Heavyweights
Derrick Lewis (22-7) vs. Ilir Latifi (14-7)Advertisement
As soon as this card was announced, Lewis, a Houston native, figured to be on it as one of the sport’s biggest personalities. Lewis is the avatar for the weirdness and unintentional comedy that is heavyweight mixed martial arts. Nothing about his approach should work, but despite being a low-volume and easily damaged fighter, his combination of size, power and explosive offense has typically been enough to get things done. In his most recent bout, a November win over Blagoy Ivanov, Lewis actually looked a bit normal as a fighter, incorporating things like clinching into his game and eschewing a lot of his odd jumping strikes. It was a mixed bag; it is probably a good idea in the long run, but who wants to see a more normal Lewis fight? At any rate, a win over Ivanov figured to get Lewis back into the fringes of contention, but instead, he gets what feels like a bit of a step backwards. The logic may be to give “The Black Beast” a bit of a local showcase, but time will tell if Latifi is willing to comply.
After two straight losses at light heavyweight, Sweden’s Latifi was in need of a change, and this move up to heavyweight is an interesting gambit. Latifi temporarily figured to be a strange footnote in UFC history as one of its unlikeliest main eventers, as Alexander Gustafsson was injured a few days before a card in Sweden, so “The Sledgehammer” stepped in for his teammate and lost to Gegard Mousasi. Latifi has enjoyed enough success since that it does not seem quite as strange, even if his fighting style has a limited ceiling. Latifi was short and stocky even at 205 pounds, favoring a low-output and high-power striking approach while implementing an underrated wrestling game wherever possible. Against fighters who were both larger and quicker, like Corey Anderson and Volkan Oezdemir, Latifi was drowned in volume, leading to this attempt at a fresh start.
If the lack of a weight cut means Latifi feels comfortable throwing more volume, this gets interesting in a hurry, but if he is his typical self, this could get a bit ugly. Since neither man prefers to lead, it is easy to see a scenario where both men just circle at range and do not press the action outside of single shots. Even if Latifi is more aggressive, his style seems tailor-made to lose to Lewis, as countless others before him have tired themselves out attempting to wrestle Lewis and gotten knocked out late for their trouble. At any rate, it is almost impossible not to pick the larger and more explosive fighter in what could wind up being a mirror match at worst. The pick is Lewis via third-round stoppage in a bout that has the potential to be quite lackluster.
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