SCRAPP! FIGHT MAGAZINE
July - 2016
51
THE ULTIMATE FIGHTER JULY. 8
Fight of the Night
Joanna Jedrzejczyk vs. Claudia
Gadelha – Will there be a new
strawweight champion? Gadelha
has looked very confident in the
TUF house as a coach, unaffected
by the champions ‘bully’-tactics, or
is it possible that she puts a fantas-
tic game face on since Joanna won
their first outing by a very close
split decision. Does the champ still
have the mental edge here, which
is a very good advantage to have
as we have seen in many contest
before. Having your opponent
‘over-respect’ your abilities, espe-
cially if you have defeated them
before, creates doubt in most peo-
ple, but that’s not the feeling I get
from Gadelha, but this fight is five
rounds. And longer this fight goes,
Joanna chances of success with her
‘bad intention’- Muay Thai striking
increases. Will Gadelha overcome
and become, the first Brazilian fe-
male champion in UFC, or will the
first Polish champion remain? A lot
of ifs and buts, but after Friday –
we will find out what’s what.
Performance of the Night
Doo Ho Choi, who is facing Thia-
go Tavares, has had an impressive
showing since joining UFC, how-
ever his inactivity has made people
perhaps forget about him. That
will change after this fight, even
though Tavares has a lot of mo-
mentum coming into this fight with
three straight performance bonus-
es in a row, I believe Doo Ho Choi
will starch him early, then finish it
up with strikes on the ground. Re-
minding the MMA fans out there
with goldfish memory, this feather-
weight prospect is here to stay and
be remembered.
Jake Matthews* – Impressive pros-
pect, with respectable 4-1 UFC re-
cord, the new era of well rounded
youth is always nice to see for the
future of MMA. Although facing
another prospect in Kevin Lee, Mat-
thews should be able to cancel or
keep Lee’s submission-game at bay
and keep this on the feet, where
he could take him out on the feet,
where Lee lost most recently.
*If title challenger Gadelha wins by KO/TKO in the main event, I believe
she also takes the ‘Performance bonus’ as well as ‘Fight of the Night’.
