UFC Fight Night - Singapore: Tyson Pedro

UFC Singapore arrives this Saturday 8AM EST, so don't forget to set your alarm clocks. In the co-main event, Ovince Saint Preux takes on Tyson Pedro in a light-heavyweight contender bout. The reason I am so enamored with this fight is because of the next big thing, Tyson Pedro. I firmly believe that Pedro will become UFC light-heavyweight champion some time in 2019, so yes, I am picking him to win on Saturday. Let me explain why.

If you've watched his four UFC bouts, he has showed no obvious, glaring weaknesses, which is good. That said, his striking defense has been suspect a couple of times and he has appeared to struggle with grapple heavy wrestlers. I'm not worried about his striking defense. My real concern, if you want to call it that, is my second point. Against Ilir Latifi, he struggled when Latifi smothered him against the cage, and he had a hard time getting to his feet with Latifi on top of him on the ground. However, Pedro was in no way dominated by Latifi; Latifi took the decision simply by controlling Pedro a majority of the fight. There was hardly any damage, which is another reason why I'm super in on Tyson Pedro right now. Pedro has a black belt in Japanese Jiu-Jitsu and I believe a brown belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, which he used to effectively defend himself from a world class grappler in Ilir Latifi. Again, if you've seen his UFC bouts, minus the Latifi one, it's so clear how advanced his Jiu-Jitsu game is relative to other light-heavyweights. He had a nice rear-naked choke against Khalil Rountree, who is no bum, and a very aesthetically pleasing kimura against Saparbeg Safarov (I highly recommend watching this one if you have not already). Plus, against Paul Craig, he sliced through Craig's guard, trapped his arm, and finished him with elbows. In short, if Tyson Pedro gets on top, you're in trouble, and if he's on the bottom, you're not as safe as you think.

Hearkening back to the second "weakness" I mentioned about Pedro, here's why I'm not worried about it. First, Tyson Pedro is only 26(!), so he's got plenty of time to improve on this, which I'm sure he's already done since the Latifi fight. My next reason is more big picture. Daniel Cormier, who'd be a bad match-up, will be retiring some time next year, so he'd be out of the picture. The only other "bad" match-up in the division I can see is Ilir Latifi, but he's already 34, has already talked about moving up to heavyweight, and I can see the UFC being hesitant to book a rematch between the two unless absolutely necessary, as to not compromise a young, promising star. Outside of these two, there is no light-heavyweight out there that I believe can potentially grapple control their way to a victory against Tyson Pedro (Jon Jones doesn't exist right now, but if he comes back to light-heavyweight, we'll cross that bridge).

As for Pedro's striking, he can hang with anyone in the division right now, and if he can't, he's gonna be the better grappler, guaranteed (Assuming he doesn't meet DC or Latifi, and I don't think he will-check previous paragraph). I'm not worried about Glover Teixeira, for obvious reasons. Minus DC and Latifi, there's no one at LHV currently that Pedro can't out-grapple if he doesn't want to strike, or out-strike if he doesn't want to grapple. The only possible exception here (that he could face) is Alexander Gustafsson. Gus's striking is probably better at this point, but Pedro can definitely still at least hang with him, and even catch him Rumble style. I don't see why not, as Pedro is VERY explosive. The bug-a-boo here is Gus's takedown defense. It's just so goddamn good. If Gus starts to beat up Pedro on the feet, Pedro could have a hard time taking him down to change the tide of the fight. Everything considered here, if these guys were to fight ten times, it could easily go 5-5. I would very much like to see this fight at least once though. It is important to note though, that in addition to Ilir Latifi, Gus has also teased a future move up to heavyweight. Gus and Pedro may never meet anyway, but we'll see.

Tyson Pedro might not be the best LHV in the UFC right now, but he could be soon. Although he is quite talented, I presume he will be a benefactor of favorable circumstances in his division, and may never even have to face the current top guys to actually get to the top. This is no cop-out though, Tyson Pedro can certainly compete with anyone right now, for sure. A lot of Pedro's future, and many others, depend on Jon Jones right now, so we'll just have to play things by ear for awhile. But as for Saturday and the year moving forward, get on board the Tyson Pedro bandwagon, before it's too late.