This column highlights five past bouts from fighters competing on this weekend’s UFC on Fox 19. These fights represent some of the highest moments in the careers of their respective participants, and should serve to pique your interest heading into the event. Glover Teixeira vs. Ryan Bader – UFC Fight Night 28 Upcoming Bout: Glover Teixeira vs. Rashad Evans
Hopefully Glover Teixeira can coax some fight out of Rashad Evans in the UFC on Fox 19 main event. As he has shown many times in the past, Glover has a way of making fights devolve into full little brawls. Over the past couple of years, Rashad has been the exact opposite, going to tedious decisions with this very same opponent, among many others. If their Saturday night bout if fought in Glover’s style, it will be fun. If it gets fought at Rashad’s pace, it could turn into 25 minutes we all wish we could get back. Let’s hope Glover drags him into something like below.
Tecia Torres vs. Rose Namajunas – Invicta FC 6 Upcoming Bout: Tecia Torres vs. Rose Namajunas 2
These two were completely unproven prospects when they first met, with a combined record of 4-0. The bout was extremely close throughout, with Torres having a slight advantage on the feet and Namajunas seeming to get the better of the ground game. It will be interesting to see how the improvements each have made since that July 2013 clash will unfold this time around, and hopefully the fight turns out just as good as the first time.
Michael Graves vs. Rafael Souza – Titan FC 31 Upcoming Bout: Michael Graves vs. Randy Brown
Put this one on mute, because it’s a recording with some annoying music dubbed over it. Once that gets taken care of however, you get to see a very solid prospect performance by Michael Graves. It’s always nice when a young fighter gets to work on their weaker areas in an actual fight, without too much risk of reprisal. That’s exactly what Graves does here, as the grappler tests out his kick-heavy striking in the opening round before going back to his strong suit in the second. In his upcoming bout against striker Randy Brown, I imagine Graves gets to the grappling in much more of a hurry than in this fight.
Oluwale Bamgbose vs. Devon Morris – Ring of Combat 50 Upcoming Bout: Oluwale Bamgbose vs. Cezar Ferreira
Oluwale Bamgbose is the violence. This isn’t the entire video from this particular fight, but it’s more than enough. At 3:18, this is his longest fight ever, and it’s hard to imagine that changing based on the short notice and the opponent he’ll be facing this weekend. Enjoy a taste of what is to come.
Islam Makhachev vs. Mansour Barnaoui – M-1 Challenge 38 Upcoming Bout: Islam Makhachev vs. Drew Dober
Aside from having way too many vowels in his name, Mansour Barnaoui is likely to end up in the UFC at some point. That makes Islam Makhachev being able to deal with him in his eighth pro fight pretty impressive. Barnaoui is a tricky grappler, and has a lot of unorthodox attacks that Makhachev was able to navigate across these 15 minutes is what was a fun fight wherever it took place. Makhachev seems to be on track to end up as a less refined, but far more dangerous version of Khabib Nurmagomedov… that actually fights more than every two years. Not a bad path to take.