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A Light Heavyweight scrap is on the cards for the UFC Fight Night 28 main event tonight (Weds., Sept. 4, 2013) in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, when Glover Teixeira, winner of his last four, faces Ryan Bader, who is currently even (2-2) in his last four bouts and will be looking to derail the hype train his Brazilian counterpart has riding into this fight.
The "Prelims" do not include anyone with legit star power, but a match up between a veteran of more than 40 fights, Keith Wisniewski, welcomes former Jungle Fight Lightweight Champion Ivan Jorge to the Octagon.
These two fine mixed martial arts (MMA) match ups, which will take place at Mineirinho Arena, airing live on FOX Sports 1, are among the most important fights to watch on the main card and the "Prelims."
Here is another installment of "The Top Two," UFC Fight Night 28: "Teixeira vs. Bader" edition:
Glover Teixeira vs. Ryan Bader
Teixeira and Bader will duke it out to see who the next worthy 205-pound fighter is worth talking about. And so far, Teixeira seems to be stealing all of the pickings when it comes to him winning this fight and getting a title shot.
Teixeira would all but seal a title shot with a win, but he needs to win impressively to convince everyone that he is ready. This fight pits two men together who are very similar to each other, minus the ground-fighting pedigrees.
Teixeira will finally be tested by a wrestler, as he did not have much of a takedown scare in his previous outings and the adversary who would have given him the biggest scare -- Quinton Jackson -- seems to want to do anything but wrestle in the cage during the last five years. Bader has shown that sometimes he gets too confident in the striking department -- sometimes it works for him, other times he suffers quite immensely (Lyoto Machida and surprisingly, Tito Ortiz come to mind).
Bader is a crisp as they come wrestler, having been an NCAA All-American and Teixeira is a second-degree Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt. There is no straight advantage there but both men are facing some problems with each other if they decide to bring this fight to the mat. As for the striking, they both have heavy hands as we have seen them knockout the opposition before, but Teixeira is being regarded as the better, if not more powerful, striker.
If Bader was able to neutralize the striking of "Rampage" (and so was Teixeira since he fought him, too) with a wrestling-based gameplan, he will probably do more of the same on Wednesday night (Sep. 4, 2013) but the thought of knocking out the favorite and showing the brass plus everyone else that he just disposed the man who had the title talk surround him as of late may be too hard to resist.
Teixeira is facing the best striker thus far in his career and if he could knockout Bader then the No. 1 contender spot is warranted. It all depends how Teixeira beats Bader and how he looks doing so.
Keith Wisniewski vs. Ivan Jorge
To be fair, the "Prelims" are not anything to write home about by any stretch of the imagination. Comprised of mostly Brazilians and newcomers, perhaps the most familiar face on the under card portion is Wisniewski, who needs a solid performance to keep his job with the UFC.
Losing his last two fights in a span of almost three years, "The Polish Connection" has fought once in late 2010 and once in April 2011 -- that is literally 17 months ago. He lost to Josh Neer, who is not with the company anymore and Chris Clements, who is a decent match for most in the Welterweight division.
Originally slated to face Marcelo Guimares (who pulled out because of injury), Jungle Fight alumni, Jorge, steps up to make his promotional debut. Unknown to many, the most captivating fact that George brings to the table? He has five rear-naked choke victories in his last five fights, four in the first round and six-submission victories in his last six fights.
Not too shabby but then again, we all know how the competition level changes once a fighter enters the UFC. It does not mean "Batman" (not Kurt Pellegrino, but the Ivan Jorge "Batman") cannot do it again and his accomplishments should be overlooked.
Wisniewski has fought for an abundance of promotions apart from the UFC -- none of them really significant in terms of popularity apart from Bodog and IFL -- but he is the toughest opponent that Jorge has fought in his career. The American does have 15 wins by submission out of a 28, and his 43-fight career is somewhat eyebrow-raising when you think about it -- being only 31 and having fought professional since 1998 with only two UFC stints.
If Wisniewski loses though, that is pretty much it for him, as he goes into this fight even (7-7) in his last 14 without a win in the Octagon. For Jorge, no pressure, really -- he fights in front of his home crowd and a solid performance, win or lose, should get him another fight after stepping up on short notice. With that being said, he is 32-years-old, so we will see what arises from his performance and if he can compete in the world's biggest promotion.
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