Yvel vs. Buentello It Is!

Yvel should, in a reasonable world, be the favorite in his bout with Buentello.

With Gilbert “The Hurricane” Yvel (36-12-1-1 MMA) KOing Pedro Rizzo (16-9 MMA, 9-5 UFC), the final matchup for the main card of Affliction: Trilogy is set, and Yvel will meet Paul Buentello (24-9 MMA, 3-1 UFC) on August 1st.

Yvel and Buentello are both monster strikers, with Buentello a respectable boxer and Yvel a veteran of K-1 and various other kickboxing matches. Buentello’s solid boxing skills will definitely be an interesting challenge for Yvel, but it’s hard to argue that Buentello is the best striker Yvel’s ever fought, or that he’ll have any sort of advantage in the standup. Yvel’s kicks and clinch game should give him a decisive advantage in the striking, but Buentello has solid kicks of his own and anything can happen when a fighter has that kind of power in his hands.

The real question, though, is whether a win for either fighter would be a ticket into the top ten, or at least assure that their name is included in the debate. While neither has been entirely dominant, lately, a win over a solid gatekeeper could help place them among the heavyweight elite.

Perhaps the strongest argument is in favor of Yvel, who’s 8-1 in MMA over the last three years, with his only loss coming at the hands of Josh Barnett (24-5 MMA, 4-1 UFC, #3 IWMMAR). What’s most impressive, though, is that none of those fights have gone the distances. Of course, this isn’t a surprise from Gilbert, who’s a visceral fighter with a great striking game and an aggressive fighting style that is seen by some as exessively flashy, but damn sure gets the job done.

Of those eight wins, seven are stoppages and one is a submission (a toehold win, and a possible outlier in Yvel’s record, though he has one other leglock win, from much earlier in his career). Yvel likes the flying knee, and has one win using it in those seven stoppages, and three in his career (that I’m aware of). Yvel has a highlight reel like few else in the heavyweight division, and he’s on an impressive streak with a sincle loss coming at the hands of one of the top heavyweights in the world (who’s in a position to claim the top spot on the same card).

Buentello, like Yvel, has not really fought a top with any success, but his record and performances have been incredibly impressive. Going back three years, Buentello has posted a slightly less impressive 5-1 record, with his lone loss coming at the hands of Alistair Overeem (29-11-0-1 MMA, #7 IWMMAR) when Overeem claimed his Strikeforce Heavyweight Championship. Buentello’s wins haven’t been nearly as impressive, with four stoppages out of the five. Buentello put down Tank Abbott (10-14 MMA, 8-10 UFC) with a solid, straight KO (Yvel has three in his last eight wins), but a knockout as opposed to a TKO is more of an asthetic difference than a statistical one.

The argument for Buentello is a lot harder to make than the argument for Yvel, and it would almost certainly take Buentello an addition win to really assert a top ten position (which is not likely to come anytime soon, as Buentello doesn’t fight very often). Yvel, on the other hand, could make an argument for himself with a high profile, highlight reel win over a respected gatekeeper, especially if Barnett has an impressive showing against Fedor Emelianenko (30-1 MMA, #1 IWMMAR), win or lose and a handful of the other top fighters have their ranking called into question with debilitating and/or unimpressive defeats.

Whatever the impact on the careers of the fighters, this should be an awesome fight between two great strikers.