A Star-Studded Lineup: Marvin Vettori, Ben Askren, James Irvin and Bellator
Remember What I Said About Kevin Holland?
It probably won’t surprise you to learn that after the Brunson fight his numbers in fights in which he faces 5+ takedown attempts are now much worse.
That’s not great news for him if he does step in to replace Darren Till against Marvin Vettori next weekend.
Vettori doesn’t have the wrestling pedigree that Brunson did, and he hasn’t attempted 5+ takedowns in any of his last four fights, but that doesn’t tell the whole story.
The last time he fought a striker whose defensive grappling was an obvious weak point, he submitted Karl Roberson in the first round, going 2-of-3 on his takedowns in the process.
And when he fought the most dangerous striker of his career in Israel Adesanya? Vettori had 6 Takedown attempts.
I wouldn’t expect a complete repeat of Brunson/Holland here, and I love that Kevin Holland is already stepping up like this (even in a really touch matchup), but I do expect Vettori’s offensive wrestling to be the story of this fight.
Bellator Should Start Tracking/Publishing Stats
With no UFC this week and the first PFL card of the season still a month away, I’d absolutely love to be making Bellator content right now. Alas.
Darren Till’s Unfortunate Record
Not to pile on the guy after he got injured, but I like this record too much not to share when he’s fighting:
The 57-0 significant strike edge he gave up to Tyron Woodley when they fought is the largest significant strikes shutout in UFC history.
The top-five:
Woodley vs. Till: 57-0
Perez vs Entwistle: 48-0
Medic vs Cruz: 45-0
Saunders vs Wolff: 42-0
Chimaev vs McKee: 40-0
Big shoutout to Ian Entwistle for landing 1 significant strike and absorbing 64 over his three-fight UFC career.
If Jake Paul Beats Ben Askren …
… add him to the list of tangential winners of the UFC/ONE Askren/Johnson trade.
That Masvidal knockout has made a lot of money and a lot of fame for a lot of people — all the UFC brass, Masvidal himself, Kamaru Usman who some reason gets to score another heavily-watched win over Masvidal, Paul who gets to fight a famous opponent with combat sports experience but poor boxing, and even Askren who has the charisma and character to make the most of the infamy.
Francis Ngannou, Conor McGregor and… James Irvin?
Francis Ngannou has now averaged 1 knockdown for every 6 minutes and 25 seconds he has spent fighting excluding time being controlled in grappling.
The only fighters in UFC history with 10+ fights to average knockdowns at a higher rate?
2nd place Conor McGregor: 1 every 6 minutes, 9 seconds
1st place James Irvin: 1 every 4 minutes, 18 seconds
Even if we removed the Derrick Lewis fight from Ngannou’s career, he would still trail Irvin (at 4:33).