This weekend at the AllPhones Arena in Sydney, Australia, the UFC Fight Night 55 event takes place. Featuring the grudge match main event between Luke Rockhold and Michael Bisping, this is actually an event that fight fans have cause to get excited about.
In fact, when you look through some of the cards this year, the UFC Fight Pass-exclusive events, which this is, have all been pretty strong. There’s generally a few fights worth getting excited about on each of those cards, and this weekend’s show is no exception.
With that being said, let’s take a closer look at the UFC Fight Night 55 main card.
Luke Rockhold (12-2) vs. Michael Bisping (25-6)
Boone’s Breakdown: This is a solid main event and one that I’m actually pretty excited to see. The build-up has been great between these two, as this truly feels like a legitimate grudge match. Looking past the bells and whistles and the excitement surrounding the pre-fight trash-talk from both guys, the fight itself is actually pretty intriguing as well.
Bisping has had god-awful luck in terms of fighting opponents that end up being found out to have had performance-enhancing drugs in their system. Coming into the fight with a 7-3 record in his last ten fights, Bisping can argue that he’s a one-loss fighter, as some feel he beat Chael Sonnen in their match, and Vitor Belfort, well, that’s a whole other story. Tim Kennedy is the only definitive loss outside of the Belfort match, which again, gets complicated and will get us off-track, that Bisping has had in quite a while.
On the other hand, Rockhold is a stud. Outside of losing his second pro-MMA bout in 2007, Rockhold has a one-loss record over the past seven years, with the only loss coming to — you guessed it — Vitor Belfort. Again, I don’t want this to be a bash-Belfort-fest, so we’ll avoid touching on that subject. Outside of the Belfort fight, Rockhold has looked phenomenal throughout his career and coming into the fight with Bisping, is guaranteeing a first-round finish.
Personally speaking, I don’t see this fight ending in the first round, although one can’t help but wonder if Rockhold knows something we don’t, because he sounds awfully confident that he’s going to run right through Bisping, something that no one else has ever really done.
Boone’s Prediction: Luke Rockhold
Ross Pearson (16-7, 1 NC) vs. Al Iaquinta (9-3-1)
Boone’s Breakdown: Ross Pearson is always an exciting fighter to watch compete. He has a fearless, come-forward style with great striking and a pretty well-rounded all around game. Coming off an exciting TKO victory over the highly regarded Gray Maynard, Pearson has some momentum going right now.
Most, including yours truly, feel he was robbed in the Diego Sanchez fight back in June, a fight he lost via close split decision. His fight with Melvin Guillard was a disaster, with the ruling being a “No Contest” due to an illegal knee. So Pearson has — no fault of his own — not been able to get momentum built up in his favor. With the TKO of Maynard, a convincing finish of Al Iaquinta would certainly help Pearson’s stock.
Iaquinta, the former Ultimate Fighter finalist, is looking to put together his second win in a row as well. After dropping the TUF Finale to Michael Chiesa back in June, Iaquinta had a three fight win-streak going before tapping out to Mitch Clarke in their UFC 173 battle back in May. He bounced back with an impressive TKO over Rodrigo Damm in September, but a victory over Pearson this weekend will be the kind of win that can catapult him back into contender status.
Boone’s Prediction: Ross Pearson
Robert Whittaker (12-4) vs. Clint Hester (11-3)
Boone’s Breakdown: Clint Hester is on a roll. Coming into this weekend’s show, Hester is riding a seven fight win-streak, with a perfect 4-0 record in the UFC. Although he has yet to step up to that next level of competition, Hester is someone to keep an eye on.
Whitaker on the other hand has had mixed results since entering the UFC in 2012. Coming into the fight with a 3-2 record inside the Octagon, Whitaker needs a win in Sydney this weekend in the worst way. While he’s coming off a decision victory over Mike Rhodes, he was on a two-fight skid prior to that.
A win over a guy like Hester could erase all of that and set a new stage for Whitaker, unfortunately, I don’t see that happening.
Boone’s Prediction: Clint Hester
Soa Palelei (21-4) vs. Walt Harris (7-3)
Boone’s Breakdown: Soa “The Hulk” Palelei looks to get back in the win column this weekend in Australia and in Walt Harris, he has the right opponent to do exactly that.
Palelei was riding an 11-fight win streak going into his last fight at UFC Fight Night in June, where he dropped a decision to Jared Rosholt. Prior to that defeat, however, Palelei was stringing together a win streak that was quite notable, as not only was he 11-0, all of those victories were by KO or TKO.
A UFC and PRIDE veteran, Palelei has been in the sport since 2002 and is one of those veterans who has always been close to the top-tier level, but was never quite able to get over the hump. This weekend, he has a chance to try and get one step closer.
Harris, on the other hand, comes into this fight with a second chance at a UFC career, so you know he’s hungry. Having won his last fight in May at Titan Fighting Championship 28, Harris went 0-2 in his first UFC run before being axed from the promotion. This weekend, he has a chance to make this run a more successful one, but he’s got a tall task in front of him in “The Hulk.”
Boone’s Prediction: Soa Palelei
That concludes the main card. What do you guys think of this weekend’s fight card in Sydney, Australia? Who are you picking to win? Post your own predictions and feedback in the “Comments” section below. You can also hit me up on Facebook at Facebook.com/MattBooneWZR, and/or on Twitter @MBoone420.
Make sure to check out MMANews.com this Saturday for complete UFC Fight Night 55 results!
