Explosion At 205

UFC Fight Night 193 Johnny Walker takes on Thiago “Marreta” Santos in a 5 round main event. This is Walker’s first main event against an opponent on a three fight losing streak. Walker showed promise when he came into the UFC, knocking out his first three opponents in devastating fashion. He was on the route of getting a title shot until he met with veteran Corey Anderson and got his first TKO loss in the promotion and after rebounded with another decision lost to Nikita Krylov. Since his back to back losses he’s brutally knocked out Ryan Spann and taken a year off after and now is fighting in a main event. On the other hand Thiago Santos is on a three fight skid and is looking to get back in the win column. His first loss out of his last three was against Jon Jones and lost in a split decision against the greatest light heavyweight ever. Santos is the first fighter in MMA history to win a judges scorecard against Jones. Santos suffered a lot in that fight because he tore his left ACL, PCL, MCL, meniscus, and cracked tibia along with a partially torn right meniscus. His next bout was against Glover Teixeira and almost got a insane finish but Glover toughen it out and got a rear-naked choke, now Glover is next in line for a title shot. His next bout was against Aleksandar Rakic and seemed to move slow and be one step behind Rakic, could be due to his massive injury as he did not really throw his left leg. He might be in fear of getting cut if he loses again this Saturday night.

Johnny Walker is a true finisher with his 18 wins he has 15 KOs and 2 submissions and only 1 decision win. He applies pressure and has heavy hands with throwing straight down the middle and opening up his opponent with knees and elbows. His clinche is almost a work of art, he knocked out Khalil Roundtree with an insane elbow in the clinch and tends to do a lot of damage while in it. He is also very explosive, throwing insane kicks and knees that can tire him out. I’m sure he’s going to test his strength against Santos by getting him in a clinch and see if he’s able to hold on to him and cause damage. If not he might throw oblique and calve kicks towards Santos left leg since it’s been injured in the past. I think the problem Santos might have is the unpredictability Walker brings and can lead to Santos getting knocked out.

The problem Thiago Santos brings is the heavy leg kicks he does use, Johnny Walker relies on his head movement and leaves his body open. With that being said it’ll be a good strategy to slow down walker by body kicks, Santos has multiple finishes by body kicks. Santos needs to be able to cover distance since he’s the smaller fighter with a smaller reach. He’s going to have to take risks and if he does he can land a right overhand that can easily put Walker to sleep. Walker keeps his chin up high and Santos can easily capitalize on it. He’s very explosive and strong, has more experience and he might use it to get the win. If Santos doesn’t bring his best he’s going to get caught up in Walker’s rhythm and be one step behind and that’s not something that he can get himself into.

This fight is very exciting with two of the most explosive guys in the division who both have sharp striking and power in their hands. These fighters are both strong and can both put someone to sleep. This fight can either be a stalemate or a chaotic war. Hopefully these fighters are not gun shy because they’ve seen many downs in the couple years.