Preview: UFC Fight Night 129 ‘Maia vs. Usman’

Chi! Chi! Chi!

Le! Le! Le!

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@1191Rivas #UFCChile pic.twitter.com/9YjMlEfiQN

— UFC (@ufc) May 16, 2018

Bantamweights
Diego Rivas vs. Guido Cannetti
Odds: Rivas (-155), Cannetti (+135)

Would this fight be out of place as the curtain jerker? Or on a Combate Americas card? Perhaps not, but Rivas is the only Chilean on the slate, so he gets main card status with his fellow TUF Latin America 1 cast mate. Rivas packs pop in his hands and feet, but he pulls the trigger at a painfully low rate, landing only 1.33 significant strikes per minute. He has spent time training for previous fights at Mark Munoz’s Reign MMA and Kings MMA, which might have helped. But for this bout, he appears to be sticking in his home country, putting in time at Elemental Dojo. “Pitbull” will let one-off kicks go to all levels, and he’ll swing an overhand right, left hook combination when he has an opponent backing up. But he almost never throws more than that at a time. He is a willing wrestler and grappler, capable of high-amplitude double-legs, but he isn’t the most technical and oftentimes is quickly reversed.

Cannetti will throw down without thinking, for sure. In his two UFC losses, he rocked both Henry Briones and Kyung Ho Kang; Briones with body kicks and Kang with a left cross. Southpaw kickboxing is “Ninja’s” go-to skill set. He doesn’t really set up his kicks, though, so while they are powerful, opponents can sometimes avoid or counter them. But the Team Alpha Male transplant is fairly active, certainly more so than Rivas. Cannetti is also a decent scrambler. He was submitted by the much bigger Kang, who manhandled him in the clinch and threw him to the floor after recovering his senses. But Cannetti is constantly working to improve position or land ground and pound.

That’s what this matchup comes down to for me: work. Rivas has landed massive shots before, obliterating the much more skilled Noad Lahat after being dominated for a round. But landing a big bomb or two is going to have to be Rivas’ path to victory in the UFC, and I hate relying on that. Cannetti has been caught before, but he should have the edge in standup technique, output, and scrambling ability. The Argentinian nabs a decision.

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