UFC 90 Breakdown: The Undercard

Josh Burkman vs. Pete Sell

Burkman Scouting Report
Height/Weight: 5’10/170 lbs.
Age: 28
Hometown: Salt Lake City
Fighting out of: Salt Lake City
Record: 18-7

The stakes: If Burkman plans on staying in the UFC, he had best make it his business to score a win -- and an impressive one at that -- after losing three of his last four fights. Worse yet, the dynamic steamroller that emerged from “The Ultimate Fighter” reality series seems to have disappeared in favor of a more conventional and conservative wrestler.

The breakdown: While Burkman has turned into a grinder of late, his cardio typically fails to hold up and often leaves him vulnerable in the latter stages of fights. With that in mind, Burkman needs to take advantage of the fact that Sell has not fought in over a year and is making his first run as a welterweight. Burkman should storm Sell from the opening bell and show he can replicate the bull in a china shop routine that served him so well early in his UFC career.

Sell Scouting Report
Height/Weight: 5’11/170 lbs.
Age: 26
Hometown: West Islip, N.Y.
Fighting out of: Westbury, N.Y.
Record: 7-4

The stakes: Anyone wonder what Sell’s doing back in the UFC in light of his 1-4 record inside the Octagon and a year-plus layoff from MMA? Having former UFC welterweight champion Matt Serra as your coach must have some serious ancillary benefits. If Sell has any designs on doing anything in the UFC this time around, he had best do something about a UFC mark that hovers at the Mendoza line.

The breakdown: Despite supposedly strong jiu-jitsu credentials, Sell seems obsessed with playing the slugger role. In doing so, he has frequently found himself on the wrong end of the highlight reel. Sell needs to ditch the mindless rock ’em sock ’em routine and ply the craft that got him into the UFC in the first place.


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The bottom line: After watching Sell engage in one brawl after another inside the cage, there’s no reason to believe he’ll suddenly start showing the fight IQ of a Randy Couture. One might think the prospect of Burkman scoring takedown after takedown would force Sell to show off his supposedly vaunted jiu-jitsu game. However, his mat work looked sterile against Thales Leites at UFC 69.

Granted, Burkman’s hardly that caliber of grappler, but he should have no problems working his way to a cautious, albeit dull, decision win.