Card – BT Sport 2 at 3am