Jay Primetown gives his thoughts on each of the fighters who competed at UFC 191 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Jay gives his letter grades for each fighter on TheMMA-Analysis podcast which can be found on MMAOddsbreaker.com Nazareno Malegarie vs. Joaquim Silva Malegarie: Undersized for the weightclass and struggles to hurt opponents with his punches despite having good accuracy. Probably needs to drop a weight class to have a future in the UFC Grade remains D Silva: Showed some nice variety in his striking and has decent power for the weightclass. Striking defense needs work especially against southpaws. Grade remains D Joe Riggs vs. Ron Stallings Riggs: His technical skills are not bad, but his body is so brittle and it seems like he’s never able to get through a full fight. Controversial stoppage decision gave him the win, but it’s clear he shouldn’t be fighting anymore. Grade remains D– Stallings: Getting dropped by a punch from a fighter who could only see out of one eye is bad. Really bad. Downgraded from D+ to D- Clay Collard vs. Tiago dos Santos Collard: Certainly trades with volume, but his defensive grappling is really bad. Maybe it’s age, but his fight IQ needs to improve to show me that he can have a solid career in the UFC. Downgraded from C- to D+ Dos Santos: Doesn’t have the striking to hurt opponents on the feet, but varies his striking well and can mix in some grappling. Lacks ability to finish fights. Grade remains D+ Jessica Andrade vs. Raquel Pennington Andrade: Strong fighter with good wrestling, but really belongs at 125 pounds. Unfortunately for her, the UFC currently doesn’t have this weight class. Furthermore, she’s shown a weakness to giving up submissions. Something we should continue to keep an eye on. Grade remains C+ Pennington: Has definitely made improvements. She’s one of the bigger punchers in the division with an underrated submission game. She has a skill set that could give some of the best fighters in the division problems. Grade remains C+ John Lineker vs. Francisco Rivera Lineker: So small for the weight class, but his chin is made of granite. Got hit clean a couple times by Rivera and didn’t even flinch. Nice guillotine sub to finish the fight. Dangerous fight for anyone in the division. I believe size will eventually cost him. Upgraded from B- to B Rivera: Did what was expected of him… a gun fight with Lineker. Unfortunately for him, he got clipped first and took a lot of damage in this bout. He is getting older and have to think he will begin to regress after this bout. Downgraded from B- to C+ Paul Felder vs. Ross Pearson Felder: Maybe he jumped in the cage too quickly after the loss to Edson Barboza. He was shockingly at a speed disadvantage against Ross Pearson. Very good chin and good fighter, but this was not a good performance. Next fight out will tell a lot about his future aspirations. Downgraded from B to B- Pearson: Showed he can still compete with top strikers in the division. Head movement and hand speed are right near the top of the division. It’s the grappling where he tends to struggle and this was not the fight to exploit that. Upgraded from C to C+ Alex Chambers vs. Paige VanZant Chambers: One of the biggest mismatches on paper this year and it showed. VanZant wears opponents down as well as anyone in the sport and Chambers had no answers. She lasted longer than I thought she would, so that’s a plus for her. Upgraded from D- to D VanZant: Doesn’t have big striking power, but her ability to throw with volume with a relentless assault make her the top prospect in the division. She’s going to be tough to beat especially on the scorecards. Upgraded from B- to B Corey Anderson vs. Jan Blachowicz Anderson: Great win over a seasoned opponent. Overwhelmed his European opponent with wrestling. This could leapfrog him into a top 15 ranking. Upgraded from C- to C Blachowicz: Had no answer for Anderson’s wrestling. Other than the body kick of Ilir Latifi, Blachowicz’s UFC career has been a total dud. Downgraded from C+ to C- Anthony Johnson vs. Jimi Manuwa Johnson: Joe Rogan said it best, “All he has to do is land once and it’s over.” Johnson has the heaviest hands in the division and is a scary matchup for anyone in MMA. It will be an interesting fight if he ever gets the opportunity at Jon Jones. Grade remains A Manuwa: The Englishman was set up to be a sacrificial lamb and that’s exactly what he was. He was taken to the ground and controlled for most of the first round and was quickly knocked out in round two. Downgraded from B- to C+ Andrei Arlovski vs. Frank Mir Arlovski: Overlooked his opponent in this fight and it nearly cost him. Showed good takedown defense for the most part, but failed to land any decisive strikes in this fight. Will need to do better if he expects to contend for the world title. Grade remains B Mir: Very competitive fight with Arlovski where he controlled him for much of Round 2 on the ground and dropped him in Round 3. It’s clear that these are pretty close to each other in terms of overall skill level at this point. Grade remains B Jon Dodson vs. Demetrious Johnson Dodson: This fight went exactly as expected. Dodson did even worse this time than he did the first time they fought. He offered nothing that caused any problems for Johnson. Grade remains A- Johnson: Didn’t have the wrestling success he had in previous wins, but much more success in the stand up than the first time he fought Dodson. Easy victory for Johnson. Outside of Henry Cejudo, very little else is intriguing at 125 pounds for him. Grade remains A++
