Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Welterweight knockout artists Jordan Mein and Emil Meek battled last night (Dec. 10, 2016) at UFC 206 in Air Canada Center in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Mein actually retired a couple years back, but he simply couldn’t stay away from competition. In his first fight back, Mein was looking to prove that he had not lost a step and was still an important player at 170 pounds. Meanwhile, Meek earned this opportunity by viciously knocking out Rousimar Palhares in his most recent regional fight. While that was an impressive win, the Norwegian was hoping to make a strong first impression in this match up.
Mission accomplished.
The fighters traded quickly, and it was Mein who scored the first pair of takedowns. However, Meek was able to scramble back to his feet, and the fight quickly changed into a brawl of hard punches and elbows. The exchanges were fierce. Mein hurt his opponent’s body and seemed to rock him with an elbow, but Meek pushed forward nevertheless and landed some nasty shots of his own.
Both fighters had an argument for taking the opening round.
It was clear that both athletes were tired to start the second round, but Meek was the aggressor and scored an early takedown. "Valhalla" wasn’t incredibly active with his ground strikes, but he controlled the Canadian and hunted for the arm triangle choke. Meek turned it up in the final 90 seconds. He came reasonably close to locking up the aforementioned choke from mount, and he also worked more aggressively to land punches and elbows.
The Norwegian clearly took the second frame.
Despite pretty much taking the round off, Mein didn’t look all that explosive or energized. Meek continued to push forward and throw in a higher volume, and he was able to reverse his opponent’s takedown attempt to gain top position once again. Once Meek landed in the guard, not much else happened. The Norwegian stayed active enough to avoid any stand ups, and his opponent didn’t really make an effort to work back to his feet.
Predictably, Meek was awarded the decision victory.
This was a highly impressive debut from Meek opposite a tough veteran. He took some seriously hard shots from Mein in the opening round, and that can often deter a fighter still getting his feet wet inside the Octagon.
Instead, Meek pushed even harder.
Aside from his strong pressure kickboxing and wrestling skill, the biggest thing Meek showed was intelligence. Not only did he display excellent strike selection, but he switched things up smartly when he realized that Mein was in poor position to defend the shot.
Once on top, he was in complete control.
Following this excellent debut, Meek is definitely close to a top 15 fighter. At any rate, he deserves a match up with a ranked opponent, as someone along the lines of Tarec Saffiedine would make sense.
As for Mein, this was a really flat performance from the boxer. That’s not to take anything away from his opponent, but Mein never really fought back after the opening round. He basically backed away and hoped to land a check hook. That said, it has been a long time since Mein competed. It would be fair to give the Canadian a second chance before writing him off completely, as ring rust is a definite factor to be considered.
Last night, Emil Meek earned a decision victory opposite Jordan Mein. How high can the Norwegian climb at 170 lbs.?
For complete UFC 206 "Holloway vs Pettis" results and play-by-play, click HERE!