Mike Pyle(left) will do battle with Rory MacDonald at UFC 133

The injury riddled UFC 133 event will be taking place this coming weekend at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and we’ll be providing coverage as we always do for major events. We’ll be previewing the first televised match of the PPV between Rory MacDonald and Mike Pyle in this piece. This is a fight between an hungry up and comer and a long time veteran of the sport. It’ll be interesting to see if MacDonald can pass the test and climb another notch up the UFC welterweight ladder.

Mike Pyle comes into this fight with an overall record of (21-7) with 16 wins via submission and 2 wins via TKO/KO. He has quietly won 3 fights in a row and was last seen dispatching Ricardo Almeida via decision back at UFC 128. Pyle is a crafty grappler that wins by being patient and obtaininig optimal positions to secure submissions. He’s not going to knock many people out, but he’s a good test for any welterweight out there. He’s also the only guy to submit Jon Fitch in MMA(Fitch’s MMA debut).

Rory MacDonald comes into this fight with an overall record of (11-1) with 6 wins via submission and 4 wins via TKO/KO. He was last seen in action throwing Nate Diaz around like a rag doll en route to earning a dominating decision win at UFC 129. MacDonald’s lone loss came in his second UFC fight against Carlos Condit when the top ten welterweight braved an early storm from MacDonald to finish him late in the third round. MacDonald is considered the future of the sport by some as he just turned 22 years old. He’s a very well rounded fighter for such a young age.

Pyle has only been knocked out twice, and both of those guys had good power(Jake Ellenberger and Rory Markham) so you know that Pyle is tough to put away. He made his pro debut against Rampage Jackson and the fight went to a decision(it was Jackson’s pro debut as well).

I think this fight that will be used to get MacDonald more experience against a guy that will not pose much of a threat offensively. I don’t expect MacDonald to just run through Mike Pyle, but I don’t expect him to struggle too much either. I think MacDonald has the better standup in this fight and that’s probably where he’ll keep the fight because he should be able to stop Pyle’s takedowns. Pyle’s strength lies in his grappling and position control on the ground so if he’s not able to get the fight to the ground he’ll be in for a long night. However, MacDonald will probably show no fear and take Pyle down as he did with Diaz and Condit who are both very talented on the ground. MacDonald’s top game is solid and Pyle has been prone to submissions in his losses(4 times).

I see Rory MacDonald winning via decision or submission.

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