Ultimate Fight Night 18 Previews: Best of the Rest

The under card of Ultimate Fight Night 18 is solid. At least I think so. Some of these fights should be on the main card, but lets hope they make their way to the broadcast, as these are all good fighters not being seen.

Jeremy Stephens and  Gleison Tibau are fighters to keep tabs on, as they are both exciting fighters. They may not win all the time, but you won’t be bored. Brazilian American Top Team fighter Tibau is 1-2 in his last 4 UFC fights, losing to Joe Stevenson and Tyson Griffon. Both fighters can be on that chopping block, but I hope it doesn’t come to that. Someone will be getting stopped in this fight.  Stephans has to beat the tougher competition to be a true threat and won’t be in the UFC very long if he can’t.  In this striker vs grappler fight, (even though Tibau is a good striker)  Tibau will win via submission in round 2.

2-3 overall in the UFC Ricardo Almieda has not seen the same kind of success fighting in Pancrase or Japan. His only losses are in the UFC. Whatever makes him lose inside the Octagon has to stop and for his opponent as well. The UFC tends to release fighters they don’t need with 2 straight losses. 2008 wasn’t good for Matt Horwich, 1-1 in the IFL and losing his UFC debut to Dan Hardy at UFC 90. Almeida will bring this one to where he is comfortable and submit the IFL veteran in the first round.

Brock Larson would be undefeated if he didn’t have to fight Carlos Condit or Jon Fitch. Fighting since 2002 he is 24-2 and is a submission machine. Jesse Sanders is also making his UFC debut with a 20-4 record fighting in regional shows. Both fighters have basically the same record with a combined 28 wins by submission. Larson will win, mostly because he is a great fighter, and mostly because he has fought on bigger shows than Sanders.

Looking to make a 3rd straight UFC win is TUF cast member Tim Creduer. I didn’t think he would last this long but he is finding ways to win. He’s fighting 6-0 Nick Catone(who never did get to fight TUF 7 winner Amir Sadollah) but won his UFC debut anyway. This one could go either way. They both looked impressive in their wins and have very bright futures in the UFC. This one is a toss up so I’m going with Catone via submission.

“El Conquistador” Jorge Rivera makes his way back to the octagon after losing out to Martin Kampmann a long time ago in June of 2008. He’s had an up and down career but a over Nissen Osterneck can’t get him out of the untelevised portion of a Fight Night. Since ’06 he has only won by KO and this fight won’t end any differently. Osterneck’s UFC debut will be a brief one, losing by knockout in the 1st round.

The other 3 fights on the card are filled with guys I truly don’t know about and are all either losers in their UFC debut or are making their UFC debut. Fighters getting wins will be Ryan Jensen, Aaron Simpson and Rob Kimmons.

That’s it for the undercard, stay tuned for new previews and predictions for Ultimate Fight Night 18 everyday leading up to the fights April 1st!