WEC 48 Preview: The Main Card

Anthony Njokuani vs. Shane Roller

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The Breakdown: No one is about to confuse Njokuani with Christian Okoye, but MMA’s answer to “The Nigerian Nightmare” has been running cats over Super Tecmo Bowl style lately. The latest roadblock for Njokuani is perhaps the toughest yet, though, as Roller’s fearsome front headlock series alone has made him into one of Team Takedown’s premier collegiate wrestling converts.

Ironically, Roller seems a bit too enthused with the other facets of MMA. He has grown over-reliant on landing his atomic overhand right and scrambling for guillotines, all the while ignoring his folkstyle wrestling pedigree. That is a criminal mistake in the making against someone like Njokuani, who has every advantage on the feet over Roller and the erudite understanding of striking fundamentals to exploit the gaping holes in his defense.

The defensive folly to look out for is Roller’s habit of not only keeping his hands low but dropping them completely whenever he moves. Combined with his pawing jab and fundamentally incorrect head and foot movement, Roller is a big counterpunch target. Winging overhand rights at Njokuani’s head won’t help any either, as “The Assassin” does an excellent job of controlling range and Roller is reticent to take the center of the cage.

Takedown defense is the obvious weakness Roller can capitalize on. He’s still figuring out how to adapt his wrestling game to MMA, however, and Njokuani has shown consistent improvement in both defending the takedown and escaping to the feet. Despite being built like Manute Bol’s kid brother, Njokuani does something most long and lean fighters struggle to do: use his frame to create leverage and space both in the clinch and on the mat.

Save for his trachea-crunching guillotine choke, Roller isn’t a particularly dynamic fighter on the ground and often struggles to hold dominant positions. And considering Roller’s own propensity for getting into brawls, Njokuani’s takedown defense may not even be an issue.

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The Bottom Line: Roller’s freakish upper body flexibility and grip strength make him a perfect genetic match for the guillotine choke, but he’s reaching the point where a slick front headlock series just isn’t cutting it anymore. Proper strategy is rapidly becoming integral to MMA, and Roller is still content to throw telegraphed overhand rights and hope for scrambles. Neither will save him against Njokuani.