UFC Fight Night 25: Shields vs. Ellenberger” takes place at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center in New Orleans, La., this coming Saturday, Sept. 17, and airs LIVE on Spike TV.

ProMMAnow.com (www.prommanow.com) continues our preview of the UFC Fight Night 25 main card by taking a look at the featherweight match-up between WEC veteran Erik “New Breed” Koch (12-1) and TUF 12 winner Jonathan Brookins (12-3).

Erik Koch

Wins 12
By knockout 3
By submission 7
By decision 2

Losses 1
By decision 1

Twenty-two-year-old Roufusport fighter, Erik Koch, comes into this fight on the heels of a first round “knockout of the night” in his UFC debut over Raphael Assuncao at UFC 128 in March.

He also earned “knockout of the night” in his fight prior to that, against Francisco Rivera, at WEC 52 last November. Koch is an Iowa native and went 8-0 as a professional before signing with the WEC in 2009.

Koch went 3-1 under the WEC banner, with his only career loss coming against Chad Mendes at WEC 47 last March.He is currently riding a three fight win streak.

Koch was on two ProMMAnow.com Radio Network shows this past week: Fist-ta-Cuff Radio and The MMA Outsider. You are definitely going to want to check out those interviews if you have not already.

Jonathan Brookins

Wins 12
By knockout 2
By submission 8
By decision 2

Losses 3
By knockout 1
By submission 0
By decision 2

This will be 26-year-old Jonathan Brookins first fight in the UFC since he defeated Michael Johnson via unanimous decision to win The Ultimate Fighter 12 last December.

He was scheduled to fight a couple of times prior to this, but due to injury, had to withdraw both times.

The last fight Brookins lost was back in 2008 when he suffered a third round TKO defeat to current UFC featherweight champion Jose Aldo.

Since then, he has racked up four straight victories in three different promotions, including submission wins over Stephen Ledbetter and Luis Palomino, and unanimous decision wins over Yosdenis Cedeno and the aforementioned Johnson.

Thoughts for discussion…

Koch will have the striking advantage while Brookins should have the advantage on the ground. Of course, Koch is no slouch on the ground as evidenced by his seven submission victories.

If Brookins can not get this fight to the ground, he is going to be in trouble. Koch’s time spent with the Duke Roufus gang and having stable mates like Anthony Pettis to train with have noticeably improved his stand-up.

The long layoff for Brookins is yet another factor to take into account, not to mention the injuries he had to deal with earlier in the year. Brookins’ wrestling and submission game are his biggest assets and it will be interesting to see Koch’s game plan in this bout.

Will Koch try to beat Brookins at his own game or keep it standing and look for the KO? The oddsmakers currently have the lines at +165 for Brookins and -210 for Koch. Who you got?

See our preview of the main event here: UFC Fight Night 25 Preview: Jake Shields vs. Jake Ellenberger

Stay close to ProMMAnow.com (www.prommanow.com) as we will be taking a look at the rest of the main card fights throughout the week. UFC Fight Night 25 airs LIVE on Spike TV this Saturday, Sept. 17, at 9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT. For the full fight card line-up see our Upcoming Events page.

5 thoughts on “UFC Fight Night 25 preview: Erik Koch vs. Jonathan Brookins”
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