When Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) goes international, there’s a good chance a few local mixed martial arts (MMA) standouts will get the opportunity to make their Octagon debuts. That’s the case for this Sunday’s (May 27, 2018) UFC Fight Night 130, which goes down inside Echo Arena in Liverpool, England, featuring Stephen Thompson vs. Darren Till in the FOX Sports 1-televised main event.

UFC turned to the venerable Cage Warriors promotion for European talent this time, booking one of its champions and calling up two other veterans on short notice. Let’s see who’s on the playbill this weekend:

Name: Craig “The Thundercat” White

Weight Class: Welterweight

Age: 27

Record: 14-7 (5 KO, 9 SUB)

Notable Victories: Alex Montagnani, Matt Inman

This strapping lad — entering UFC on a four-fight win streak and is 8-2 in his last 10 bouts — as his UFC.com bio helpfully points out. Two of his last three losses were to Leon Edwards and Oskar Piechota, who are badasses, so there’s no shame there.

As one would imagine from someone who has never gone past the second round as an amateur or professional, the 6’2” White is loads of fun, so regularly covered in either his blood or his opponent’s that his Tapology picture looks like an American Psycho outtake. He’s an aggressive slugger on the feet, standing ramrod-stiff and marching forward behind round kicks and power punches until he can get the clinch and look for takedowns.

White’s submission game is his best asset, especially his triangle. He’s also shown a nice guillotine if people get too eager to change levels against him. Fairly standard “dangerous guard” fare, but it’s been working for him.

Entertaining as he is, he’s plenty flawed. “Always hunting for the submission” is a good soundbite, but position is kind of important — White regularly finds himself in bad spots through both his willingness to jump on low-percentage subs and his really bad wrestling. He seems to really like lateral drops, but is terrible at them (watch him pull opponents on top of him in both of the YouTube videos I linked below).

As we’ve seen, having a good triangle isn’t a substitute for takedown defense unless it’s a really good triangle.

Opponent: White faces Neil Magny on short notice, replacing Gunnar Nelson. Magny is going to crush him, being the longer, sharper striker and a dangerous ground-and-pounder. He’s just too good for someone this vulnerable to takedowns and guard passes. White is going to wind up mounted and either submitted or punched into oblivion before too long.

Related Gunnar Nelson Releases Statement On Injury Taking Him Off UFC Liverpool

Tape: White’s Cage Warriors appearances are on Fight Pass, but there are a couple on YouTube as well.

Name: Carlo “Semento” Pedersoli Jr.

Weight Class: Welterweight

Age: 24

Record: 10-1 (3 KO, 4 SUB)

Notable Victories: Nicolas Dalby

Pedersoli is less than one month removed from his biggest win to date, a back-and-forth brawl with UFC veteran Nicolas Dalby that saw him land one of the loudest head kicks I’ve ever heard en route to a split decision win. He’s also Bud Spencer’s grandson, although I’ve yet to see him punch a man through the uprights.

He has won his last seven bouts, four by finish.

Pedersoli’s game combines flashy southpaw karate with extremely slick Brazilian jiu-jitsu. He’s happy to throw wheel kicks, crescent kicks and spinning back kicks, though his straight left and left high kick are his most reliable weapons. He’s a serious threat at range and has a nice knee to make things difficult inside.

He assuaged my biggest fear when starting this analysis by showing some very nice wrestling. His takedown entries are a little shaky, but he has a nice array of trips and foot sweeps. His takedown defense looked equally adept against Dalby, with whom he at least broke even in the majority of grappling exchanges.

Pedersoli’s penchant for flash and creativity extends to his ground game. There’s footage of him hitting all sorts of submissions in Italian grappling competition, including a very nice calf slicer attempt. In what’s become something of a theme in this series, striking defense is Pedersoli’s key issue. He keeps his hands low -- as one would expect from a karateka — but doesn’t quite get his head out of range when pressured. Luckily for him, his head looks hard enough to merit that “cement” nickname, but he probably shouldn’t rely on that for too long.

In addition, he tired late against Dalby, so his stamina is worth keeping an eye on.

Opponent: Pedersoli is here on less than two weeks’ notice, fighting Brad Scott after Salim Touahri withdrew because of an injury. Scott is making his Welterweight debut and has been somewhat mediocre in UFC, but is tough and well-rounded enough to give Pedersoli some headaches. Though it’ll be close, I think the Italian’s larger toolbox will get him the win.

Tape: Pedersoli’s fight with Dalby is on Fight Pass, but getting to it is obnoxious. The bout wasn’t uploaded by itself, so you’ll have to look up “Cage Warriors 93: Dalby vs. Pedersoli” and then fast-forward to the main event.

Name: Molly “Meatball” McCann

Weight Class: Flyweight

Age: 28

Record: 7-1 (4 KO)

Notable Victories: Bryony Tyrell, Priscila de Souza

The only one here with the luxury of a full training camp, McCann capped off a six-fight win streak with a second-round stoppage of Tyrell to win the Cage Warriors Flyweight title.

The name of the game for McCann is “boxing.” She’s a switch-hitter, but usually works from Orthodox, tossing out leg and body kicks until she can get into punching range. Though her best punch is her straight right, which she sets up nicely with a jab, she’s quite fond of her left hook. As a result, the 1-2-3 is her combination of choice, and she’ll flurry for the finish any time she smells blood.

Her strategy on the ground is “stop being on the ground.” She’s got fairly stout takedown defense, but when that fails, she’s also a solid scrambler. I’ve seen plenty of regional talent look for finishes everywhere rather than directing their efforts towards maximizing the time they spend in their area of specialty, so it’s good to see McCann strategizing appropriately.

She can be aggressive to a fault at times, though. She’s vulnerable to reactive takedowns when she’s pushing forward and got clipped by a right hand while going for the kill in a recent fight. As mentioned, she’s generally good enough to get back up in short order, but the UFC Flyweight division is lousy with grapplers, so she’ll have to fix that fast.

Opponent: McCann faces Gillian Robertson, who was one-and-done on The Ultimate Fighter (TUF), but scored a nice armbar finish of Emily Whitmire. This should be a nice litmus test for McCann, as Robertson is dangerous enough on the mat to punish any screw-ups but isn’t a standout wrestler. McCann should win this.

Tape: As with White, you can watch McCann’s Cage Warriors bout on Fight Pass.

MMAmania.com will deliver LIVE round-by-round, blow-by-blow coverage of the entire UFC Fight Night 130 fight card this weekend, starting with the Fight Pass “Prelims” undercard bout at 10:30 a.m. ET, followed by the FOX Sports 1 “Prelims” undercard bouts at 11 a.m. ET, before the main card start time at 1 p.m. ET, also on FOX Sports 1.