Kenny Florian believes Jeremy Stephens will emerge victorious at UFC Mexico City (see weigh-in results here).
Stephens vs. Yair Rodriguez is set to headline UFC Mexico City tomorrow night (Sept. 21). This is a pivotal fight for Stephens as he’s trying to avoid his third loss in a row. As for Rodriguez, he hopes to win his second straight bout. “El Pantera” is coming off a last-second knockout victory over Chan Sung Jung.
Florian Breaks Down Stephens vs. Rodriguez
On a new edition of the Anik & Florian podcast, “KenFlo” gave his take on the match-up between Stephens and Rodriguez.
“This is such an interesting fight,” Kenny Florian said. “I think Jeremy Stephens has insane power. I think he’s a guy that the Mexican fans are gonna absolutely love out there, but he is definitely in enemy territory here with Yair Rodriguez. A guy who again has been training in Mexico City. That stadium is just gonna erupt when he gets out there. He’s extremely exciting, hit probably the craziest knockout I have ever seen with that up elbow against ‘The Korean Zombie.’ The fight will go down as one of the greatest ever as well.”
Rodriguez has an exciting fighting style, but Florian thinks he will be susceptible to counters from Stephens.
“He has a fearlessness and a confidence about him when he goes out to compete that is hard to match,” Kenny Florian continued. “His speed is very impressive, he’s gonna have to use his reach out there. My concern for Yair Rodriguez is the fact that he does get hit and because he does have a tendency of getting wild and being fearless, he can get hit with shots obviously.”
In the end, Florian predicts a finish for Stephens.
“This is a tough one for me,” Kenny Florian admitted. “I can definitely see this one going either way, but I’m gonna go with the slight underdog Jeremy Stephens here to get it down by knockout or TKO in round two.”
