UFC Fight Night 131 will take place in at the Adirondack Bank Center in Utica, New York, tonight as bantamweights Jimmy Rivera (21-1) and Brazilian Marlon Moraes (20-5-1) clash in the main event.
The 12-fight event, which will be televised on Fox Sports 1, includes six main-card fights which are listed here:
Jimmie Rivera vs. Marlon Moraes (Brazil) – Bantamweight
Gregor Gillespie vs. Vinc Pichel – Lightweight
Walt Harris vs. Daniel Spitz – Heavyweight
Jake Ellenberger vs. Ben Saunders – Welterweight
Julio Arce vs. Daniel Teymur (Sweden) – Featherweight
Gian Villante vs. Sam Alvey – Light Heavyweight
Rivera is on a 20-fight winning streak as he hasn’t lost since November 2008. This streak is the second longest among active UFC fighters behind Khabib Nurmagomedov’s 26. Rivera’s also owns a five-fight winning streak at bantamweight, which is the longest active streak in the division.
Moraes is a former WSOF bantamweight champion that defended his title six times. This is his fourth UFC appearance in less than a year after debuting in June of last year.
Both these men are well-rounded mixed martial artists with good kicks, boxing and good striking all around. Both have solid takedown techniques and are ranked four and five respectively in the bantamweight division, which right now is one of the deepest and most talented in the UFC.
This promises to be a really exciting bout as both of these fighters have always been part of very entertaining fights that never disappoint.
Other than the main-event fight, one of the most interesting fights of the night is the welterweight bout between Jake Ellenberger (31-13) and Ben Saunders (21-9-2).
Ellenberger may not be a household name, but he’s been competing in MMA since 2005 and in that span 19 of 31 victories have come via knock out. Recently though he’s been struggling as he’s lost four of his last five fights.
Saunders has never been a top-five welterweight fighter, but he’s always been an exciting fighter to watch. He’s lost three of his last five fights, including his last two.
Gillespie (11-0) vs Pinchel (11-1) is the co-main event of the evening and it promises a lot of fireworks in the late portion of the show. Gillespie (-450) is hyped and looking forward to this fight as he’s unbeaten in his MMA career and has finished his last three opponents.
Pinchel is on a four-fight win streak and has won about 25 percent of his fights via KO or TKO. He’s the underdog in this fight (+350) and it probably won’t go his way as he’s likely to lose via a TKO unless he finds a way to pull an upset “from Hell”.
