UFC 102 Preview: The Main Card

Jeff Sherwood/Sherdog.com

Brandon Vera.

The Breakdown: Mr. Scrabble, Soszynski, puts his run of Octagon dominance against the perpetually hyped Vera in a bout that both men desperately need to win in order to make headway in the lion’s den light heavyweight class. While the hype machine favors Vera, Soszynski has come alive like Peter Frampton in the UFC, and his combination of bruising striking and a paralyzing mat game is just the style with which Vera has struggled. Do not discount Vera’s leg-snapping kickboxing, but he’s always struggled to impose his style on opponents, and Soszynski excels at forcing his game down the throat of whoever stares him down from across the cage.

The X Factor: For all the talent these two possess, they both have a history of coming up shorter than an Oompa-Loompa in big spots. If either fighter plans on making a serious run at the strap, those days of in-cage thumb twitting need to go the way of U2’s musical legitimacy. Pre-fight assurances aside, that history of ineffective violence weighs heavily on this bout. Whoever can’t exorcise that demon from his past will be moving one step closer to the UFC’s one-way exit.

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The Bottom Line: After years spent as a highly touted blue-chipper, Vera will complete his slow slide into bust status, as “The Polish Experiment” dissects him with a memorable ground-and-pound assault.