UFC 109 Preview: The Main Card

Matt Serra vs. Frank Trigg

The Breakdown: Late-career renaissances are a mercurial thing, not that you’d have to tell that to either Trigg or Serra. After being written off by the MMA cognoscenti, Serra won the fourth season of “The Ultimate Fighter.” For his part, Trigg rebounded from a disastrous run in the UFC welterweight class by becoming a top 10-ranked middleweight.

The phoenix routine proved short-lived, however, as Serra has lost back-to-back fights and Trigg looked overmatched in his UFC 103 bout against Josh Koscheck. In that fight, Trigg had no answer for Koscheck’s power-punching style. He’ll need an answer for just that against Serra.

While most know Serra for his Brazilian jiu-jitsu and submission wrestling credentials, he’s never been able to fully translate his grappling skills to MMA. Instead he seems to prefer raw punching power to submission savvy inside the cage. Although Serra does have smothering top control, he shouldn’t bother trying to out-wrestle Trigg considering the massive disparity in wrestling acumen.

Ground-and-pounding his way to a W seems like Trigg’s best bet, but his once hyperactive top game has slowed over time. Combine that with Serra’s willingness to lockdown his guard in search of a stand-up and it sounds like the bell tolls for Trigg’s chin yet again.

The Bottom Line: This fight certainly doesn’t have any big-picture relevance, but it should be entertaining while it lasts as Serra will look to jailhouse blitz Trigg every chance he gets. There won’t be much in the way of an answer from Trigg, whose chin will take the brunt of his second straight knockout loss.