UFC Fight Night ‘Bisping vs. Le’ Preview

‘The Ultimate Fighter: China’ Featherweight Final

Guangyou Ning (3-2-1, 0-0 UFC) vs. Jianping Yang (6-3-1, 0-0 UFC)

The Matchup: This was originally scheduled for March, but an injury to one of the participants -- the UFC never disclosed which one -- result in the fight being postponed.

Ning is a solid wrestler with slick trip finishes to his takedowns, but he does his best work from top position, where he looses a steady stream of ground-and-pound. He lacks much skill with guard passes and control in dominant positions, but he excels in his opponent’s guard, where he can stand up and land a good volume of strikes. On the feet, things get ugly. He lacks even a basic command of footwork and distancing, and while his strikes have some power behind them, he is not a reliably effective striker.

Yang is billed as a striker, and he has an array of side kicks, round kicks and hard punches in his arsenal. Unfortunately, he prefers to work from very, very long range, which means he has to cover a tremendous amount of distance to land any strike. This severely limits his output and makes him far less effective than he might be. On the inside, he is a solid enough clinch fighter and decent wrestler, while on the ground he has a basic understanding of positioning and submissions. He is a good athlete, which makes him an above-average scrambler.

Betting Odds: N/A

The Pick: I expect this fight to be the exact opposite of a barnburner. Neither fighter offers much offense from range -- Yang by choice to limit his output, Ning by virtue of his lack of complete skills. On the inside, both are grinders without a huge amount of ability relative to other fighters in the UFC’s featherweight division. Yang is more well-rounded and has slightly superior physical tools, and I think that will be enough for him to take a unanimous decision.

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