It’s still unclear exactly where Luque stands in 2024. For years,
“The Silent Assassin” was the welterweight division’s best-kept
secret. He didn’t particularly stand out as someone worth tracking
coming off of “The Ultimate Fighter” in 2015, but the next four
years saw him win 10 out of 11 fights, almost all of which were
exciting performances that saw Luque prove to be a vicious finisher
wherever the action went. Luque’s breakthrough year came in 2019.
An all-out war against Bryan
Barberena was one of the best fights of the calendar year, and
Luque got in wins over Derrick
Krantz and Mike
Perry—the latter of which was also an excellent brawl—before
Stephen
Thompson finally stopped his momentum. Luque rebounded with
four more wins in classic Luque fashion, combining constant
pressure with an ability to eat enough damage to win a war of
attrition. However, his 2022 campaign seemed to be the first hint
that the wheels might be falling off. There was no shame in losing
to Belal
Muhammad in a main event spot to kick off the year, but Luque’s
subsequent loss to Geoff Neal
was much more worrisome. Luque’s dependence on going toe-to-toe
with his opponents meant he kept walking into hard shots from the
much faster-handed Neal before suffering the first knockout of his
career. Someone with Luque’s approach was bound to get knocked out
at some point, but the real cause for concern came ahead of his
next fight against Rafael dos
Anjos a year later, when he revealed that the reason for his
layoff was due to bleeding on his brain. As far as that fight
itself went, Luque’s performance was a mixed bag. He was able to
stay ahead of the former lightweight champion in an ugly,
clinch-heavy bout but also didn’t have much of his old spark or
aggression in a clear decision win. Luque’s loss to Joaquin
Buckley in March didn’t engender many positive feelings,
either. Luque hung in the fight well enough for about a round and
change but seemingly folded once a takedown attempt went wrong in
the middle stanza, allowing Buckley to pound out a victory. Luque
was initially slated to return against Nick Diaz here
in a pairing that was certainly a choice, but the former
Strikeforce champion has been replaced a few weeks out by
Gorimbo.
Zimbabwe’s Gorimbo has been a shocking success story inside the
UFC, since there wasn’t much on his regional record to suggest he
should be signed outright. Gorimbo’s UFC debut against A.J.
Fletcher didn’t go particularly well, but “The Answer” has
reeled off four straight wins with a game that’s messy but
effective, using wild strikes to lead into an aggressive and
control-heavy wrestling game. It’s basic but effective thanks to
Gorimbo’s sheer doggedness, and there’s a chance it works here once
more. Luque has looked flat for the last few years, and Gorimbo
could wind up finding his breaking point now that it apparently
exists. However, Gorimbo also figures to dive into a lot of messy
takedown attempts, and it’s hard not to see that being dangerous
against someone with Luque’s grappling chops, particularly given
his signature brabo choke. The pick is Luque via first-round
submission.
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