We're Back With Another LineStar Weekly Knockout!

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

Instagram: @therealsethgeko & Twitter: @DadHallOfFamer

Last Saturday night, boxing stole the show. The boxing versus MMA debate isn’t a debate. They’re both dope, and the intricacies unique to both set the art forms apart while at the same time the shared tropes of valor—heart, perseverance, mental fortitude, etc.—weave an undeniable bond between the two. More than MMA, more than boxing, I love combat sports, and Deontay Wilder vs. Tyson Fury 3 will hang in the halls of combat sports lore for generations to come.

Tyson Fury won the fight, but Deontay Wilder accomplished the greatest feat a human can achieve; he inspired. Losing is life’s wisest professor. There’s no single act on earth that can spark more internal growth than losing. Your greatest victory in life will never reveal more about your character than your greatest loss. Flaws find refuge in victory; they’re exposed, treated as indictments in defeat.

Combat sports have taught me to embrace losing, walk hand in hand with it from time to time; catch up with it, ask how the family’s doing. When you don’t assign any fear to losing, it holds no power over you. And if you approach each task in life as if you’ve already lost, nothing will ever hold you back. That’s called playing with house money.

The sky’s not a limit; it’s a launching pad, and the ceiling that confines most serves as a floor that supports others. In defeat, Wilder earned the highest respect, the equivalent of displaying middle fingers in the face of one’s demise. Remember, Wilder went down face-first, the hallmark of going out on your shield.

Main Card

Aspen Ladd (-130 ) vs Norma Dumont (+110)

Ladd: DK: $8.4k | Dumont: DK:$7.8k

April 11, 1954. No, those aren’t the opening bars of a classic Sublime song. That’s the date of the most boring day in modern history. The most boring day ever fell on a Sunday and was calculated by a Cambridge scientist in 2010. It’s science. Basically, nothing happened that day. Many are calling Aspen Ladd vs. Norma Dumont the most boring fight card in UFC history, and I call those people noobs, rookies, and casuals. Those people have forgotten the face of their fathers. I’d like to direct your attention to exhibit A: Cynthia Calvillo vs. Jessica Eye, AKA the worst card/main event ever-ever.

This weekend’s main event was originally set to feature one of the best—if not THE best—women's combat athletes of all time, Holly Holm. A late knee injury forced her out of a very intriguing matchup with up and comer Norma Dumont. Instead, Aspen Ladd—who didn't make weight two weeks ago and had her bout with Macy Chiasson canceled—failed upward and landed her first headlining role. I’ve written about Ladd three times in the last month or so, and each time her bout was canceled. Foreshadowing? Possibly.

Here’s what I wrote about Aspen Ladd two weeks ago:

Aspen Ladd is the first woman to be bestowed with the Weekly Knockout’s highest praise: She’s wild, she howls at the moon. This may sound facetious, but it’s not; one of Aspen Ladd’s best skills is the Maria Sharapova grunt she uses to punctuate all of her strikes. Their purpose is multifaceted; they sell every strike to the judges as if each was a devastating blow, and they make her sound legit crazy and probably scare the hell out of her opponents. They turn into 80’s slasher movie screams as she gets more violent and borders on a superpower like the X-Men Banshee.

Ladd uses relentless forward pressure and second and third level wide hooks to bully her opponents backward. She uses the heavy pressure to level change and is very handy with the double leg to inside trip. When she gets the top position, the fight turns into The Exorcism Of Aspen Ladd, a B-rated horror movie with never-ending hammer fists and elbows. Herb Dean can’t stop the fight; they have to bring in the expertise of Father Callahan.

Aspen is 9-1 as a professional, including 4-1 in the UFC. Her only loss was to elite kickboxer Germaine de Randamie.

Against Norma Dumont, Ladd will be moving up in weight to the featherweight limit of 145 lbs. She will also be moving up in the level of competition against Dumont. Norma Dumont is a savage in her own right. She’s a hyper-aggressive Brazilian Muay Thai fighter with bombs in both hands. Dumont will have a decisive power advantage on the feet, and she will be tough for Ladd to take down regularly. Norma has an excellent bounce to her stance. It allows her to move in and out quickly and manipulate the pocket to her advantage. She uses sharp, short two-punch combos and likes to unload three to four-punch flurries to counter her opponent’s forward pressure.

In a lot of ways, Dumont is a female version of Jose Aldo. She uses similar combinations, including Aldo’s trademark 1-2-liver shot. The liver shot is underutilized in MMA because fighters often fail to set it up properly. The liver punch should be bookended by other strikes. You have to put something in front and something behind the liver shot to minimize your vulnerability to counters. Dumont also uses her lead hand as a momentum builder to initiate extended third and fourth level combinations.

Dumont is 5-1 overall and 1-1 in the UFC, her lone loss coming to Megan Anderson in her debut. Dumont was caught being too aggressive and telegraphing her attacks and ate a massive Anderson right-hand counter on her way inside and was KO’d in the first round. The key for Dumont will be staying on her feet and forcing Ladd to kickbox for extended periods. A major malfunction for Dumont in her last bout against Felicia Spencer was her resignation to hold Spencer in her closed guard while on her back. Ladd’s ground and pound is too aggressive for Dumont to accept being on her back in the closed guard.

Although Dumont is an aggressive power striker, she has no wins by TKO/KO but only has seven professional bouts. Ladd has six wins by TKO/KO in noine career dubs. The question is how much of Ladd’s size and strength will transfer to a higher weight class. Her value will be in creating the possibility of a late finish from the top position. Dumont’s value will be significant strikes and a long shot at her first TKO/KO victory in the early rounds.

The main-event-winning streak now sits at zero, after Mackenzie Dern couldn’t finish Marina Rodriguez in the second round when Dern had the full mount for what felt like the entire round. But here’s the funny thing about winning streaks: you can’t start a new one if you’re still riding the old one. Norma Dumont via decision.

Winner: Norma Dumont | Method: Decision

Andrei Arlovski (-110) vs. Carlis Felipe (-120)

Arlovski: DK: $8.2k | Gooden: DK: $8k

Arlovski is one hundred fifty-seven in fight years but has remained one of the most active fighters in the promotion, fighting on average three times a year. Some of the new fans of the sport might not even know that Andrei Arlovski is a two-time UFC Heavyweight Champion. Or that he fought the legendary Fedor Emelianenko in the extinct Affliction promotion back in 2009. By the year 2009, Arlovski had already notched a decade of service in the sport. Oddly, as his skills and physical attributes have diminished, Arlovski has remained highly competitive throughout his career. Arlovski has won three of his last four and four of his last six bouts.

Andrei still has enough power in his right hand to earn respect, but his hand speed is a flicker of the flame it used to be, and he has a hair-trigger light switch for a chin. Luckily for Arlovski, he’s fighting a very beatable opponent, the type of opponent he should be fighting in the twilight of his career. It's too late for another title run, and Arlovski can make for a good test for young fighters, but sharing the cage with the likes of Tom Aspinall and Jairzinho Rozenstruik—his last two losses—probably isn't in his best interests any longer.

Arlovski will be matched up with another young power striker with a lot of potential when he faces Carlos Felipe this weekend. I like this matchup for Felipe if he can find a consistent output on the feet. There are times when Felipe lands more strikes beating his chest during Bruce Buffer's fighter introduction than he does for long stretches of fights. Felipe has fight-changing leg kicks but sometimes forgets to use them after the first round or forgets them tucked under the vibrating bed back at the Snooty Fox and doesn’t use them at all.

When Felipe lets his hands go, he’s a lot to handle and has technical boxing. He’s aggressive in spurts and throws combinations while changing levels with his strikes. Carlos has one-punch KO power and can overwhelm his opponent with combinations and volume, but he tends to take his foot off the gas throughout the contest. He plays it safe and tries to do just enough to steal close rounds. That’s a style that will eventually get you beat consistently.

Andrei Arlovski is the polar opposite of an elusive fighter; he’s plodding and can’t match Felipe’s hand speed. Although Arlovski’s chin is diminished, he’s only been KO’d once in his last thirteen fights, and that KO was to the champ, Francis Ngannou. Carlos has the speed and power to set up a fight-ending sequence if he pressures Arlovski backward and doesn’t let the Pit Bull outwork him.

I say that to say this: I have no faith in Carlos Felipe. Mentally, he checks out in the middle of fights and often looks like he copies Paulo Costa’s homework and rolls in with the identical macaroni glued to construction paper game plan. Felipe will shake his head after every strike his opponent lands, which is always a clear indication the strike landed. But Felipe is the better fighter at this point in their careers. The fighter with the best chance at scoring a finish is neither. Felipe hasn’t finished a fight in four UFC bouts and has two wins by split decision, while Arlovski hasn’t scored a finish since before my hairline looked like someone stomped out a brush fire. Ol’ Fire Marshall Bill looking-ass. Carlos Felipe via decision. Confidence index: Zero point zero.

Winner: Carlos Felipe | Method: Decision

Jim Miller (-190) vs. Erick Gonzalez (+160)

Miller: DK: $8.7k | Gonzalez: DK: $7.5k

Jim Miller is the O’est G of all the OG’s in the UFC, and with this fight, he'll have a record thirty-eight UFC bouts dating back to UFC 89 in 2008. Miller has eighteen submission wins, including a win last June against the tough Roosevelt Roberts. Miller remains an outstanding grappler with a dangerous guard, but his standup has become a liability over the years. His hand speed and reactions have slowed, making it dangerous for him to get caught in a firefight where he once used to thrive.

Because of his seniority, Miller was granted his preference of working the first shift guarding the entrance to the Bridge of Death. Miller’s opponent, Erick Gonzalez, is making his UFC debut, and fighting a debutante when you have close to forty fights within the promotion is the exact definition of a gatekeeper. Gonzalez is a hyper-aggressive stand-up fighter with spotty grappling on the mat.

Miller’s path to victory is as clear as the holes Zeke was running through against the Giants when the Cowboys racked up over two hundred yards rushing against them and flipped a forty-burger. Shoot. Grapple. Repeat. “Earthworm” Jim Miller doesn’t want to get stuck standing for fifteen minutes against this unpredictable young killer with nothing to lose.

Erick Gonzalez is 14-5 with eight career TKO/KO’s and one submission and fought several times in South America’s premier promotion. Gonzalez reminds me of Shane Burgos, all offense while finding the mere suggestion of defense offensive. He’s a long, high-output combination striker who earned a Boy Scout patch for starting firefights. A supplemental southpaw is someone who uses the stance to offer different looks on the feet or to land a specific strike but can’t engage from the stance for extended periods. That’s Erick Gonzalez; when he switches to southpaw, he’s almost guaranteed to throw a power side strike, either a left round kick or left overhand.

Aggression is Gonzalez’s best weapon. He moves forward with alternating left-rights with punctuating kicks that look like the ones you might deliver when your dog craps on the rug. Unless, of course, if upon closer inspection you realize it was your wife's Chargers blanket and not the rug. In that case, Fido is going to Sizzler. Gonzalez’s major malfunction? His ground game and overall defensive wrestling. I’ve seen Christmas lights with better takedown defense than Gonzalez. My neighbor still has his up from last year. Gonzalez has to pick his bursts of aggression wisely. He can't just rush in and over pursue, or he’ll end up on his back for however much time is remaining in the round.

Jim Miller’s value is in a submission if he can relocate the fight. Miller has eighteen wins by submission; if Gonzalez doesn’t take heed to the Immortal Wu-Tang Clans supreme warning to Protect Ya Neck, he’ll be tapping like Morse Code in a jiff. Gonzalez’s value is in significant strikes and a possible late finish on the feet. This is a toss-up. I want to take Jim Miller, but his stand-up worries me. Erick Gonzalez via decision.

Winner: Erick Gonzalez | Method: Decision

Manon Fiorot (-240 ) Mayra Bueno Silva (+190 )

Fiorot: DK: $8.9k | Silva: DK: $7.3k

This fight was postponed two weeks ago. Manon Fiorot is a killer and a possible future champion. Remember where you heard it first. She’s a mix between Holly Holm and Michelle Waterson, and she has some of the best striking in women’s MMA. She is 2-0 in the UFC with two second-round TKO wins. Other than her technical striking ability, what stands out about Fiorot is her fearlessness. She just goes for it. Her aggression is hard to handle, and her left hand from the southpaw stance is a laser beam. Even though Manon will be taking a step up in competition against Mayra Bueno Silva, Silva is a perfect style matchup for Fiorot. Silva’s striking is all power and boxy, square, and she will be at a severe speed and technical disadvantage on the feet.

So far, Fiorot has shown a strong clinch game with the ability to land trips and gain top control, but we haven’t seen her takedown defense and guard game from her back. Silva will likely look to relocate the fight and limit the time spent standing. Fiorot has won five in a row by TKO, and Bueno Silva has never been finished. Something’s gotta give. Manon Fiorot via TKO, round two.

Winner: Manon Fiorot | Method: TKO Rd.2

Julian Marquez (-225 ) vs Jordan Wright (+185)

Marquez: DK: $8.8k | Wright: DK:$7.4k

After his most recent victory in February, Julian Marquez shot his shot. But unlike anyone who yells “Kobe!,” Marquez’s shot hit all backboard and careened off disappointedly into a bag of soiled jockstraps. Marquez hollered at Miley Cyrus in his post-fight interview with Joe Rogan. She then responded and threw the ball back in Julian’s court, and he dribbled it off his foot. It was reminiscent of the old Sprite commercial where the guy tries to dunk after drinking the soda and hits nothing but rim. Marquez was shook. And you already know: Ain’t no such thing as halfway crooks.

The fight that led to that epic Miley Cyrus callout was a fight against Maki Pitolo, a fight Marquez pulled off at the last second after looking like stepped-in dog poo for most of the fight. Side note: Julian Marquez has one of the dopest nicknames in the game, The Cuban Missile Crisis.

Marquez has aggressive kickboxing with heavy power in his right hand and rear-leg kicks. He thrives in firefights and needs to clock in OT minutes inside the pocket to be effective. I gotta throw up the W for the second time; Protect Ya Neck, Jordan Wright. Marquez hunts for standing guillotines from the clinch relentlessly. Guillotines can be just as effective as traditional takedowns getting the fight to the mat. To defend the standing guillotine, you have to turn and get to your back to escape, allowing your opponent to gain top position.

Jordan Wright has the sturdiness of a wavy-arm blowup man outside a fifteen-minute oil change garage; he’s flimsy. Marquez’s game plan should be to bully Wright and get his feet moving backward. He has to take away space, stay in Wright’s chest, and not allow Wright to throw his spinning wheel and back kicks.

The Beverley Hills Ninja, Jordan Wright, has some wild KO’s on his highlight reel. Jordan has finished all twelve of his professional wins, including seven TKO/KO’s and five submissions. Those submissions were no doubt the fruit yielded from his striking. Wright’s weakness, though, is his hands, he doesn’t have much more than a power right hand, and he doesn’t defend punches well, retreating with his head up. He reacts to strikes like he’s never been in a fight.

Wright’s style is Mall Taekwondo; he is light and springy on his feet and looks like he’s wearing Heelys in the cage. He has to be the one who leads the dance, striking with his long-range kicks and controlling the exchanges from outside the pocket. His kicks are better than his hands; you’re likely to see Wright’s level of boxing from someone shadowboxing behind Shaun T.

Grab a coin; flip it. I like the chances of either fighter finishing the fight, but Marquez is more suited for a grinding, drawn-out all-around MMA fight. He can clinch and attack Wright’s neck and drag Wright to the mat, or he can stand and bang on the feet. But Jordan Wright ending the fight prematurely with a spinning wheel kick out of nowhere is also in the cards. Julian Marquez via guillotine choke, round three.

Winner: Julian Marquez | Method: Guillotine Choke Rd.3

Prelims

Highlighted Matchup

Nate Landwehr (+245) vs. Ludovit Klein (-310)

Landwehr: DK: $7k | Klein: DK: $9.2k

Nate Landwehr is a Polk High legend and former M-1 Global World Champion. Landwehr’s Ted Bundy haircut suggests he wears penny loafers without socks on weekends. He looks like he sells life insurance policies out the trunk of his Ford Escort. Nizzy Nate Nathaniel looks like an extreme couponer and saves receipts for all purchases over five dollars. Five dollars, Buster. But in Nate’s case, looks can kill.

You won’t forget Nizzy Nate Landwehr. This guy is off the leash squatting on lawns, wild. He’ll yell at Dana White from the center of the Octagon in the middle of the fight in between exchanges. He utilizes 80s horror movie forward pressure and engages in careless, dangerous exchanges one hundred percent of the time. Landwehr will never be in a boring fight. He can counterstrike moving backward, attack with extended combinations, and initiate chaotic scrambles on the ground.

Go check out Nate’s fight against Darren Elkins. By the end, it looked like the pig blood scene from Carrie. Defense isn’t a concern of Landwehr’s. He prefers not to waste any energy defending or eluding strikes; he just eats 'em like a Vegas buffet. He has Ned Stark head movement and likes to play chicken with his opponent’s strikes. His only problem has been that he has had more fights canceled than Southwest has had flights canceled lately.

Ludovit Klein is 17-3 with fifteen finishes and is coming off a very close decision loss to Michael Trizano. Ludo is a very polished kickboxer with a large arsenal of kicks, up the middle and round. He’s David Copperfield with his head kicks and throws them out of nowhere. Klein throws his left leg like he’s kicking sixty-four-yard game-winners, and he changes levels with it from the legs to the body and the head. “Hiding” a strike is synonymous with “setting it up.” Ludo hides his kicks behind hand combinations and uses one of my favorite techniques, same-side combinations. He throws the left straight and immediately follows with a left-high kick. A true southpaw, he manages distance well and stays busy with combination striking. Ludovit uses a stabbing jab that is more of a power strike than a snapping set-up strike and uses it to set up his overhand left.

Overall, Klein will be the far more technical striker and has shown the ability to set up trip takedowns from the clinch initiated off his striking. If I were game-planning for Ludovit, I would overplay his left side and force him to move towards his lead hand. Ludo has broken joystick movement and only circles to his left. Also, you can find Ludovit’s head in the dark because he never moves it off the centerline.

Klein wants to make this a traditionally paced kickboxing match, controlling the exchanges with his range. On the other side of the cage, Landwehr is coming in juggling shrunken heads and wearing a necklace made with human ears, covered in war paint from head to toe. Nizzy Nate needs to make this ugly and pressure Klein and try to break Klein with pace.

Ludovit has finished sixteen of his seventeen professional wins, recording a symmetrical eight TKO/KO’s and eight submissions. Landwehr also has eight TKO/KO victories in fourteen professional wins but has never won by submission. Nate was KO’d by Julian Erosa in under a minute in his most recent bout, and Ludovit Klein is a far more dangerous striker than Erosa. Ludovit Klein via TKO, round three.

Winner: Ludovit Klein | Method: TKO Rd.3

Twenty-Twen-Twen Sleepers

Twenty-Ten-Twen Sleeper

It's been quiet in the neighborhood, the dogs haven't been barking lately. Whether due to the implementation of shock collars or good ol' fashioned newspapers across the snouts, the underdogs have been passive in recent weeks. I've watched my Jacksons turn into Parks and Rec toilet paper right in front of my eyes for the last couple of weeks. Unfortunately, it's not any better for the underdogs this week.

The main event features a (+110) underdog in Norma Dumont, who should have the edge in the stand-up. But if Dumont ends up on her back, it could be a wrap if she can't force scrambles back to her feet.

Andrew "Filthy" Sanchez is a preverbal dog himself with underrated boxing, and his opponent Bruno Silva has yet to be tested against UFC level competition. This fight will be a grimy affair, and if Sanchez can neutralize Silva's brutal ground and pound by keeping the fight standing, Sanchez will be the fresher fighter heading into the third round.

Don't sleep on Brandon Davis. He's fighting a crafty, awkward Danaa Batgerel. Davis has solid all-around skills and has faced the highest level of competition in the Octagon. He went three full rounds against the killer Giga Chikadze, beat Randy Costa, and faced the all but forgotten title challenger Zabit Magomedsharipov.

Pick 'Em

Andrew Sanchez (+130 ) vs. Bruno Silva (-155 )

Winner: Bruno Silva

 Method: TKO Rd.2 

Danny Roberts (+230 ) vs. Ramazan Emeev (-290 )

Winner: Ramazan Emeev

 Method: Decision

Lupita Godinez *late replacement ( ) vs. Luana Carolina ( )

Winner: Lupita Godinez

 Method: Rear-Naked Choke Rd.2

Danaa Batgerel (-195 ) vs. Brandon Davis (+165 )

    Winner: Danaa Batgerel

 Method: Decision

Istela Nunes (+145 ) vs. Ariane Carnelossi (-165 )

    Winner: Ariane Carnelossi

 Method: Decision

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