LIAM McGEARY vs EMANUEL NEWTON
Emanuel Newton reminds me of Keith Jardine for all the wrong reasons. He moves like Jardine, he strikes like Jardine, he grapples like Jardine and he’s also extremely easy to hit, just like Keith Jardine… Newton is currently the Bellator Light Heavyweight Champion, but the cold harsh reality is that he’s not very good. For all Newton’s faults, he’s only lost once in his last 13 fights, but he’s really struggled in his last few fights against mediocre opposition. Liam McGeary is currently undefeated at 9-0 having finished all 9 of his opponents within the 1st round. For that reason, we haven’t seen a lot of McGeary, but from what we have seen he appears to be extremely talented and extremely dangerous. McGeary appears to have an advantage in any area that this fight could take place, but he does lack takedown defence. This is a slight concern against Newton, because Newton does have decent takedowns, but despite Newton’s ability to get fights to the ground, he has trouble keeping them there and has very poor ground control. Liam McGeary fights out of the Renzo Gracie Academy and he’s got very tricky Jiu Jitsu. Newton frequently gave up position and submissions against a similarly sized opponent in Linton Vassell and I wouldn’t rule out the posibility of McGeary winning this fight by submission. Taking McGeary down and grinding him out is a path to victory for Newton, but McGeary does an excellent job of catching opponents on their way in and Newton doesn’t have fast, explosive takedowns which would enable him to close the distance quickly and grab a hold of McGeary. Here’s a clip of McGeary catching an opponent clean as they tried to come inside on him… Newton always tries to come inside with his hands down and there’s a real good chance that McGeary is going to be able to time him and catch him with something big. McGeary’s biggest advantages in this fight are reach, speed and striking. If this fight stays standing, Newton is in BIG TROUBLE. Newton simply has terrible striking defence and he’s wide open to McGeary’s powerful combo’s and jabs. Here are a couple of clips that show off McGeary’s fast and accurate striking… It’s a nightmare scenario for a fighter when they’re at a reach disadvantage and they have poor striking defence. McGeary and Newton look like they should be a weight class apart and I don’t know how Newton is going to be able to defend himself against McGeary’s long jab and power combo’s. Size matters in MMA and there’s a huge size difference in this fight…
Emanuel Newton is extremely slow and extremely predictable and whilst McGeary hasn’t fought a very high level of competition, he has shown all the skills necessary to take out an opponent who is very easy to hit and makes frequent mistakes on the ground.
Liam McGeary was drafted in by Daniel Cormier as a training partner when Cormier was training to fight Jon Jones and McGeary recently spoke about how much he learned training with guys like Cormier, Velasquez and Rockhold on a daily basis at American Kickboxing Academy. McGeary was a scary dude to begin with and I’m really looking forward to seeing what skills he’s picked up since his time training with AKA.
I love betting on guys like Liam McGeary, because he’s well rounded, aggressive and if he losses this fight, at least he’s going to go down fighting.
I feel that tonight is the night when Newton’s long and impressive run as Bellator’s Light Heavyweight Champion will come to an end.
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MY BETTING TIP: 2 Units [2% of your bankroll] on Liam McGeary to win at odds of 1.67 | -149 | 67/100
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ANDRE SANTOS vs PAUL DALEY
Andre Santos and Paul Daley shouldn’t be in the same cage together. They are so far apart in terms of skill level that this fight is nothing short of ridiculous. Andre Santos has no striking skills at all and even though he may have decent Jiu Jitsu, he doesn’t possess the takedowns or clinch work to get a fight to the ground. There’s an ongoing myth amongst MMA fans that Paul Daley lacks takedown defence and whilst that was true back in his days fighting in the UFC, he’s improved his takedown defence a lot since then. Don’t forget that Tyron Woodley struggled to take him down when they fought in Strikeforce and Daley’s also very good at securing underhooks in the clinch and protecting himself from being taken down by planting his back against the cage. Paul Daley’s striking is very good and his striking defence is even better. He should be able to walk Santos down and catch him with big strikes. If Santos tries to take Daley down, he’s going to get blasted on his way inside. Andre Santos is taking this fight on short notice and this should an easy nights work for Paul Daley. [adrotate group=”44″] MY BETTING TIP: 5 Units [5% of your bankroll] on Paul Daley to win at odds of 1.24 | -417 | 6/25[divider]
