UFC 197 goes down Saturday night (April 23) on PPV, featuring the return of long-time UFC light heavyweight champ Jon Jones, former Olympic gold medalist wrestler Henry Cejudo, flyweight champ Demetrious “Mighty Mouse” Johnson and Anthony “Showtime” Pettis.
Here is your completely epic UFC 197 preview.
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The Champ Is Here
Finally, Jon Jones returns to the Octagon to do battle after a layoff of 15 months. Unfortunately, it’s for an interim title — which is a rather dumb way of saying the winner gets next shot at the champ when he returns. That would be Daniel Cormier, with whom Jones has had an entertaining feud, at least with words. In the cage, not so much. Jones dominated Cormier back at UFC 182, the last time he fought and defended his title. Now, Jones will fight Ovince St. Preux for the chance to fight Cormier.
How did we get from Jones being champ to him fighting St. Preux for the interim belt? He made some awful choices outside of the cage.
In April 2015, Jones was in a car accident that injured a pregnant woman and fled the scene. But, in something that seems like a bit from a Seth Rogen film, Jones later returned. It wasn’t out of moral duty to check on the woman, but to grab a wad of cash that he left in the car. A search of his vehicle by police found a pipe with some weed in it, and eventually Jones was charged with felony hit-and-run. The UFC suspended him, taking away his belt and title. His scheduled title fight against Anthony Johnson was postponed and instead, Anthony Johnson fought Cormier for the title. Cormier won, setting the stage for a rematch at UFC 197… until Cormier got injured and withdrew from the bout.
Ovince St. Preux was named the replacement for Cormier, and he and Jones will fight for the interim title and the next shot at Cormier’s belt — which is really Jones’ belt. It’s a mess, but Jones is back and widely favored to win Saturday night against the man known as OSP.
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It’s OSP, not GSP
A casual MMA fan and friend of mine thought I would be completely giddy about the return of GSP — Georges St. Pierre — to the UFC. Alas, it’s not GSP fighting, but OSP — Ovince St. Preux — a huge light heavyweight with enormous power. St. Preux was a college linebacker and defensive end at Tennessee, and made the transition to fighting after graduating in 2004.
St. Preux came to the UFC from Strikeforce when that promotion was bought out and absorbed into the UFC. He has gone 7-2 in the UFC with three knockouts. He’s a dynamic fighter with knockout power, but Jones is a once-in-a-generation fighter and talent. Jones has never really lost. He was absolutely murdering Matt Hamill when he was disqualified for repeatedly landing 12-6 elbows, which are banned in the unified rules of MMA. OSP is a good fighter, a top-10 fighter in the division. But Jon Jones is going to wreck him and he’ll do it quickly, unless he decides he needs some cage time. Yes, Jones is that good.
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Return of the Cookie Monster
Carla Esparza, aka “The Cookie Monster,” was the first UFC women’s strawweight champ and also the first-ever Invicta strawweight champ. In her first UFC title defense, she fought Joanna Jedrzejczyk at UFC 181. Esparza put on one of the worst performances ever by a standing champion, landing just six punches and completed just one takedown in 17 attempts. Adding injury to insult, Esparza had to have surgery on her shoulder, which put her on the shelf for the remainder of 2015. Her fight Saturday against Julianna Lima will be her first since losing her title, and it will be interesting to see how she comes back after the devastating loss to Jedrzrjczyk.
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Best Nickname Battle of the Night
Yes, “Cookie Monster” is a great nickname, especially for a fighter, but my pick for best nickname battle at UFC 197 is Andre “Touchy” Fili against Yair “Pantera” Rodriguez. Fili fights out of Urijah Faber’s Alpha Male gym, and Rodriguez trains in Chicago and New Mexico.
Both fighters are exciting and dynamic. Rodriguez will throw a lot of spinning kicks and wild striking combinations. But unlike many UFC fighters, his actually land and do damage. Fili is coming off a sick head kick-KO of Gabriel Benitez at UFC Fight Night 78. This is a very evenly matched contest and on paper, looks to be the front-runner for “Fight of the Night” honors. Unfortunately for “Touchy,” I think Pantera is going to touch him too much with his paws. Wait — that sounded extremely weird. Let’s just say I think Rodriguez will win the fight. Moving on…
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The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
Cody East makes his UFC debut on the preliminary card, taking on Walt Harris in a battle of big ol’ heavyweights. East is 12-1 with just one win coming by decision. He has made another fighter tap to strikes, a rare occurrence in MMA.
The Good: East has extreme knockout power and will likely flatten Harris with a highlight-reel knockout.
The Bad: East has been arrested multiple times.
The Ugly: The arrests include 10 counts of criminal sexual contact of a minor.
East was actually acquitted of those charges, then got himself arrested again after a long party at his house. He faced charges of aggravated assault and child abuse. Why child abuse? He was beating up girls who started a fight at the party. According to the Albuquerque Journal, East “became angry at some of the girls, went into a rage and began breaking doors and windows. He then allegedly hip-tossed some of the 14- to 15-year-old girls, breaking some of their noses and possibly the arm of one of the girls, and allegedly kicked his mother and attacked his father, according to KRQE.”
The report also claims that while his dad begged East for mercy, he started stomping him. Needless to say, there are going to be a lot of Walt Harris fans, at least for this weekend. And as you might have guessed, East ended up doing multiple bids in jail. How does the UFC sign a guy like this?
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Olympic Gold Medalist Aims for UFC Title
Henry Cejudo won Olympic gold in wrestling at the 2008 games in Beijing. Just 21 at the time, he was the youngest American to ever win gold in wrestling. Cejudo tried to qualify for the 2012 games, but wasn’t able to do so and retired from wrestling, moving on to a career in MMA. He began his pro career in 2013 and has won his first 10 fights. He will take on long-time UFC flyweight champion Demetrious “Mighty Mouse” Johnson at UFC 197, hoping to win a different type of gold. Johnson is known as one of the best wrestlers in MMA, so it is a very interesting matchup. Cejudo is currently +350 to win.
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Showtime is Back
Anthony “Showtime” Pettis is another former UFC champ looking to get back in title contention on this card. Pettis has lost two straight fights. He dropped his title to Rafael dos Anjos at UFC 181, then fell victim to some “lay and pray” from Eddie Alvarez in January.
Pettis won’t have to worry about being taken down by opponent Edson Barboza, but he will have to deal with his devastating strikes. Barboza has some of the best leg kicks in all of MMA, providing thunderous collisions of his shin into opposing fighters knees and thighs. Pettis also has great kicks, and has one of the all-time highlights in MMA history with his off-the-cage kick of Benson Henderson back in 2010. This is a must-win for Pettis if he wants another shot at dos Anjos within the next year.
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That’s So Bro
Pettis will be fighting on the same card as his brother Sergio. This also happened back at UFC 181 in Dallas, a night to forget for the Pettis Bros. Anthony lost his title and Sergio got knocked out by Ryan Benoit, who after the finish, decided to literally kick Pettis right in the ass. As the event ended, the rough-and-tumble Pettis entourage started a ruckus in the stands, with fists flying. I was on the other side of the arena, but with the way things were going that night, I have to assume they lost that bout too. There shouldn’t be any confrontations on Saturday though, as I predict both brothers Pettis will be victorious.
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Five For Fighting
Five other fighters you’ll want to watch at UFC 197:
- Robert Whittaker. The Aussie has sick power and has won four straight fights, including his last one against ultra-prospect Uriah Hall. Whittaker is just 25, and he is the No. 7-ranked middleweight in the UFC. He will take on Rafael Natal, an older, slower fighter that Whittaker will likely knock out.
- Danny Roberts. The former boxer moved into MMA, goes by the nickname “Hot Chocolate,” and choked out Nathan Coy in his UFC debut last December. He’s fighting Dominique Steele Saturday, and I expect we’ll get to see him let his hands go more in this fight.
- Kevin Lee. One of the top prospects in the UFC, Lee takes on Efrain Escudero. He’s coming off a knockout loss, but he’s just 23 and incredibly exciting to watch. He’ll likely beat Escudero and put on a show in the process.
- Marcos Rogerio de Lima. “Pezao” has 13 career wins, 10 by way of knockout. His two wins in the UFC have both been first-round knockouts. He is my “Don’t Blink” pick of the night. Both de Lima and his opponent Clint Hester will be throwing bombs early and often.
- James Vick. Vick is 8-0 as a pro and 4-0 in the UFC. He choked out uber-prospect Jake Matthews in his last fight. He did the same to Ramsey Nijem, who was an Ultimate Fighter finalist. “The Texecutioner” has a sick ground game, and at 6-foot-3 is an unusually tall lightweight. His length is often a problem for his opponents, and he’ll look to make that record 9-0 on Saturday.
You can watch the main card of UFC 197 on PPV beginning at 10PM ET. The prelims begin on UFC Fight Pass at 6:30 ET, then move to FS1 at 8 ET.
