We're Back With Another LineStar Weekly Knockout!

Written by LineStar contributor, combat sports enthusiast, and practitioner, Chris Guy.

Instagram: @therealsethgeko & Twitter: @DadHallOfFamer

Any given Saturday.  I’ve spent the last twelve hours in a stupor.  Suddenly nothing makes sense.  Up is down; down is up.  I didn’t even bother to get dressed.  The barista at Coffee Bean gave me the once-over, shrugged, and rang me up for a pumpkin spice cold brew and chocolate croissant.  It’s forty degrees outside, cold for San Diego, but here I am, wearing nothing but chonies and chanclas, sipping my coffee, and trying to make sense of it all. 

I plan to spend the morning applying for the Caesars Palace Sous-chef vacancy.  I’m reliable, punctual, and bring my own supplies; there’s plenty of egg on my face to dish out endless Denver omelets for the foreseeable future, keeping overhead costs low and profit high.  

The Securitas truck just made another lap; they’ve got their eyes on me.  Before last night, the biggest upset in UFC history was Matt Serra TKO’ing Georges St. Pierre to win the welterweight strap back in 2007.  Since then, nothing has really come close to topping it.  Until last night.  MMA has its Buster Douglas, and it’s… Juliana Peña.  No typo.  Juliana Peña.

Juliana Peña beat Amanda Nunes… on the feet.  Nunes has faced far better strikers in her career, and Peña’s striking didn’t look world-class by any stretch of the imagination, but she did one thing that Nunes didn’t.  Peña moved her head off centerline when she punched, while Nunes let her ego control her motor skills.  The Lioness walked right into every one of Peña’s strikes with no regard for Peña’s power and gassed out, loading up on right hand after right hand… And NEW!  

I guess there’s only one thing left to do… I’m sorry Juliana Peña.  Any Given Saturday.

Much like Amanda Nunes, last night wasn’t my night.  I was Biggie Smalls and Eminem Dead Wrong about Kai Kara-France as well.  Turns out, he not only dries his hands on the “just for pretty” hand towels in the bathroom, but he also wipes with them and hangs them back up.  

“Order number 19 is ready!”  The key to a good omelet is using low heat so the egg doesn’t brown.  Using a small pan also helps keep the egg thick enough to flip without breaking.  Wolfgang Puck only requires the execution one dish while auditioning for a head chef position at one of his restaurants, an omelet.  

They say it’s always darkest before the dawn, and as I look around, the streetlights are beginning to fade.  Saturday is once again just around the corner, and 2021 is going out with a bang when fan-favorite Derrick Lewis and Weekly Knockout favorite Chris Daukaus face off in the final main event of the year.

Main Card

Chris Daukaus (-140 ) vs Derrick Lewis (+115)

Daukaus: DK: $8.3k | Lewis: DK:$7.9k

If you’ve been rockin’ with the Weekly Knockout since the beginning, you already know who Chris Daukaus is.  He was the original Juliana Peña, one of the first fighters I completely wrote off in flowing medieval script before his unanticipated UFC debut last year against Parker Porter.  I said about Chris Daukaus, any Fantasy money spent on Daukaus would be better spent wiping your Fantasy ass.  Of course, he won that fight by TKO in the first round.  

I again picked against him in his second UFC bout, and it wasn’t until his third bout against Alexey Oleynik that I finally embraced Chris Daukaus.  As I sit here on the patio of Coffee Bean in a standoff with plaza security, I am a fully pledged member and chapter leader of the Chris Daukaus fan club.  In just his fifth fight with the promotion, Chris Daukaus has risen to main event status and facing one of the greatest KO Bob Ross’s of our time, Derrick Lewis.  A win against Lewis would place him among the names Stipe Miocic, Curtis Blaydes, and Ciryl Gane as the top contenders and on the verge of a title shot.

Daukaus is the definition of a sleeper; if you bumped into him at Home Depot and he snagged the last lawn gnome, you’d likely bump your gums, thinking you could shake him down real quick.  But you’d wake up sitting next to Kenny McCormick playing Play Station, battling Satan’s minions.  You’ve seen better physiques than Chris Daukaus’s at McDonald’s on Thanksgiving.  You’ve seen better athletes larping at Comic Con.  But don’t let any of that fool you; the Philly native will crack your ass like the Liberty Bell.

Daukaus has deceptive hand speed and footwork and works his way into the pocket behind his jab.  He is almost exclusively a boxer wearing four-ounce gloves, but he throws short, quick combinations and throws his hooks thumb-down.  A thumb-down hook allows him to land with his first two knuckles around the opponent's guard.  Don’t try it at home because you’ll likely break your wrist.  I’ve seen old Russian instructional videos that show a variation of a hook that is thrown with the elbow up and the top two knuckles down the way Daukaus throws them.  They’re whipping strikes that cut and create a lot of damage and can’t be defended with a traditional shelled-up hand guard.

Daukaus uses his hand speed to counter with three to four-punch combinations that he times to throw at the same time as the opponent.  He’s a high-output combination striker and leaves little dead air between engagements, and if he can gain the top position, nasty frame elbows highlight his aggressive ground and pound.  More often than not, Daukaus will lead the dance against Lewis, and the key for him will be pushing a pace that Lewis can’t match.  Daukaus is 12-3 as a professional with eleven TKO/KO’s, including 4-0 in the UFC and four TKO/KO’s.  This dude’s a finisher.

Standing across from Chris Daukaus will be the legend, Derrick Lewis.  Twenty of Derrick Lewis’s twenty-five career wins have come via TKO/KO, and he’s one of the best finishers the promotion has ever seen.  Derrick Lewis has fought everybody in the UFC, and his talents top out only at the elite level.  Lewis has come close to wearing UFC gold multiple times but has never been able to get over the hump.

The most underestimated aspect of Lewis’s game is his pace.  He’s a low output striker and often goes long stretches without mounting any offense.  Much of this has to do with Lewis pacing himself for the later rounds, but it also works to his benefit by lulling opponents into false senses of security.  Lewis has deceptive hand speed and attacks in ten to fifteen-second blitzes after lulls in activity.  Even when he’s dead tired, it seems Derrick can always find the energy to unleash a flurry you didn’t think he had left in him.  That’s reflected in Lewis having seven career TKO/KO victories in the third round or later.  He’s dangerous until the final bell, fifteen minutes or twenty-five.

The Black Beast’s style makes for an oxymoronic library of fights.  He has some of the most exciting and most boring fights in UFC history.  Francis Ngannou’s last loss was to Derrick Lewis, which is known as the most highly anticipated UFC dud of all time.  But Derrick Lewis fights can go from zero to one hundred in a blink, and that’s why there’s always a certain air of tension hovering in the arena until the clock hits all zeros.

Although Lewis’s low output works for his style, it also puts him at a massive disadvantage against high output strikers like Daukaus.  Close rounds always tend to go to the more active fighter even if nothing significant lands; it’s a big reason why Lewis often has to mount ferocious comebacks.  The key for Lewis will be more forward pressure than he showed against Ciryl Gane his last time out.  Lewis allowed Gane to walk him down without any resistance, and Lewis was quickly overwhelmed and couldn’t break out of his defensive shell.

One of these guys will be a Sleep Train Mattress bed model after this one; have one of them on your roster.  This is a big pick right here.  I’m riding an incomprehensible three-fight main event-losing streak and can’t afford to end the year with an L.  Chris Daukaus via TKO, round three.

Winner: Chris Daukaus | Method: TKO Rd.3

Belal Muhammad (+180) vs. Wonderboy Thompson (-240)

Muhammad: DK: $7.1k | Wonderboy: DK: $9.1k

This is essentially the classic grappler vs. striker matchup.  I hesitate slightly because Belal Muhammad has sneaky good striking, but make no mistake; his best skills are his takedowns and top control.  This will be the second straight matchup for Wonderboy that will test his takedown defense, and if you look at the top welterweights, they all have strong wrestling bases, including Gilbert Burns, who just hung a dub over Wonderboy.

Wonderboy was 58-0 in professional Karate competitions before trying his hand at MMA.  Before Wonderboy, Karate was seen somewhat as a joke in mixed martial arts.  Sure, you’d see an occasional side kick here and there, but that was pretty much the extent.  Thompson adapted his techniques to the rules set of the Octagon and became an instant contender, challenging Tyrone Woodley for the title twice.

Karate provides a unique advantage when it comes to stand-up in MMA; it maximizes striking distance with quick in/out movements.  Wonderboy manipulates distance with lead leg sidekicks and well-timed blitzes from outside the pocket.  He has maintained his point-fighting technique, looking to leap into range with quick, short combinations before leaping out of striking range.  He switches stances often but is most effective from the southpaw stance; when he has an opponent hurt or shelled up defensively, he will quickly switch to southpaw and look to land his left-side attacks, his power attacks.

Power, I say that relatively speaking, Wonderboy doesn’t have a lot of power; he has surprise.  He hurts you with strikes you don’t see coming, combining speed and attacking from angles.

Against Belal Muhammad, the game plan will be simple for Wonderboy; stay upright.  Wonderboy tends to back himself against the cage, and that’s where he’s most vulnerable to takedowns.  Thompson will have to dominate the center of the cage and force Belal to shoot from outside the pocket. Leon Edwards exposed Belal’s inability to deal with speed on the feet, and Wonderboy will pose similar problems.

Muhammad has underrated awkward striking even though he will be at a massive disadvantage.  Belal attacks the body with combinations and changes levels mid sequence and never stops moving forward.  He moves his head off centerline when he strikes, allowing him to avoid counters and attack from different angles while rolling off punches to avoid damage.  A BOGO striker, Belal stays busy even when not getting the better of the exchanges.  A big flaw in Belal's defense is he tends to slip strikes almost exclusively to his right.  Against a southpaw, he ducks right into their power side punches and kicks, and that’s bad news bears against a seasoned striker from the southpaw stance like Wonderboy.

In his last bout against Demian Maia, Belal put on a Master Class on takedown defense.  He stuffed every single one of Maia’s takedown attempts and won the fight by staying active on the feet.  It was an impressive win against a legend, and in Wonderboy Thompson, Belal will be facing another legend.  Belal’s advantage will be on the mat, and he’ll have to cut off the cage and look to trap Wonderboy against the fence to make Wonderboy a stationary target.  Belal will struggle on the feet against Wonderboy’s speed, making it tricky to close the distance.  My advice, go full Micah Parsons and football tackle Wonderboy in the open field, strip-sack returned for six.

Fantasy-wise, both fighters have a high output on the feet, and surprisingly, Muhammad averages slightly more significant strikes per minute at just over four and a half.  No matter how it’s going for Belal on the feet, he’ll continue to throw.  Both fighters have only been finished once in their careers; I wouldn’t count on any finishing points in this matchup.  When it’s all said and done, at the end of the day, Thompson’s speed will be too much for Belal to consistently close the distance and get the fight to the mat.  But at (+200), Belal could be in the mix for a Twenty-Twen-Twen… Wonderboy Thompson via decision.  Put it on wax.

Winner: Wonderboy Thompson | Method: Decision

Amanda Lemos (-350) vs. Angela Hill (+275)

Lemos: DK: $9.5k | Hill: DK: $6.7k

Angela Hill is well known in the UFC for two reasons: being one of the most active fighters on the roster and being the most often robbed fighter on the roster over her career.  Recently, Bobby Green took the title as the most robbed fighter in the promotion, but Hill was the first to raise awareness about a certain Valero gas station located on a desolate stretch of highway in the middle of the Nevada desert.  Last year, against Claudia Gadelha, Hill was held up at gunpoint inside the restroom in a stall with Olympic swimmer Ryan Lochte by judges wearing dead president's masks.  Unbeknownst to Hill, her uber driver made a stop at the same Valero just four months later when Hill fought and lost a decision to Michelle Waterson in a main event.  Without those two L’s, Hill would be the winner of six of her last seven scraps.  Instead, she’s lost three of her last four.

Overkill Hill is just below the elite level in the strawweight division but is a tough-out for anyone.  She has well-rounded skills standing and on the mat.  Angela’s hands are long and fast, and she throws them by the baker’s dozen.  Like her teammate, Dominick Cruz, Hill has excellent perpetual lateral movement and creates angles to initiate strikes.  Hill’s output is nonstop, and the only knocks against her are her lack of power and finishing abilities. 

When Hill loses, it’s usually due to lack of takedown defense and the inability to scramble back to her feet.  Hill is coming off a loss to Tecia Torres, and what was surprising was that Tecia got the better of the striking against Hill.  That’s a bad sign heading into this bout against another absolute killer named Amanda.

After Amanda Nunes’s recent performance, Amanda Lemos might be the baddest Amanda in the UFC.  Lemos is a combination of Wanderlei Silva and Chuck Liddell on the feet and reminds me of vintage Amanda Nunes.  Pound for Pound Lemos is a top three-power striker in all of women’s MMA.  She carries her hands low and throws punches from chest level, shovel hooks that travel upward from the lower peripheral.  Lemos’s striking speed is a Madden 99, and the first round against Lemos will be the worst five minutes of your life.  Lemos will knock you into a DMT trip, and you’ll wake up in Wonderland passing doobies around an Umpa Lumpa Hippie drum circle.  

At all costs, Angela Hill has to avoid the Thai clinch against Lemos.  Lemos has nasty knees similar to the ones Oliveira used to destroy Poirier.  Lemos is hyper-aggressive in bursts and looks to cause damage in every position.  The key to beating Lemos is surviving the early storm and dragging her into deep waters, testing her suspicious cardio.  Eight of Lemos’s eleven career fights have ended in the first round, and she’s only heard the final bell twice.

Amanda Lemos averages almost six and a half significant strikes per minute, while Angela Hill averages just over five and a half.  Both are high activity fighters capable of landing well over one hundred strikes inside of fifteen minutes.  But Lemos has finished noine of her ten career wins, while Hill has only five finishes in thirteen career dubs.  Hill will have a shot late to take over and win this fight, but I think she’ll be a little too far behind to pull it off.  Amanda Lemos via decision.

Winner: Amanda Lemos | Method: Decision

Raphael Assuncao (+225 ) Ricky Simon (-275 )

Assuncao: DK: $7k | Simon: DK: $9.2k

A grapplers delight, this one right here.  This bout should produce some entertaining grappling exchanges on the mat and textbook wrestler striking on the feet.  Once upon a time, Raphael Assuncao was a perennial title challenger but never got over the hump and secured an actual title shot.  Assuncao goes way back to the WEC promotion days before the UFC bought the roster and turned it into the UFC’s minor leagues.  The WEC was the ish, homies. 

Raphael Assuncao is a Hail Mary striker; the Haily Mary is the only play in his playbook.  Assuncao relies on homerun strikes on the feet and has powerful overhands and hooks.  His major malfunction, though, is he takes a fortnight between engagements, leaving way too much dead air.  He has the dubious distinction of being the only dub on Cody Garbrandt’s record in Garbrandt’s last six fights.  Assuncao was the victim of a highlight reel KO and looked like Vin Diesel in A Band Of Brothers when the sniper in the bell tower shot Vin.  Raphael looked like he was shot with Cupid’s arrow and swooned when death walked into the room.  Raphael looked like a four-year-old’s first headfirst dive at the YMCA.  If you look closely at the footage, you can see Assuncao’s soul leave his body and breaststroke up through the rafters as he lay face down on the mat.

Ricky Simon is a better Raphael Assuncao and embraces Khabib’s mentality when it comes to wrestling.  He never ever ever gives up on his wrestling.  I mean never.  You can catch Simon shooting double legs at Chipotle while he waits for a wack-ass burrito.  The key to Simon’s takedowns is when he shoots a single or double leg, he stays moving, looking to turn the corner to achieve an angle to finish the attempt.  He doesn’t get stagnant and stall against the cage while holding feebly onto the opponent’s legs.  Instead, he turns the corner and drives through.  If he can’t score the takedown, he’ll try again and again and again…

Like a pitcher with six pitches in his arsenal, Simon has many different ways to achieve the takedown, from duck-unders to trips in the clinch.  Before MMA, Simon was a high-level collegiate wrestler with over one thousand matches under his belt. There’s no secret what Ricky’s game plan will be.  His value is in top control and racking up significant strikes from the position.  Ground and pound strikes add up very quickly, along with control time.  Simon is one of the few people to out-wrestle/out-work Merab Dvalishvili, and all but finished Merab in the final round back in 2018.

The value in Assuncao will be using his power striking to set up his own takedowns, but I’m not sure he can match Simon’s pace.  Assuncao is riding a three-fight losing streak after winning eleven of his previous twelve.  Simon is riding a three-fight winning streak and is 6-2 in the UFC, his only losses coming to Rob Font and the legendary Uriah Faber.  Ricky Simon via decision.

Winner: Ricky Simon | Method: Decision

Diego Ferreira (+160 ) vs Mateusz Gamrot (-200)

Ferreira: DK: $7.7k | Gamrot: DK:$8.5k

This is another grappling showcase.  Diego Ferreira has excellent black belt Jiu-Jitsu, and other than Islam Makhachev, Mateusz Gamrot has some of the best wrestling in the lightweight division.  This guy Mateusz Gamrot has some of the quickest level changes and double-leg shots you’ll see in MMA.  If he lays a finger on you, you’re going down.  He’s especially handy with the low ankle pick, which he can initiate from outside the pocket, covering a lot of distance.  The ankle pick is especially tricky to defend because there’s a mental aspect on behalf of the defender.  When someone grabs your ankle, your first thought is, “There’s no way this guy is taking me down with this ish.  I’ll just pull my leg out—“ And then you’re on your ass.

Gamrot chain wrestles, stringing techniques together while achieving angles to finish the takedowns.  For example, he’ll initiate the ankle pick then turn it into a single leg, and then turn the single into a double, turn the corner, and drive the opponent to the mat.  However, Gamrot would make a terrible poker player; he has a major tell.  He uses both stances but only shoots for takedowns out of the southpaw stance.  When he’s in the orthodox stance, he’s committed to kickboxing and is far less likely to shoot.

Dan Henderson, Gamrot reminds me of a smaller Dan Henderson.  He has big power punches and is dangerous on his feet, but he’s not a smooth, polished striker with crisp combinations.  He can hang with most strikers and be successful, but not with the elite in the division.  Gamrot is coming off of a first-round ass-wiper submission, aka, a Kimura, against Jeremy Stephens.  The Kimura is a shoulder lock, and next to the heel hook is the worst submission to get caught in; you won’t be wiping properly for a couple of months.  Against Ferreira, look for Gamrot to slow play on the feet in the first round.  You can syphon Ferreira’s gas tank with a paper straw.  Gamrot would do himself a solid by drawing Ferreira into the later minutes.

Diego Ferreira is by no means a world-class striker, but he is aggressive and has big power in wide, looping overhands and hooks.  Ferreira is coming off back-to-back losses after going six years without an L.   Ferreira is a Jiu-Jitsu specialist and a serious submission threat from the bottom or top position.  He’s good at forcing scrambles and staying active with his guard, but he lacks takedown defense.  

Similar to what we saw from Ryan Hall last weekend, Ferreira strings together submission attempts from his back like strike combinations on the feet.  One attempt flows into the other; Diego uses feints, misdirection to bait the opponent into defending a submission while attacking another. 

The game plan for Ferreira will be to attempt his own takedowns behind power strikes to close the distance.  He can’t afford to be defensive in the grappling game against Gamrot like he was against Gregor Gillespie in his last bout.  

When it comes to Fantasy rosters, Ferreira has long shot submission potential, but not much in the way of significant strikes landed unless he can gain top position.  Gamrot has more finishing potential on the mat and the feet.  He KO’d Scott Holtzman two fights ago and has six TKO/KO’s on his record to go with five submissions.  Mateusz Gamrot via TKO, round two.

Winner: Mateusz Gamrot | Method: TKO Rd.2

Darren Elkins (+170 ) vs Cub Swanson (-210)

Elkins: DK: $7.4k | Swanson: DK:$8.8k

There’s no way this isn’t going to be a banger.  Cub Swanson is an OG with stripes like a 1920’s convict.  Cub has thirty-noine professional fights going back to the glory days of the WEC.  Cub Swanson is a gatekeeper.  It wasn’t until recently that I came to that conclusion.  The term gatekeeper isn’t a diss.  Longevity is the hardest achievement to unlock in all major sports, especially when it comes to getting punched and kicked in the face.

Cub is an aggressive kickboxer/brawler with heavy, long punches and kicks.  He uses both stances but is a natural orthodox fighter, and his right cross is his fight-ending strike.  The dart punch is a sneaky way to land the power hand without taking much risk of getting countered.  When you throw the dart, you square your hips and shoulders and use only your arm to propel your fist while exiting the pocket towards your lead hand side.  The strike's power is decreased dramatically, but it’s a good way to touch the opponent and work off at angles.

Swanson’s defense is his offense, and he tends to take a lot of damage in fights.  In his last bout, Giga Chikadze folded Cub like an Olive Garden napkin with a Giga Kick to the liver in the first round.  It brought back memories of when Jose Aldo KO’d Cub with a double flying knee close to a decade ago.  This fight against Darren Elkins is simple for Cub, stay off the mat.  The only place Elkins can beat Swanson is on the mat.  If the fight stays standing, Cub's will use his superior speed and long-distance strikes to pick Elkins apart.  But if Elkins gets hold of Cub, roll the credits and wait for the end for a special sneak peek of the next installment of the Darren Elkins Horror Show.

Darren Elkins is an inglorious bastard.  He is never giving up personified.  He’s the Tom Brady of comebacks inside the Octagon.  He’s the doodie that won’t flush when you’re at the in-law’s house.  It’s near impossible to submit Elkins; the Champ Charles Oliveira is the only fighter to submit Elkins eleven years ago.  Mobb Deep wrote a classic Hip Hop banger about Darren Elkins called Survival of the Fittest.  Elkins is a throwback to early 1900’s boxing when there were no round limits, and fights would go on for literally one hundred rounds on occasion.  Elkins can fight for forty days and forty nights without his heart rate reaching one hundred bpm’s. 

Elkins never stops throwing strikes and moving forward, never stops scrambling when on the mat, and never stops competing even when it appears he’s out of the fight.  He takes heaps of punishment in every fight and has only been finished three times in twenty-three UFC fights, and those were all by elite fighters.

Elkins’s bread and butter is relentless wrestling and suffocating clinch and top control.  He’s technically sound on the mat, maintaining head-over-head pressure and wrist control, making it difficult for opponents to post and scramble back to their feet.  The big hole in his game is closing the distance.  Elkins tends to close the distance recklessly, marching straight forward without changing levels or defending strikes on the way in.  The biggest deficit Elkins has to overcome in every fight is speed; he has buffering hand speed, his strikes often pause halfway through downloading.

If you rolled into the Costco Tire Center with Darren Elkins, the staff would point out his tread wear indicators and suggest an immediate replacement.  He has heavy mileage and wear and tear and could leave you stranded in the middle of the Nevada desert with only one Valero within a one-hundred-mile radius if you’re not careful.  His value will be surviving Cub’s early offense and grinding Cub slowly in the clinch while working trip takedowns.  Cub’s value is in a stand-up finish and high volume.  Cub Swanson via TKO, round two.

Winner: Cub Swanson | Method: TKO Rd.2

Prelims

Highlighted Matchup

Victor Henry (+255 ) vs Raoni Barcelos (-335)

Munhoz: DK: $6.9k | Cruz: DK:$9.3k 

I know two things about Victor Henry ahead of his late replacement UFC debut: 1) nothing, and 2) not a damn thing.  I will say this, though; if the UFC thinks highly enough of you to throw you in on a week’s notice against a killer like Raoni Barcelos, AKA Jose Aldo Jr.-Jr., then you’re probably a bad mother-shut-your-mouf.

I watched a couple of Henry’s fights, and he has a solid resume, competing in high-level promotions like Rizin, Pancrase, and multiple Russian promotions.  Henry is 21-5 with eight submissions and six TKO/KO’s.  He’s a well-rounded fighter and especially dangerous on the mat from the top position.  The stand-up will be fairly even, and although Henry lacks the hand speed to match Raoni’s, he has tight technical kickboxing.  Henry uses his rear leg up the middle and round, and defensively he sees strikes well with subtle slips and counters.  

Overall, Henry looks like a serious scrapper, and I can only imagine he’ll step in the cage as an underdog and will have a ton of value for a potential upset.  Also, Victor Henry has two first names, and you never ever mess with a dude with two first names because you know his parents are wild.

All you need to know about Barcelos is that he has a win over a Nurmagomedov, Said Nurmagomedov.  More impressive was the fact that Barcelos out-grappled a Nurmagomedov.  Raoni is a Gandolf on the mat, and if the fight ends up there, the grappling exchanges will be litty.

On the feet, the resemblance to Jose Aldo is uncanny; Barcelos's stance and leg kicks are almost identical to Aldo’s.  Pedro Rizzo is an OG UFC fighter who is known for being one of the greatest leg kickers of all time; he is Barcelos's head coach, and Barcelos uses the same techniques Rizzo was known for.  Raoni counters the jab with leg kicks and will fire a lead hook behind it and finish with another leg kick.  

I’m going to give Raoni Barcelos a slight edge in both the stand-up and grappling, but I expect Henry to cause Barcelos all kinds of problems.  Tread carefully on this one.  Victor Henry has all the skills to be a live sleeper, but I’m going to give Barcelos the nod.  Raoni Barcelos via decision.

Winner: Raoni Barcelos | Method: Decision

Twenty-Twen-Twen Sleepers

Twenty-Ten-Twen Sleeper

Juliana Peña ruined upsets forever; upsets will never be the same again. But as we fade out 2021, we leave off with a card with potential upsets from top to bottom. 

Derrick Lewis will always have value at plus money, especially against a guy in Chris Daukaus who has yet to face top ten competition in the UFC. Daukaus will likely outwork Lewis for much of the fight, but Lewis is never out of the fight. It only takes one from the Black Beast to ruin your Christmas.

Belal Muhammad at (+180) has the wrestling/grappling skills to implement a similar game plan to the one Gilbert Burns implemented against Wonderboy. If Belal can tie up Wonderboy against the cage and limit the standing exchanges, his grappling is highly underrated and could allow Belal to steal rounds and possibly a decision.

Melissa Gatto is fighting a wrestling-heavy Sijara Eubanks, and although Gatto will have to overcome Eubanks's physical strength and wrestling, she has a nifty guard and is quite handy with armbars. If she can stay active from the bottom, she has a shot at finding a submission if Eubanks fades late.

Raquel Pennington is a tough out for any top ten fighters, and her strengths are in the clinch and making fights ugly. Macy Chiasson is also strong in the clinch and can match Pennington's griminess. This will be a very competitive matchup. At (+160), Chiasson has serious value in a close fight that will likely be decided by the judges.

Victory Henry at (+255), this one's a loooooong shot, but from what little I've seen of Henry, he could cause Raoni Barcelos serious problems as long as he can defend Barcelo's leg kicks.

Pick 'Em

Dustin Stoltzfus (+190 ) vs. Gerald Meerschaert (-230 )

            Winner: Gerald Meerschaert

 Method: Rear-Naked Choke Rd.2 

Harry Hunsucker (+260 ) vs. Justin Tafa (-350 )

            Winner: Justin Tafa

 Method: TKO Rd.2

Sijara Eubanks (-165 ) vs. Melissa Gatto (+135 )

Winner: Melissa Gatto

 Method: Armbar Rd.2

Charles Jourdain (-210 ) vs. Andre Ewell (+170 )

    Winner: Charles Jourdain

 Method: Decision

Raquel Pennington (-190) vs. Macy Chiasson (+160 )

    Winner: Raquel Pennington

 Method: Decision

Don'Tale Mayes (-200 ) vs. Josh Parisian (+165 )

    Winner: Don'Tale Mayes

 Method: Decision

Jordan Leavitt (-120 ) vs. Matt Sayles (+100 )

    Winner: Matt Sayles

 Method: TKO Rd.2

Thanks for reading LineStar Weekly Knockout! We'll be back next Thursday with another one. Until then, good luck and support your local MMA Gym.

About Me

My name is Chris Guy, and I’m an avid combat sports enthusiast and practitioner. I’ve been a fan of MMA since the early 2000s when Limewire was still around, and I downloaded Bas Rutten’s Big Book of Combat. In 2004, I started training Muay Thai at City Boxing in San Diego, CA. I competed as an amateur for many years, and I've also dabbled in Jiu-Jitsu. I follow many different disciplines, such as Combat Ji-Jitsu, Muay Thai, Glory Kickboxing, Boxing, and MMA.

I’m equally as enthusiastic about the craft of writing, and in addition to writing about combat sports, I also write short fiction and music. I hope to bring unique prose to sports writing, and along the way, encourage people to not only become Martial Arts fans but to also become Martial Artists themselves. 

In the future, you may see me refer to the Thunderdome; it's an ode to the old Mad Max movie and refers to the world-class training facility I built in my one-car garage. It's complete with throw dummies, wrestling mats, heavy bags, and six months' worth of Chef Boyardee cans from when I thought the world was going to end back in March. I hope you enjoy my work, and if you don’t, the Thunderdome has an open door policy. 

Check out my Podcast The Whiskey (S)ick Podcast on Apple and Spotify. Parental Advisory Warning