A lot has happened in the six years since Gegard Mousasi and Ronaldo 'Jacare' Souza's first meeting.

Both men have gone up to light heavyweight, then come down again. Anderson Silva's vice grip on the UFC middleweight division has ended, and the field has opened up. On Friday they meet for a second time in one of the most attractive UFC cards in a while, and it's well worth getting excited for.

Today we'll look at some of the fights and fighters whom you should be watching out for on UFC Fight Night: Jacare vs Mousasi II.

Main Event

In 2008, the Dream Fighting Championship (spiritual successor to PRIDE) put on two of the best grand prix tournaments in the history of mixed martial arts. In the lightweight grand prix, Shinya Aoki, Eddie Alvarez and Joachim Hansen turned heads. In the middleweight grand prix, it was all about two men—Gegard Mousasi and Ronaldo 'Jacare' Souza.

When Mousasi and Jacare met in the final, it was thought to be grappler versus striker. In truth, it was a specialist—in Jacare—against a generalist. Mousasi was taken down, but maintained his half guard well and was able to push Jacare out to standing with his upkicks. After being pushed out to his feet, Jacare—anxious to push his advantage on the ground—dived back into Mousasi's guard with a punch, but ate an upkick en route and fell victim to one of the most memorable knockouts in MMA history.

In the time since, Mousasi has boned up on his wrestling, and Jacare has shown a great flair for striking. Where formerly, Jacare would run in with a flying knee to begin a bout, then swing wild and look for a takedown, he now seems to be as thoughtful and dangerous on the feet as he is on the ground. It began by teaching him to counter punch against opponents who were obviously cautious of his ground game already, as he demonstrated against Derek Brunson.

And more recently it has begun to merge effectively with his grappling, as he shuffles forward, pressuring the opponent towards the fence where the takedowns will come far easier, then enters with hard strikes.



Jacare's most recent finish, versus the tricky Yushin Okami.

In truth, the original fight has little meaning because it was so short, the promotion's rules were different, and both fighters have changed so much. It also seems to be the case that when a fighter who is gifted in one area of the game begins to focus on another, he can lose a step in his A game. Demian Maia's enormous drop off in finishing rate is a great example of this. Jacare's work in the striking department might allow Mousasi to surprise us on the ground.



Certainly, Mousasi isn't as easy to get to the floor as he used to be.

Watch out for: Mousasi's ability to hold guard versus Jacare's ability to pass. Mousasi will always look to kick an opponent out to standing so that he can throw his upkicks and scramble back up. Equally, Mousasi's jab. When concerned about the takedown, Mousasi will carry his hands low and jab up from there—against a takedown artist who loves his overhand and has a decent reach, this could be a dangerous strategy for Mousasi.



Mousasi's counter-wrestling stance.

Overeem versus Rothwell

Alistair Overeem might be the most talented—and complacent—fighter in the UFC heavyweight division. He has the submissions, the takedown defence, the trips, the ground and pound and the knees, and a K-1 grand prix title which no-one else in MMA except Mark Hunt can claim. In terms of talent and skill set at heavyweight, there's no-one out there—not named Fedor Emelianenko—who can claim to be as proven in all aspects of the game as Overeem.

There's a delusion out there that Overeem's muscle made him and that he was simply a bully, but there's a lot more to The Demolition Man than most will admit:

Problem is, he keeps throwing away fights. He was smashing Antonio 'Bigfoot' Silva, but instead of capitalizing on his excellent work and thoroughly improved boxing, he decided to play silly beggars with 265lbs of angry Brazilian. Silva might be slow and cumbersome on the feet, but if a near three hundred pound man hits you, it's going to mess up your day. In the third round, Overeem ducked into an uppercut, ate a flurry of punches from the Brazilian giant, and crumbled against the fence.

Against Travis Browne it was a similar story. This time Overeem got in close and did the best body work we have seen at heavyweight with knees against the cage. He forced Browne to go fetal with knees to the body, but Browne weathered the storm and Overeem ate a front kick to the chin that finished the fight. Wouldn't have been so bad if Browne hadn't already shown Overeem what he planned to do five or six times.

Overeem has rebounded lately, working over Frank Mir—largely by holding Mir down and grinding on him as so many others have before. It disappointed those who love 'the Reem' because of his near 90% finishing rate, but it impressed those who hope to see Overeem develop the fight smarts to match his incredible skill set.

Ben Rothwell has always been a heavyweight journeyman, and I doubt he'd be offended being referred to as one. He's always simply been a big guy, with big power, who turns up to fight. Like most heavyweights, he struggles if the fight goes past the first round, but he always tries his best to entertain. Certainly, his gutsy performance against Mark Hunt is memorable for the fact that Rothwell walked through everything Hunt could throw at him and kept pushing forward. And if a fighter gets lazy, Big Ben is more than happy to add some footage to their lowlight reel.



A great example of why you should “never chase a puncher” as George Foreman would put it.

Rothwell's most recent fight—against Brandon Vera—was peculiar to say the least. For a start, Rothwell came in trimmer than we've ever seen him before. A fighter's waistline is not always connected with their cardio, of course, but Rothwell didn't slow as we are accustomed to see him do in the second round.

Rothwell continuously cut off the ring, walking down Vera and trapping him against the cage. Rothwell's defence looked porous, as always, but defensive sacrifices must be made when squaring up to cut off the ring. In the third round Rothwell faked a switch kick and landed a good right uppercut. Catching on quick that the switch confused Vera, Rothwell went into full on dance mode.

Rothwell trapped Vera along the fence again and this time flurried and successfully stunned Vera. Following up ruthlessly, and seemingly not tiring even in the third round, Rothwell finished Vera.

Of course, Vera was an undersized heavyweight and Rothwell fought the exact fight that he should have, cutting off the cage and working in flurries along the fence. I doubt he will be able to impose his will so readily on the collossal Alistair Overeem, but I hope the improvements in Rothwell's cardio and strategy reflect a late rebirth in a fighter who still has time to make something amazing happen. Perhaps Rothwell can turn his career around in the late stages as his old foe, Mark Hunt was able to do.

Watch out for: Overeem's counter punches. The cross counter is a staple of Overeem's punching game, and his counter left uppercut and hook laid out the great Badr Hari in their first meeting. Against Vera, Rothwell would throw two punches, then get hit by one coming back almost every time. Also, as always, watch out for Overeem's gas tank and his concentration—the man has thrown away too many matches through complacency.

Oliveira versus Lentz

A fight that is dropping under the radar of some is the rematch between Charles Oliveira and Nick Lentz. Charles Oliveira is riding high off of an exhilarating submission war with Hatsu Hioki. That was a fight which Oliveira fought largely from the bottom, but weathered the storm against one of the best guard passers in the business to slap on a beautiful anaconda choke / Peruvian neck tie hybrid and get the finish. I've gushed praise over that fight before, but if you haven't seen it you should definitely find it.

Lentz, meanwhile, rebounded from a loss to the surging Chad Mendes in December of 2013 by decisioning Manny Gamburyan. The interesting facet of this fight is that they have already fought once before, but the result was a no contest.

The initial meeting between Oliveira and Lentz was actually an incredibly entertaining bout, which is why it's a shame that this bout isn't receiving more publicity. Lentz, a wrestler with good guard passing, was able to get Oliveira down when he wanted to, but struggled to pass Oliveira's hyper-active guard.

The ground exchanges were remarkable, as Oliveira and Lentz exchanged guillotine attempts (including the hybrid choke which Oliveira most recently finished Hioki with), but the stand up was just as fun. Lentz is not great on the feet, and Oliveira is hittable and known to be a bit chinny, but the latter's Muay Thai is the epitome of meat and potatoes efficacy. Each time Lentz moved in, Oliveira would look for the double collar tie and the knee, he even threw a few nice elbows and hit knees off of scrambles.

Unfortunately, the fight came to a rather messy end. Lentz and Oliveira met each other move for move on the ground, but Oliveira was able to spring up and land a knee to the face while Lentz was on his knees. The referee missed this and the fight was allowed to reach it's conclusion with Oliveira swarming all over Lentz and finishing from the back, but the bout was soon ruled a no contest.

The knee was illegal, but it certainly was beautiful. I am fully in favor of legalizing knees to the head of a grounded opponent, but we can't deny that an illegal technique changed the course of the fight.

Watch out for: Whether the second meeting can live up to the back and forth action of the first, and if Lentz can find an answer for Do Bronx's double collar tie. Also, if Lentz can pass Oliveira's guard which proved so troubling even for Hatsu Hioki.

So that's the three fights that have my eye, but there's plenty more to be excited about. The great finishing artist, Joe Lauzon takes on the one-dimensional but seemingly good-enough-to-get-away-with-it submission artist Michael Chiesa. Former flyweight title challenger, John Moraga takes on 9-1 Justin Scoggins, and Chris Camozzi meets Rafael Natal in what looks like a “loser leaves town” bout so look for both men to be fighting like dogs over meat.

Then come back here Saturday morning and we'll chat about how all the fights went down!

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