THE undercard obviously struggles to live up to the main event, but there’s plenty to keep fans interested. Edson Barboza and Paul Felder meet for a second time in what could be another great little “kickboxing in four ounce gloves” type of scrap. Barboza’s flaws are well known: he completely collapses when he is put on the back foot and pressured, but Felder met another opponent like that in his last fight—in the form of James Vick—and failed to provide much pressure there either.
There is also a very solid sambo vs jiu jitsu match between Islam Makhachev and Davi Ramos. Makhachev is a teammate of Nurmagomedov and trains at American Kickboxing Academy when in the United States, so he has all the against-the-fence grinding techniques you would expect. Ramos is something remarkable as he began his MMA career in 2010, fought four times up to 2014, then took a year off and somehow—without any major grappling accomplishments since a 2nd place in the worlds at brown belt in 2006—won the ADCC 2015 submission grappling championships: the most prestigious no gi grappling tournament in the world. And he did it by flying armbar against jiu jitsu all-time great, Lucas Lepri. Ramos is no doubt more accomplished on the ground than Dustin Poirier but he faces the same conundrum: it’s very hard to play effective jiu jitsu while smushed against the cage.
Then there is the promising match-up between Joanne Calderwood and Andrea Lee. Calderwood is a rangy kicker with good knees and a much-improved ground game over the last couple of years, Lee is a great striker out of the clinch. Finally, Mairbek Taisumov is back from a lengthy drug suspension and he’s such a promising prospect that many in MMA will be happy to forgive him almost immediately if he can beat the awkward Diego Ferreira convincingly.
