UFC: Three Featherweights to Watch in 2017
UFC Featherweight Champion Jose Aldo: Joshua Dahl-USA TODAY Sports
The featherweight division is loaded with names of talented fighters who are set to make big moves in 2017. With UFC featherweight Jose Aldo being named the outright champion, the division is once again open for big fights in 2017.
Featherweight has been an interesting division even before Conor McGregor defeated Aldo in 13 seconds at UFC 194. McGregor ended a 10-year reign of dominance by Aldo with a quick counter punch.
Fast forward to UFC 205.
McGregor defeated Eddie Alvarez for the lightweight title and became the first fighter to hold two world titles in two different divisions at the same time.
Talk before UFC 205 was that, should McGregor win, he would have to vacate one of his world titles. Most agreed that the featherweight belt would be the one due to the weight cut being tough on McGregor.
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After UFC 205 the UFC stripped McGregor of the featherweight belt but not without some controversy.
UFC 206 lost its main event when light heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier withdrew from his bout against Anthony Johnson due to injury. With a need for a big fight for the main event, featherweights Anthony Pettis and Max Holloway moved up as the star attraction.
The UFC still needed the fight to mean more since people would be reluctant to pay over $60 or the PPV.
Their solution was to strip McGregor of the featherweight title, make Aldo the 145-pound champion and make Pettis vs. Holloway for the interim belt.
Was it a little messy? Sure. Will McGregor and his fans always lay claim to that 145-pound title? Of course. This is the situation we find ourselves in with Holloway being the interim champion which means he will face Aldo for the undisputed title at some point soon.
What that means for the rest of the division is that fighters will have to win some big fights in order to place themselves on the short list of contenders once the belts are unified.
Here are three featherweights to look out for in 2017.
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Doo Ho Choi
2016 ended with a hell of a fight in the featherweight division in a fight that was the pick for Fight Of The Year for many writers.
At UFC 206, a card that many fans and media members proclaimed as a dud, Doo Ho Choi and Cub Swanson put on a performance worth labeling as ‘art’. Take that Miranda Priestly.
In a three-round war, Choi and Swanson threw everything and the kitchen sink at each other. Back-and-forth they went. Swanson using his creative style to move around and land shots from awkward angles. Choi staying patient and landing that right hand like a piston.
Ultimately Swanson won the decision but Choi might have won the crowd. He took everything Swanson had and much more. Now that fans know who he is and what he can do it is time to capitalize on the momentum coming off the Swanson fight.
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Choi does not look like a fighter. At all. He looks like he got lost on the way to junior high, ended up at an MMA gym, and grew a beast inside himself. He looks like the neighborhood kid who would go around helping the elderly with their groceries.
Choi has incredible power in his right hand and he lands with perfect accuracy. Add to that the speed and pop with which he throws it you might have the perfect recipe for a McGregor-esque style fighter.
Choi is very patient with his striking. He waits for an opening to land exactly what he wants to throw, or waits for an attack to counter with that right hand. It really is something beautiful to watch. There is no wasted movement with Choi. Even when he swarms an opponent every shot is accurate and has a ton of power behind it. He has an iron chin that was definitely put to the test by Swanson.
On the ground, he’s serviceable and has shown he can defend himself on his back. With one submission victory on his record, we don’t know much more about his jiu-jitsu game but he can wrestle.
Possible fights for Choi in 2017 include fights with Brian Ortega, Jeremy Stephens, and Yair Rodriguez.
The Korean Superboy has arrived in the UFC. Time to see what he can do.
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Cub Swanson
He’s been fighting for a very long time and has fought everybody at 145-pounds. Yet his Fight Of The Year bout against Doo Ho Choi is what brought Cub Swanson back into the limelight.
Swanson has a deep resume of fights. Wins over Ross Pearson, Charles Oliveira, Dustin Poirier and Jeremy Stephens are impressive enough. He’s fought Jose Aldo, Max Holloway and Frankie Edgar giving each one a tough fight for as long as it went (with the exception of that eight-second Aldo fight).
Swanson is a beast of a fighter. He’s as tough as they come, creative in all aspects of MMA, and always game for a brawl.
He’ll throw spinning attacks and he’ll try flashy techniques. Against Choi at UFC 206 he used a cartwheel kick made famous by Saenchai that brought a cheer from the crowd and a smile to Swanson’s face.
On the ground, Swanson is a killer. He’s a black belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu under Rigan Machado and has seven submission victories on his record.
He’s had issues with his hands breaking them a few times in his career that have taken him out of fights. Injuries are part of the game but he fought three times in 2016 so it seems as though he’s figured out how to work around those problems.
Possible fights for Swanson, who could be very close to a title shot, include rematches against Ricardo Lamas, Jeremy Stephens, or Frankie Edgar.
He’s a veteran capable of wild fights and epic battles. Cub Swanson is set to make one more run at the UFC belt in 2017.
Troy Taormina-USA TODAY Sports
Yair Rodriguez
With a quiet, respectful, but confident demeanor ‘El Pantera’ is a young contender at featherweight with his eyes on the title.
Yair Rodriguez is one of the more exciting young fighters at 145-pounds. His unusual striking style is based on his Taekwondo background mixed in with Muay Thai and boxing.
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Rodriguez is also very athletic which only helps to make him that much more powerful and elusive. He comes in with very flashy techniques that he lands often. Against Alex Caceres, he went after him with combinations that always involved a head kick of some sort.
Against Andre Fili, he put on a show with his switch-kick KO. He went up with the right kick and he switched to the left in mid-air, shutting the lights on Fili.
Rodriguez took the TUF route into the UFC as part of Team Velasquez on The Ultimate Fighter: Latin America. Rodriguez won the tournament with a unanimous decision win over fellow castmate Leonardo Morales.
Rodriguez hides his attacks very well with strikes coming from all angles. The question with him has always been about his ground game. He has two submission wins in his pro career but none in the UFC and the last one came in 2014.
Rodriguez gets an early start to 2017 as he faces BJ Penn at UFC Phoenix this Sunday. Other possible fights for Rodriguez include bouts with Jeremy Stephens, Ricardo Lamas, Charles Oliveira, or Cub Swanson.
‘El Pantera’ is set to make big moves in 2017 with an eye on the UFC title.
