Jay Primetown gives his thoughts on each of the fighters who competed at UFC Fight Night 98 in Mexico City, Mexico. Jay gives his letter grades for each fighter on TheMMA-Analysis podcast which can be found on MMAOddsbreaker.com Chris Avila vs. Enrique Barzola Avila: Simply not a UFC caliber fighter. He can’t stop the takedown and lacks the power to hurt opponents. I fully expect him to be cut from the UFC after this loss. Downgraded from F to F- Barzola: Solid performance overall. Combined leg kicks well with strikes and dominated the grappling. He’s a pretty well rounded fighter that will only get better with experience. Grade remains D+ Jason Novelli vs. Marco Polo Reyes Novelli: His technique is decent, but he’s not nearly active enough on the feet to win fights on a consistent basis. Downgraded from D+ to D Reyes: His aggressive style was the difference in a close fight. He’s not a world beater, but his approach will help him stick around in the promotion. Grade remains D Sam Alvey vs. Alex Nicholson Alvey: As always, Alvey started slow but he continues to show intelligence in his ability to counterstrike and find holes in his opponent’s stand up. Decent win for Alvey as he’s been piling up wins in the Octagon. Grade remains C Nicholson: I liked his utilization of kicks in this bout. He has a really good chin and will be a tough out in this division. Cardio let him down late in the fight, but I’ll attribute that to altitude in Mexico City. Upgraded from D to D+ Douglas Andrade vs. Henry Briones Andrade: Really good performance after a long layoff. He’s got a nice jab and combines with a nice set of striking tools. Solid takedown defense as well. He’s a dark horse in what’s becoming a deep bantamweight division. Upgraded from C- to C Briones: Love his work to the body, but he’s way too hittable. He has an excellent chin, but even he had to go down when he got clocked with a beautiful spinning backfist from Andrade. Upgraded from D to D+ Max Griffin vs. Erick Montano Griffin: Caught Montano early and went for the kill. He didn’t let up and got the stoppage. Good rebound win after a poor UFC debut. Grade remains D Montano: When’s he able to grapple, he can contend with some of the lower level fighters in the organization. When forced to strike, he’s in for a bad night. He got destroyed in this fight. End of story and with back to back losses it could be his last fight in the UFC. Downgraded from D to D- Marco Beltran vs. Joe Soto Beltran: Outclassed in the grappling exchanges by a solid veteran. No shame in this loss for Beltran. Grade remains D Soto: He’s a savvy veteran and has shown in his last few fights that he’s able to outsmart his opponents to get the victory. From a physical standpoint he’s limited, but good enough to stick around for an extended period of time in the UFC. Grade remains C- Felipe Arantes vs. Erik Perez Arantes: From a technical ability standpoint, he’s certainly on the level of Perez, however he continues to make poor mistakes in the cage. It’s these bad decisions which caused him to lose position and ultimately lose the fight. He needs to improve his fight IQ to be able to beat any of the better fighters in this weight class. Grade remains C Perez: His knee was shot after defending a submission attempt in the first round, but he did an excellent job at getting the fight to the mat and controlling Arantes to get the win. His wrestling continues to surprise me and it’s his ticket to at some point getting into the division’s top 15. Grade remains C+ Heather Jo Clark vs. Alexa Grasso Clark: She had a couple decent moments in the clinch, but other than she offered nothing for her opponent. She was a punching bag for her Mexican opponent. It’s likely Clark will be cut after this loss. Grade remains C- Grasso: When she’s able to open and land strikes in combination, she’s one of the top five strikers in the division. She’s got solid takedown defense and is definitely one of the fighters to watch in this division over the next few years. Grade remains B- Beneil Dariush vs. Rashid Magomedov Dariush: The difference in this fight was his ability to hold the clinch and push Magomedov against the cage. He didn’t cause much damage, but controlling his opponent was enough to get the job done. Grade remains B Magomedov: His striking and grappling were better than his opponent, but in a fight where neither fighter was hurt it came down to Octagon control. Magomedov was too willing to be pushed against the cage and allowing Dariush to dictate the positions. Even in the loss, I still rate these fighters very close. Grade remains B Martin Bravo vs. Claudio Puelles Bravo: Fights at an excellent pace and just doesn’t give opponents time to breathe. Nice finish via body shots. He’s going to be a tough out especially dropping down in weight to 145 pound. Debut grade at featherweight is D+ Puelles: He wasn’t able to dominate the wrestling as much as he needed to keep his opponent off balance. Bravo’s pace wore him out and he had nothing left in the second round. He’s only 20 years so there is plenty of time for him to improve. Downgraded from D+ to D Ricardo Lamas vs. Charles Oliveira Lamas: Struggled with the size of his opponent was seconds away from being submitted at the end of round one. He had an opportunistic choke in round two and was able to submit Oliveira. Big win for him to get back on track. Grade remains A- Oliveira: He’s an absolute threat with his submissions every time he steps in the cage, but this is now the second time in a row he has been submitted by guillotine choke. His striking continues to improve, but he gets finished more than any other top fighter in the weight class. Downgraded from A- to B+ Marcin Held vs. Diego Sanchez Held: Ran out of gas by the end of the first round and was unable to amount much offense the remainder of the bout. Think this fight would have gone differently if it was a sea level. Downgraded from C+ to C Sanchez: If there’s one thing that is constant with Diego Sanchez it is a great worth ethic and tremendous conditioning. At altitude, it gives him a big time advantage. Upgraded from C- to C Rafael dos Anjos vs. Tony Ferguson Dos Anjos: He had a solid round one, but began to slow down in the second round. The significant reach disadvantage was a problem all night for him as well. He was beat by the more aggressive, better fighter. Simple as that. Grade remains A Ferguson: This was the performance he needed to put him over the top. He fought a high level pace at altitude for five rounds. He backed down the former world champion down throughout the fight and bloodied him up in the process. Great win and deserving of a title shot. Upgraded from A- to A+
Updated Fighter Grades: Post-UFC Fight Night 98
