Kingdom MMA preview UFC Fight Night 42 - The Main Card

UFC Fight Night 42 Henderson vs Khabilov preview and predictions

by Alex Dillon @_alexdillon_

We look ahead and offer a detailed preview on this weekend’s upcoming UFC Fight Night 42 card taking place at the Tingley Coliseum, Albuquerque, New Mexico which includes an intriguing main event lightweight clash between Benson Henderson and Rustam Khabilov.

Main card (FS 1 BT Sport 1)

Bantamweights: Erik Perez (14-5, 4-1 UFC) vs Bryan Caraway (18-6, 3-1 UFC)

This bantamweight matchup has all the makings of a good fight on this card. Perez only 24, has won 9 of his last 10 fights with that one loss coming to Takeya Mizugaki last August. He responded well by defeating Edwin Figueroa in his last UFC outing.

Caraway had a similar fate as he also lost to Mizugaki before bouncing back to a win in his last fight over Johnny Bedford. Whilst Caraway has the edge on the ground as a noted submission specialist, Perez has the edge on the feet and also is the younger of the two and more well rounded.

Prediction : Perez    

Lightweights:  Yves Edwards (42-20-1, 10-8 UFC) vs Piotr Hallmann (14-2, 1-1 UFC)

Edwards should be riding a 3 fight losing streak if it wasn’t for Yancy Mederios post fight drug test fail. Having only won 2 out of his last 7, Edwards an MMA veteran of 63 fights, will likely be cut if he loses this one.

Hallmann 1-1 in his UFC career so far was dominated last time out against Al Iaquinta but Edwards isn’t getting younger and tends to fade in later rounds based on his most recent performances which should work in Hallmann’s favour.

Prediction: Hallmann

Lightweights:  Rafael Dos Anjos (20-7, 9-5 UFC) vs Jason High (18-4, 2-2 UFC)

Rafael Dos Anjos was on a roll in the UFC riding a five fight win streak until he came up against lightweight stand out Khabib Nurmagomedov. Overwhelmed when it came down to it but to be honest most lightweights at the moment could suffer the same fate.

High is on a two fight winning streak with notable wins over Anthony Lapsley and James Head. Both fights were in the welterweight division and this will be High’s first fight since his move down to lightweight so it’ll be interesting to see how strength factors into this affair. Regardless of this, Dos Anjos is the better skilled fighter, carrying crisp striking in his arsenal as well as being a BJJ black belt should mean he can deal with High in any area of MMA.

Prediction: Dos Anjos

Flyweights:  John Dodson   (15-6, 4-1 UFC) vs John Moraga (14-2, 3-1) 

A real interesting flyweight matchup serves as the third fight on the main card with Dodson and Moraga squaring off against each other for the second time in their careers. Dodson won the first encounter so Moraga will surely be out to prove a point this time around.

Both fighters have also fought for the flyweight title against champion Demetrius Johnson with Dodson coming the closest to capturing the belt. Dodson is coming off a KO victory over Darrell Montague where as Moraga is coming off a somewhat questionable split decision victory over Dustin Ortiz.

Dodson is the better skilled out of the two and should fancy himself wherever the fight goes and ultimately dispatch Moraga, in my opinion, Dodson is still Johnsons biggest threat in the flyweight division and we should soon see him fighting for the flyweight strap again.

Prediction: Dodson 

(Co- main event)

Lightweights:  Diego Sanchez (24-7, 13-7 UFC) vs Ross Pearson (15-6, 7-3 UFC)

Call this co-main whatever you want... barnburner, slobber knocker, war, one thing’s for sure these two will come to put on a fight. This for me is the leading candidate for fight of the night honours. You often see fighters tweeting about how hard they are training for a fight but all I’ve seen lately is these two both at it. They both seem very up for this fight indeed which promises to be a great scrap.

Sanchez on a two fighting losing streak has been outclassed in his last two outings against Melendez and Jury, blaming food poisoning for his disappointing performance against the latter you have to question whether he has it at the top level anymore. One thing you can count on with Diego is his undeniable heart in any fight, he will look to take Pearson to hell and back if he brings his A game which he should considering its in his hometown.

Before fighting Melvin Guillard in a bout which ended up being ruled a no contest due to an alleged illegal knee from Guillard then pulling out of the rematch due to an injury, Pearson had knocked out his last two opponents in Ryan Couture and George Sotiropoulos and looked to have gain some consistency back in his career.

This is a great matchup for both fighters and gives them the opportunity to push themselves back up the ladder in the lightweight division. If Sanchez can’t get to Pearson and take him down he runs the risk of ultimately, being outboxed by the better more efficient striker. Whatever the outcome, this fight has the potential to steal the show.

Prediction: Pearson 

(Main event)

Lightweights:  Benson Henderson (20-3, 8-1 UFC) vs Rustam Khabilov (17-1, 3-0 UFC)

This lightweight main event could easily turn into a wrestling match rather than an MMA one. Both fighters have proven wrestling pedigree in an MMA cage which poses a lot of questions heading into the fight. Which fighter can take who down first? Which fighter can hold the other down/ get back up?

There’s a possibility that because either fighter knows the other is as good a wrestler as them that they may turn it into a striking affair. However, in my opinion this fight will be decided via wrestling.

Henderson is the former WEC and UFC lightweight champion and has won 9 out of 10 fights when gone the distance which says a lot. Beating Josh Thomson in his last outing, he’s ultimately on a collision course to get another shot at Anthony Pettis lightweight strap, third time lucky maybe, having fallen short the two previous times the foes have met inside a cage.

Khabilov is on a convincing 3-0 streak in the UFC and is part of the so called ‘Russian invasion’ into the organisation which has seen him and fellow lightweight Russian Khabib Nurmagomedov dominate and maul their opponents in impressive fashion. Khabilov made a statement last time out against Jorge Masvidal when he simply ragged him around the octagon on his way to victory.

In Henderson though, he faces a former champion with much more experience, strength and pedigree to his game and quite possibly too big of a step up for him. The way I like to describe Benson Henderson is that he is an amazing fighter but he’s kind of the Junior Dos Santos of the lightweight division, he can keep trying but he’s never going to beat Anthony Pettis in my opinion. However, if you beat him you are probably going to be in line for the title but then again you’re probably not going to beat him.

Prediction: Henderson