The UFC ventures into Canada for their next Fight Night on February 19th. This event originally had fellow heavyweights Junior dos Santos and Stefan Struve headlining the card, however, Struve suffered an injury and instead of finding a replacement for Dos Santos, they moved the fight between Derrick Lewis and Travis Browne from UFC 208 to Halifax. It’s fair to say that no firepower has been lost from the card.
Since being on the cusp of a title fight back in 2014, Browne has struggled to find any consistency inside the octagon. The 6’7’’ fighter is a supremely gifted athlete who promised so much when he blitzed through the likes of Gabriel Gonzaga, Alistair Overeem and Josh Barnett. Since, he has come unstuck against some of the best in the division but now he is looking to find the form that earned him a title contender fight. Standing in his way is ‘The Black Beast’ – not quite the athlete Browne is but he is carrying confidence courtesy of a five-fight win streak, not least the fact that four of those wins ended in knock outs. This should be a colossal clash.
See below for a full statistical breakdown of the main card:
At first glance, the stats suggest a striker vs grappler match-up but both fighters prefer to stand and bang. Browne is the more skilled striker and is just as lethal as Lewis. Lewis has all the confidence though, which may force Browne to enforce the clinch and look for takedowns, but the odds are on a first round knock out.
This is a very interesting match-up. Both fighters are elite grapplers, explosive strikers, former champions and desperate for a win. Hendricks – the decorated wrestler and Lombard – the decorated judoka, usually have the grappling advantage over their opponents but instead their skills may cancel each other out, so we may see their explosive striking light up the show.
The undefeated Tucker is making his UFC debut in his home nation against the experienced Sicilia. As there are no UFC stats for Tucker, we have broken down how the fight is likely to finish. Everything is at stake for Sicilia who could easily face the axe with another loss, whereas Tucker has the biggest opportunity of his career and is looking to make a name for himself.
At first glance, Ferreira looks the more dominant fighter, however they are statistically very evenly matched. Both are well-rounded and also Ultimate Fighter winners, so this one is a flip of a coin.
UFC debutant Mazany is in for a baptism of fire here. With only four fights under her belt, she has been fed veteran former title contender and Olympic wrestler, Sara McMann. Although Mazany is unbeaten, it is hard to see the experienced grappler not swallowing her up like yesterday’s lunch.
We can’t read too much into these stats as Ricci has only had one UFC fight. Both fighters are very game and terrific strikers who will look to bounce back from a loss with a knock out finish. Ricci has a lot to prove but the experience of Felder’s top quality competition may prove the difference.
