UFC ‘Jones vs. Matyushenko’ Main Card Preview

Takanori Gomi vs. Tyson Griffin

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Come the final bell the loser of this lightweight tilt can likely kiss his hopes for a lightweight title run goodbye. The stakes may be even higher for Gomi than for Griffin since his last win of any real consequence came nearly four years ago against Mitsuhiro Ishida.

The Gomi of those days was a fearsome power puncher with the wrestling and boxing technique to enhance his preternatural prowess for the sport. Today we have a fighter notorious for his lackadaisical training regimen who is starting to lose the speed and power that made him what he used to be. While Griffin does have a long history of coming up just short in big spots, his style is more than enough to neutralize Gomi’s diminishing arsenal.

What Gomi wants to do is keep his fights at medium to close range, where he can load up on heavy shots. That just isn’t a feasible strategy against Griffin, who wants nothing more than to be up close, where his negligible reach is no longer a hindrance. At that range Griffin is the more fundamentally sound boxer thanks to his underappreciated elusiveness. He also has an extra weapon that Gomi can’t match -- namely leg kicks that look like they could crumple an elephant.

Fighting Griffin in the pocket is nearly impossible as long as he’s snapping those leg kicks. Gomi’s telegraphed power punches leave him especially vulnerable to that attack. What really puts this fight out of reach for Gomi, however, is his severely diminished wrestling skills. At one time he was considered amongst the best wrestlers in the division, but he seems to have lost all interest in scoring takedowns and his defensive skills have always been somewhat questionable.

To put it simply, if Kenny Florian could run over Gomi with a power single leg, then Griffin will have that option all day. Tempting as it might be for Gomi’s fans to put stock in his claim that this training camp has been an all-out affair, one has to wonder if Gomi has any notion of how hard a modern mixed martial artist must train to succeed at this level. Regardless of what shape he is in, the fact remains that he has spent the past several years relying far too much on landing brain-scrambling power punches to suddenly change with the times.

The Gomi of a few years ago would have been a sight to see in the Octagon, but no one outruns time and he hasn’t even bothered trying. This will be a more gruesome version of Gomi’s bout with Florian. Griffin will get in his face and batter him with punches, leg kicks and anything else handy. A bloodied and hobbled Gomi goes down on his sword in the third round of a bout that will give the folks at Compustrike plenty of work.