“UFC 141: Lesnar vs. Overeem” takes place this Friday, Dec. 30, at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. It will be the Ultimate Fighting Championship’s final show of the year, and it is a big one.
ProMMAnow.com (www.prommanow.com) continues with our preview of the preliminary card with a look at the welterweight match-up between TUF 7 veteran Matt Riddle and Team Nova União’s Luis Ramos.
Riddle vs. Ramos is one of four UFC 141 bouts that will stream LIVE on Facebook Friday night starting at 7:15 p.m. ET (4:15 p.m. PT).
Matt Riddle (5-3 MMA, 5-3 UFC) – @riddleTUF7
- Total 8
- Wins 5
- By knockout 1
- By decision 3
- By disqualification 1
- Losses 3
- By knockout 1
- By decision 2
A former high-school state wrestling champion, 25-year-old Matthew Riddle has spent his entire pro career inside the UFC Octagon. His official UFC career began in June 2008 with a unanimous decision win over Dante Rivera in the TUF 7 Finale.
Since then he has put together wins over Steve Bruno, Dan Cramer, Greg Soto and DaMarques Johnson. Most recently though, he has dropped decision losses to Sean Pierson last December and Lance Benoist in September.
He did, however, win “fight of the night” in the loss to Benoist and it was the type of fight where Benoist came out looking like the one who had lost after receiving a busted nose that opened up like a faucet.
Luis Ramos (19-7 MMA. 0-1 UFC)
- Total 26
- Wins 19
- By knockout 4
- By submission 4
- By decision 11
- Losses 7
- By knockout 2
- By decision 5
Thirty-year-old former Shooto champion Luis Ramos has been fighting professionally since 2001, primarily in Brazil. He made his UFC debut in August at UFC 134 in Rio, dropping a first round TKO loss to Erick Silva just 40 seconds into the bout.
Prior to that, Ramos had won three straight bouts this year, including two wins in one night at Watch Out Combat Show 11 in Brazil. However, two of those wins were against sub-.500 fighters.
Ramos won the vacant Shooto middleweight title (after Shinya Aoki vacated the title) with a unanimous decision win over Igor Fernandes in August 2010. Ramos vacated the belt when he signed with the UFC earlier this year.
The match-up: Riddle has some power in his hands, but his base is his wrestling. Ramos has a serious experience advantage, he has great training partners and the better submission game. He has pretty good wrestling defense as well.
Riddle does have back-to-back losses coming in, however, the UFC probably won’t hold the loss to Benoist against him since it was “fight of the night” and he did most of the damage. Having said that, it is not a bet you want to make — in other words, he needs a win.
The pick: I’m giving the edge to Riddle mainly due to his size and strength and his wrestling. He should be able to control where the fight goes for the most part and grind out a decision win. He will have to be careful of Ramos’ submission game and more experienced stand-up. Riddle by decision.
See the rest of ProMMAnow.com’s UFC 141 preliminary card previews.