UFC Fight Night 19 Preview: The Prelims

Sam Stout vs. Phillipe Nover

The Storyline: The UFC wanted to create a second Filipino star so badly that the company might have gone a little too far when pushing Nover, a 24-year-old Brooklyn nurse, as the second coming of Anderson Silva on “The Ultimate Fighter.” Nover eventually cracked under the pressure and got dominated by eventual winner Efrain Escudero before being stopped in just over a minute by unheralded Kyle Bradley in May.

The Breakdown: Things won’t get any easier with hard-hitting Canadian Sam Stout as Nover’s next opponent. The same-aged Shawn Tompkins student is perhaps the best pure kickboxer the UFC has on its 155-pound roster. “Hands of Stone” has been in and out of the UFC twice in 2006 and 2007, but he has been exclusively fighting for Zuffa since his home promotion TKO went out of business in October of last year.

Stout has already beaten opponents who are even better on the ground in Fabio Holanda and Per Eklund and went the distance with the experienced Rich Clementi and the explosive Terry Etim last year.

The Prediction: Unless Nover can step up his game by two levels, he will be in for a long or short night, depending on how sharp Stout’s hands are on Wednesday. A unanimous decision victory for the Canadian is the safe bet here.