Ht/Wt: 6’1/170 lbs.
Age: 29
Hometown: Houston
Fighting out of: San Jose, Calif.
Record: 12-2
The stakes: After a flameout at middleweight that had many questioning Swick’s attitude, he’s managed to find new life as a welterweight even though his stopwatch knockouts are looking more and more like a thing of the past. Either way, Swick is looking primed for a welterweight title run, and a showcase bout against Goulet may be just the opportunity he needs to remind fan and matchmaker alike that he can still put fist to face in short order.
The breakdown: Perhaps the most surprising aspect of Swick’s game at welterweight is his suddenly air-tight takedown defense, which will serve him well against Goulet, who generally relies on wrestling to save his glass chin from going Digital Underground and doing the humpty-hump routine. A stick-and-move strategy mixing in plenty of jabs with the occasional uppercut when Goulet dives forward should get the job done and hopefully save us from any references to the “Swick-otine” or “Swick-aconda choke.”
Jonathan “The Road Warrior” Goulet Scouting Report
Ht/Wt: 6’0/170 lbs.
Age: 29
Hometown: Victoriaville, Quebec, Canada
Fighting out of: Victoriaville, Quebec, Canada
Record: 22-9(1 NC)
The stakes: While Goulet keeps getting his ticket to the UFC punched, he remains a lower-tier gatekeeper with little in the way of big-time wins. His handful of UFC wins have yet to liberate him from showcase fodder status, and while there will be no showcase showdown joke here, Goulet can either keep on slogging through his UFC tenure or seize this main-card opportunity and make quick work of … “Quick.” Damn, I didn’t mean to do that.
The breakdown: This one is pretty simple for Goulet. Stand around with Swick and he’ll definitely live up to his “Road Warrior” moniker by heading back to Canada with walking papers in hand. Instead, Goulet has to focus on keeping his distance and baiting Swick into overcommitting himself on the feet, which would open up the takedown opportunities he so desperately needs. From there, strong top control and conservative but steady ground-and-pound should keep him safe from Swick’s submissions and net him a solid W for a change.
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The bottom line: Stylistically, this just isn’t a good matchup for Goulet, whose only recourse is going for takedowns that he has little chance of landing. Already behind the 8-ball, Goulet will have to tangle with a fundamentally superior striker who has the chin to handle a middleweight’s punch while Goulet’s chin is better suited to MMA’s quadruple-amputee division. That’s fancy talk for Swick by knockout.