UFC Sacramento: Main Card Predictions

UFC Sacramento: Main Card Predictions

By Alex Conway

The main event of Saturday’s UFC fight night in Sacramento is between top bantamweight contenders Germaine de Randamie and Aspen Ladd, while the co-main event features the return of Sacramento’s own Urijah Faber against Ricky Simon. The feature bout is a featherweight clash between Josh Emmett and Mirsad Bektic.

de Randamie vs. Ladd

It’s almost unfair the perception that Germaine de Randamie has amongst fans. She won the featherweight title in a close and controversial fashion against Holly Holm early in 2018 and then refused the obvious first challenger in Cris Cyborg because in de Randamie’s mind Cyborg’s history with PED’s was a good enough reason to refuse her a title shot.

So the UFC stripped her of the title and she returned to the bantamweight division. She has only fought once since, a win over Raquel Pennington in Pennington’s first fight after getting a title fight of her own.

de Randamie’s inactivity (she’s only fought six times in the UFC since making her debut in 2013) coupled with the most controversial title reign in UFC history has skewed the fact that she’s really, really good.

An accomplished kickboxer before becoming a mixed martial artist, de Randamie fights long and strategically, doesn’t make a ton of mistakes and has devastating knees in the clinch.

Those knees in the clinch could prove deadly against Aspen Ladd, a fighter who likes to fight aggressively and in close quarters.

Ladd is the one being set-up for a big coming out party in this fight. She’s only 24 years old and has won all three of her UFC fights, the last two coming against Sijara Eubanks and former Invicta FC bantamweight champ Tonya Evinger.

The Evinger win was especially impressive, as Ladd got Evinger to the ground and swarmed the former champ with ferocious ground and pound, earning the stoppage inside four minutes right after Evinger went three rounds with Cyborg in a featherweight title fight.

They aren’t the same fighters, but when I think of Ladd I think “technical brawler,” a moniker often given to Matt Brown. Like Brown, Ladd isn’t really a wrestler, BJJ expert or master striker. But she pushes a fierce pace at a high intensity and doesn’t let up.

Ladd is excellent at getting her opponents to fight reactively instead of allowing them to set their own pace and pick their own shots. That’s going to be a problem for de Randamie if Ladd is able to do this again.

I think she will, and I predict that Ladd will get de Randamie to the ground and truck the Dutch fighter from there.

I’m picking Aspen Ladd via ground and pound stoppage somewhere in the second or third
round.

Faber vs. Simon

Urijah Faber could very well win this fight. In fact I’m going to go ahead and pick him right now.

But he’s an old fighter in a division where youth ends earlier than most. The bantamweight division is a division full of quick hitters and is loaded with contender after contender. It might be the most loaded division outside of lightweight and welterweight and honestly I might put it ahead of welterweight top-to-bottom.

What I’m trying to say is, I don’t know how good Ricky Simon is. His unranked status doesn’t mean much to me because the UFC only hands out 15 rankings per division at a time, and that division certainly has more than 15 fighters worthy of being a ranked fighter.

Could Ricky Simon go out there and be one step quicker at every turn than the 40-year-old Faber? Absolutely.

But I’m going to go out on a limb and say that Faber shows up and has enough veteran tricks up his sleeve to stay out of danger and win a lackluster three-round decision.

Emmett vs. Bektic

I’m picking Bektic simply because I love his all-around game. He’s a guy that throws everything with a purpose, hits hard and accurately, has good grappling with an excellent motor and fights with intensity.

Emmett is also a guy that I constantly underrate. I don’t view him as a one-shot knockout artist even though he as two of the more spectacular KO’s in the UFC over the last few years on his ledger after shutting the lights out on Michael Johnson and Ricardo Lamas.

Emmett should probably be the pick on paper, but I think this is Bektic’s chance to get a signature win and he gets it done. Emmett should probably try to make this more of a grappling match, despite Bektic’s 100 % takedown defense, if for no other reason than to get Bektic tired, but I think he gets hit with something heavy at some point and that spells the beginning of the end.

Bektic by knockout.