We're Back With Another LineStar Weekly Knockout!

Written by LineStar contributor, combat sports enthusiast, and practitioner, Chris Guy. More about me at the end of this newsletter.

Instagram: @therealsethgeko

Twitter: @DadHallOfFamer

About last night…

I stumbled out of the bedroom, what's left of my hair a disheveled mess, size ten and a half DC kicks in hand and tip-toed through the house hoping to avoid any judgmental eyes—canine's, two-year-old's, or otherwise—on my way out the door. Once safely inside the Thunderdome—the world-class training facility inside my one-car garage—I treated my Kush hangover with the ancient hair of the dog method. Along with the plumes of smoke rose the fog over my clouded memories from twelve hours prior.

“Last night was really real.” –Kanye West

The MMA Gods are cruel bastards, and irony is their muse. Chris Weidman snapped his leg in half at the shin in the exact fashion that Anderson Silva did against Weidman in 2013. It was all bad everything. His leg looked like a windsock caught in the Santa Ana’s and like warm taffy when he tried to step on it. He now wipes his tibia off on the welcome mat before walking into the house.

A fantastic scrap was shaping up when Jimmy Crute turned into Jimmy Valmer late in the first round against Anthony Smith. Crute failed to defend one leg kick. His leg turned Ramen; it was like he was learning to walk with a prosthetic. Yet still, he scored two takedowns after the injury (likely a nerve issue) and was landing heavy ground and pound when the round ended. Unfortunately, his foot was literally asleep and was just dragging uselessly on the mat like a dog dragging its ass across the carpet, so the doctor called an end to the bout.

“Thug Rose! Thug Rose! Thug Rose! Thug Rose!” –Daniel Cormier

She did it again. Rose Namajunas should have been my Twenty-Twen bet. What I took away most from the one-minute fight was how shocked and in denial, Zhang Weili was after returning from the shadow realm. Her belief in herself is so strong it just couldn’t be possible that she got KTFO. It goes to show the enormity of the feat Rose pulled off, KO’ing a fighter on a twenty-one-fight winning streak in just over a minute. Rose is now dining on unicorn fillets and lobster bisque in the company of GOATS.

I told you; Kamaru Usman just hits different. I almost picked against him (and I did bet against him) because he was a step behind in the striking in the first Masvidal fight. Not last night. Usman was masterful managing distance and working off his jab. Early in the second round, Usman made Masvidal look like Woody when Andy walks into the room. He knocked every bead of sweat off Masvidal’s head; homie looked like he blow-dried his hair after that right hand landed. I will never, ever, ever pick against Kamaru Usman. Unless Wonderboy…

As with all of life’s greatest nights, we must move on and lock away the memories in safe deposit boxes requiring four forms of identity to access and deny their existence whenever a drunken friend lets slip a detail suspected but never confirmed. Can this weekend’s Dominick Reyes vs. Jiri Prochazka card live up to UFC 261? [Sixth letter of the alphabet] no, but this is the fight game, the most unpredictable sport ever, and you never know.

Dominick Reyes (+110 ) vs. Jira Prochazka (-130)

Reyes: DK: $7.9k, FD: $ | Prochazka: DK: $8.3k, FD: $

Robert De Niro famously held up Dominick Reyes at gunpoint in the movie Heat and made off with his Light Heavyweight World Championship belt. A year ago, Reyes beat Jon Jones three rounds to two, but the judges robbed him, giving Bones Jones another suspicious victory he didn't deserve. When Jones vacated the title, Reyes got an immediate title shot against Jan Blachowicz but stumbled out the gate like Chris Wei… too soon. Reyes was TKO’d in the second round after an uninspired, flat performance.

That night, Reyes just wasn’t busy enough, and his attacks were predictable. Absent was the aggression and lateral movement that he used to engage from angles against Jones. He fell into the habit of feinting with no real purpose to set up shots, and his counter striking just wasn’t as sharp as it usually is. Blachowicz battered Reyes to the body with lead-leg kicks, and ultimately Jan’s power was too much.

Reyes, a southpaw, has excellent power side strikes, and his rear leg is his best weapon. He’s a fighter who uses his power strikes to set up most of his offense and doesn’t have a very dynamic lead hand. Dom can't work behind his jab; it isn't good enough, and too often, he leads with a hook and has trouble covering distance.

Against Jiri Prochazka, Reyes needs to focus on speed instead of power and try to initiate a fight-ending sequence with a series of quick combinations rather than with one big power strike. Reyes is an excellent counter striker, and Jiri is aggressive with a cape on, super aggressive. Something will have to give. Reyes won’t have to bait Jiri into engaging, and that could play into one of his strengths, but if Reyes doesn’t exit the pocket at angles, Jiri will follow him with barrages of wide punches from protractor angles.

If you haven’t had the pleasure of seeing a Jiri Prochazka fight, make sure you tune in this Saturday night. Prochazka is the modern MMA version of boxing’s “The Drunken Master” Emanuel Augustus. Get them Google fingers typing and check out some Augustus fights. No one in the history of the world moved like him. Broken cadences, misdirection, sleight of hand, feinting, angles, footwork like a Jabbawockee; Emanuel Augustus looked like he was dancing in the ring. Floyd Mayweather said Emanuel Augustus was the toughest fight of his career, and that fight was one of the rare occasions that someone was able to hit Floyd consistently in a fight.

Where a fighter like Dominick Cruz will use a handful of memorized footwork patterns repeatedly, Jiri Prochazka uses improvisation and flows from one stance to another, from one attack to another, in any direction. Jiri is a natural striker from either stance and can switch and counter as he slides out of the pocket, using the opponent’s aggression against them.

Hand position can be a gift and a curse. Fundamental striking emphasizes keeping your hands up and is the universal foundation to build upon. But carrying the hands low can provide unique advantages, allowing a fighter to throw from angles that you can't see coming. Prochazka keeps his hands at his waist and has a massive eighty-inch reach; his long punches generate a lot of power, and the odd angles allow him to navigate them around the opponent's guard. Pay attention when Prochazka plays with his gloves. At first, I thought it was a weird tick or something, but it's not. It looks like he's adjusting his gloves, but he uses it as a distraction and will quickly strike when he's doing it.

Jiri’s hand position also gets him into trouble defensively. He has excellent footwork and head movement, rolling off of punches and pivoting off at angles when the opponent engages, but he also gets hit a lot because he doesn’t use a hand guard at all. In his debut against Volkan Oezdemir, Prochazka got into trouble in the first round. Oezdemir caught Prochazka hanging out in the pocket with his hands down, and Prochazka ate a big punch but survived and went on to win via KO in the second round.

The fact that Prochazka made his debut against a perennial contender like Oezdemir tells you all you need to know about Prochazka. He was the inaugural and long-time Rizin Light Heavyweight Champion and has won twenty-one of his last twenty-three fights, including a current eleven-fight winning streak. In thirty career fights, Jiri has only fought past the first round five times. It will be up to Reyes to survive the early storm and test Jiri's cardio in the championship rounds.

Prochazka opened as the (-145) favorite, and there is some moderate value in Reyes as the slight (+120) dog. But this fight is about Jiri Prochazka. He’s an experienced, high-level, world-class striker, and he could be the next big name in the light heavyweight division. Reyes will have his opportunities to win the fight, Prochazka takes risks, a lot of them, but Reyes should look to slow play it and not get caught exchanging wildly with Prochazka. Jiri Prochazka via TKO, round two.

Winner: Jiri Prochazka | Method: TKO Rd.2

Cub Swanson (+135 ) vs Giga Chikadze (-165)

Swanson: DK: $7.6k, FD:$ | Chikadze: DK:$8.6k, FD:$

*Fight Of The Night*

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-eight professional fights going back to the glory days of the WEC. He was famously KO’d by a relatively unknown (at the time) Jose Aldo, who landed a double flying knee in the opening eight seconds which was more like three seconds. Basically, Cub started this Ben Askren five-second flying knee KO ish, and this is the mf’ing thanks he gets?

The knock against Cub is that his potential has always topped out at the elite level of competition. He’ll smoke anyone in the division until he’s facing a true title threat caliber of fighter. Frankie Edgar, Chad Mendez, Ricardo Lamas, Brian Ortega, and Max Holloway, all L’s. It just struck me; Cub Swanson is a gatekeeper. I’ve never thought of him in that sense, but I can't deny it. That’s a big reason why he’s fighting the untested Giga Chikadze; a Glory Kickboxer turned MMA fighter. The term gatekeeper isn’t a diss. Ninety percent (fabricated statistic) of fighters would love to be gatekeepers; they have the longest careers.

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. 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 (backdoor). The power of the strike is decreased dramatically, but it’s a good way to touch the opponent and work off at angles. Cub uses the dart punch to touch the opponent, set up angles, and impede forward aggression.

Swanson’s defense is his offense, and he tends to take a lot of damage in fights. In his most recent bout against Daniel Pineda, Cub was in trouble early from taking too many dreaded calf kicks; he has always had a problem defending leg kicks, and that’s not a good look against a specialized striker like Giga Chikadze.

The Giga Kick; that’s Chikadze’s special back, back, low-punch move. He likes to combine it with a teleport punch: down, back, high punch. The Giga Kick is a round kick from the southpaw stance thrown more like a soccer kick than a traditional round Thai kick; it travels at an upward angle and lands underneath the opponent’s arm if they try to defend it. It’s especially nasty, and Giga throws it with such efficiency there’s no tell that it’s coming.

Giga is a former Glory kickboxing title challenger and has a 12-3 record in MMA dating back to his debut in 2015. Like Jiri Prochazka, Giga can give you different looks with his hands because he carries them low. But he’s more defensive with his hands low than Prochazka; when a Karen asks to speak to the manager, Giga shows up because he’s a high-ranking distance manager. His variety of long-range attacks allows him to stay on the outside and pick fighters apart, and he throws one hundred mph fastballs with both hands.

Chikadze uniquely mixes kickboxing and boxing techniques and blends them into a hybrid style. You’ll see him slipping and countering and rolling off strikes like a traditional boxer and mixing in kick combinations like a kickboxer. The unkown on Chikadze is his overall MMA skills. So far, his wrestling and grappling have not been tested, and Cub would be wise to emphasize takedowns in his game plan.

This is an absolute toss-up. Both will make solid Fantasy options as both fighters are high-output and have the power to end any fight. I was 4-0 betting on Giga in 2020, and I’m going to ride that train at least for another stop. Giga Chikadze via decision.

Winner: Giga Chikadze | Method: Decision

Ion Cutelaba (-140) vs. Dustin Jacoby (+115)

Cutelaba: DK: $8.2k, FD:$ | Jacoby: DK: $8k, FD:$

*Fight Of The Night Runner-Up*

 Somebody will be bunking with Jorge Masvidal after this one. I’ll say it one more time for the people in the back: Ion Cutelaba drives a Toyota Frontrunner with the top down until the second round. Then he runs out of gas and has to hitchhike the rest of the way. If you can survive the early Cutelaba category five storm, you can bully him with constant pressure until he breaks in the later rounds. In his fight against Glover Teixeira, Ion was dominating and all but finished Glover in the first round. Then Glover took Cutelaba down and choked him into submission with the quickness in the second.

Cutelaba is coming off twin ass whoopings at the hands of Magomed Ankalaev, who beat Cutelaba like he was logged into his Netflix account. Don’t let my gum bumping fool you; Cutelaba is a monster, and he can KO you with a missed punch. Ion can also take the fight to the mat and finish the fight with heavy-heavy ground and pound, but his major malfunction is that he puts all of his nuggs in one pocket; he sells out in the first round and doesn’t pace himself. He has quick hands and uses ones and one-twos, but he doesn’t navigate the cage tactically, tending to follow his opponents mindlessly instead of cutting off the cage. Ion Cutelaba should be Jake Paul’s next opponent. Just throwing that out there.

Dustin Jacoby has Original Recipe extra crispy striking and is a former Glory Kickboxing heavyweight champion. Jacoby is in his second stint in the UFC and also previously fought in Bellator. You don’t become a Glory Champion without world-class striking, and Jacoby definitely has it. Everything is in play for Jacoby, knees, elbows, kicks, and punches in combination. He carries his hands low but manages distance well, staying just outside of his opponent’s reach. In the clinch, he beats you up with dirty boxing and filthy elbows. Jacoby has nasty leg kicks and won his re-debut fight in October by leg kick TKO.

The question will be, can Jacoby stay on his feet? I don’t doubt that Cutelaba will test Jacoby’s MMA skills and attempt to get the fight to the mat. It’ll be important for Jacoby to stay off the cage and avoid the clinch, at least early in the fight. Also, don’t throw naked leg kicks. Ion will give up a leg kick for a chance to land a bomb.

Both fighters provide solid Fantasy options; Cutelaba for his early fight-ending ability and Jacoby for his ability to land significant strikes and draw out the fight into the later rounds, where he will have a big advantage.

Winner: Dustin Jacoby| Method: TKO Rd.3

Sean Strickland (-265 ) vs Krzysztof Jotko (+210)

Strickland: DK: $9.2k, FD:$ | Jotko: DK: $7k, FD:$

I famously mistook Sean Strickland for Tom Breese for almost the entirety of 2020. I didn’t realize the mistake until November when Sean Strickland dominated Brendan Allen, TKO’ing him in the second round. I was thinking, “Damn, Tom Breese’s hands got way better.” Then I felt like an idiot for writing about Sean Strickland like he was Tom Breese and vice versa.

But I wouldn’t be here today without the mistakes I’ve made in the past. The important thing to remember is that Sean Strickland has serious boxing skills. There are a lot of unique strikers on this card, and Strickland is one of them. Strickland arm punches; he doesn’t turn over his hips at all and just snaps his punches using his shoulders to propel them. His short, quick three to four-punch combos seem to come out of nowhere. There’s little wasted motion and zero telegraphing when he strikes, but the tradeoff is a lack of power.

Instead of one-punch KO power, Strickland uses volume and an accumulative effect to end fights. He is constantly touching his opponent with varying degrees of peppering and power shots. Defensively, Strickland has holes. His stance is very upright, and his movement is similar to a skyscraper’s in a high wind; he sways but not much more than that. Sean also has a bad habit of reaching down to catch low kicks; that’ll get you kicked in the head real quick.

Krzysztof Jotko is a fairly average kickboxer and objectophile. Like Erika Labrie, who married the Eiffel Tower, Jotko is highly attracted to the cage. He can’t stay away from it, and I think it goes deeper than just being a bad habit. Jotko uses excellent lateral movement but often boxes himself in against the cage where he can’t use his best weapon, range.

Jotko has a wide stance and wide, long punches and needs room to operate. He does not do well exchanging in the pocket, and Stricklands tight, short boxing will likely beat Jotko up the middle all night long. There’s no flare, no “Wooooo!” to Jotko’s striking; he’s very vanilla and tends to use basic repetitive attacks.

Stylistically, this is a perfect matchup for Sean Strickland. Brendan Allen is a much better fighter than Jotko, and Strickland walked through Allen. Jotko is riding a three-fight winning streak and is an impressive 9-4 in the UFC. But three of his four losses were by some form of finish. Sean Strickland via TKO, round three

Winner: Sean Strickland | Method: TKO Rd.3

Merab Dvalishvili (-265 ) vs Cody Stamann (+210)

Dvalishvili: DK: $9k, FD:$ | Stamann: DK:$ 7.2k, FD:$

If you’ve never seen Merab fight, you should stop right now and Google his fight against Ricky Simon. He technically lost that fight but fought off a guillotine choke until the buzzer for what seemed like the entire round. Dvalishvili lost his first two UFC fights and has since strung together five straight wins.

In his fight against Casey Kenney, Merab set the Bantamweight record with twelve takedowns in a fight only to go on and break his record in his next bout against Gustavo Lopez with thirteen takedowns. Relentless, perpetual, kinetic, that’s Merab’s style. From bell to bell, Merab is attacking, shooting double and single legs, initiating constant scrambles, delivering heavy ground and pound, and throwing power punches in bunches on the feet.

The constant threat of takedowns lends to the effectiveness of his standup game. He’s not the most technical striker, but he commits to his strikes and strings them together with good hand speed. This man is the definition of weaponized cardio. You will never see a fighter push a more relentless pace than Dvalishvili; you’ll be gassed, begging for grandmammy’s oxygen mask just watching him fight.

Cody Stamann is the Malt-o-Meal Michael Chandler. I’m talking Fruity Dyno Bites, Marshmallow Mateys, Berry Colossal Crunch, all that ish. Stamann has prototypical wrestler striking, but he lacks the hand speed that most wrestler strikers have. He tends to throw one punch at a time and engages level change takedowns off his power strikes. The problem for Stamann is that everything he is good at, Dvalishvili is better at, including pace, cardio, and wrestling.

You should have added Dvalishvili to your Fantasy roster as soon as I said he set the featherweight record for takedowns, not once, but twice. Conservatively, Merab will be good for 5-7 takedowns. He lacks stifling top control, but that’s okay when you can keep scoring takedowns Willie Nillie. Merab Dvalishvili via decision.

Winner: Merab Dvalishvili | Method: Decision

Poliana Botelho (-250 ) vs Luana Carolina (+200)

Botelho: DK: $8.9k, FD:$ | Carolina: DK:$ 7.3k, FD:$

This fight is brought to you by Mr. Nice Guy: When life is hard, I pick up that card with a smiley face. Poliana Botelho vs. Luana Carolina will provide a fifteen-minute intermission, the perfect opportunity to refill your libations and kick your best pickup lines at the flyest of all Betty’s, Mary Jane. And don’t forget, this is the Weekly Knockout reminding you, help control the pet population, have your pets spayed or neutered. Poliana Botelho via decision.

Prelims

Highlighted Matchup

Gabriel Benitez (-200) vs. Jonathan Pearce (+160)

Benitez: DK: $8.8k, FD:$ | Pearce: DK: $7.4k, FD:$  

This fight is the dark horse for FOTN honors. It features two young, aggressive strikers with clashing styles. Gabriel Benitez is a kickboxer with a propensity to throw kicks more than his hands. Spoiler Alert for Breaking Bad: When Gus dies, he walks out of the blown-out hospital room, and half his body is basically gone; his whole right side was disintegrated. That’s Gabriel Benitez. The right side of his body doesn’t exist, and he relies solely on power side attacks out of the southpaw stance. Left kicks make up the majority of Benitez’s game; round kicks to the body, teeps, and snap kicks up the middle, Benitez relies heavily on his left leg. He especially likes to kick the opponent’s rear leg if they are in the orthodox stance. It’s a risky tactic having to cover more ground to land, but it’s rarely prepared for.

The hole in Benitez’s standup is his hands. Jonathan Pearce should have a boxing advantage and needs to be the fighter who dictates the range. The kickboxing range favors Benitez, and boxing range favors Jonathan Pearce. Benitez doesn’t fight well exchanging in the pocket, whereas Pearce’s tighter boxing helps him thrive in a firefight. Pearce is a pressure fighter who stays in your face with constant two to three-punch combinations.

Pearce’s major malfunction; he smells what The Rock is cooking; his head is on a flagpole; who ordered the fajitas? His head never moves, sticking straight up in the air at all times, and he literally walks face-first into strikes. Joe Lauzon pappy’d Pearce in 2019. J-Lau put Pearce up on the koala station and powdered him up real nice, real proper. Lauzon caught Pearce early in the first round, hanging out in the pocket trying to throw lengthy combinations. Lauzon made him pay with big strikes down the middle.

This will be a game of range, and who can control it. I think Pearce will look to close the distance and clinch with Benitez and try to work takedowns against the cage. I say it nearly every week; you have to have a plan for leg kicks. If Pearce doesn’t defend or make Benitez pay for throwing them, he will get pieced up Willie. Complete toss-up. Gabriel Benitez, TKO, round two.

Winner: Gabriel Benitez | Method: TKO Rd.2

Fighter Spotlight

Loma Lookboonmee (-400): DK: $9.4k, FD:$

Holy Muay Thai Batman! Lookboonmee’s Muay Thai is art personified. She is a world Muay Thai champion from Thailand, and she has the typical Tong Po style striking. The Thai have a unique way of throwing strikes using their hips to propel their kicks and knees and their shoulders to propel their elbows and hands. Elbow strikes are thrown like punches and fold at the joint just before impact. Loma uses all her limbs to strike and is especially strong in the clinch. Loma uses the clinch to trip her opponents and throw them off balance to land knees and elbows.

Loma’s style is rare in the UFC, a pure Muay Thai style doesn’t always transition well, but what Wonderboy represents for Karate in MMA, Lookboonmee can be for Muay Thai in MMA. She’s still fighting on a rookie contract with only a 5-2 professional record, but she went the distance with Angela Hill in an entertaining bout in her debut.

The question is Loma’s ground game. She is coming off an impressive win against a very solid wrestler in Jinh Yu Frey, and Loma only gave up one takedown and showed urgency getting back to her feet. She will be facing another good wrestler in Sam Hughes, but she will have a massive advantage in the striking. Lookboonmee opened as a huge (-400) favorite and is almost a lock for Fantasy Rosters. She’s not much of a finisher with only one win via TKO/KO, but I like her chances to finish in this one.

Twenty-Twen-Twen Sleepers

Twenty-Ten-Twen Sleeper

Last week I failed to take my own advice and passed up both Rose Namajunas and Anthony Smith. Instead, I got distracted by the shiny (+300) in front of Jorge Masvidal's name. I still think he was a steal at those odds, and the last thing I thought would happen was Kamaru Usman outclassing Masvidal on the feet.

This week I have my eyes on Cub Swanson at (+135) and Jonathan Pearce at (+160). Cub Swanson can make it a dogfight and drag Giga Chikadze into deep waters and dwarfs Giga's experience inside the cage. Jonathan Pearce can also make it a dogfight against Gabriel Benitez, and if he can close the distance on Benitez, Pearce should have a boxing advantage inside the pocket.

Pick 'Em

Randa Markos (+140 ) vs. Luana Pinheiro (-170 )

Winner: Luana Pinheiro

 Method: TKO Rd.2 

Kai Kamaka (-155 ) vs. TJ Brown (+130 )

Winner: Kai Kamaka

 Method: Decision

Loma Lookboonmee (-400 ) vs. Sam Hughes (+300)

Winner: Loma Lookboonmee

 Method: TKO Rd.2

Andreas Michailidis (-250) vs. KB Bhullar (+200)

    Winner: Andreas Michailidis

 Method: TKO Rd.2

Luke Sanders (-140 ) vs. Felipe Colares (+115)

    Winner: Luke Sanders

 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

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