The home of the Sacramento Kings will be host to another entertaining event laid out by the UFC this coming Saturday. Headlining UFC Fight Night 155 will be a bantamweight showdown between Germaine de Randamie and up-and-coming Aspen Ladd. Also drawing the crowd will be Hall of Famer and WEC legend Urijah Faber, who’s going up against Ricky Simon.
De Randamie (8-3-0)is looking to inch closer to another title fight. After winning a belt via a unanimous win over Holly Holm back in 2017, de Randamie refused to defend her title against Cris Cyborg, thus resulting in the UFC stripping her of her belt. In her last fight, de Randamie scored another unanimous victory over Raquel Pennington last November. De Randamie is three inches taller than Ladd at 5’9” and also owns a significant five-inch reach advantage, so expect her to have lots of confidence in trying to land strikes on Ladd. As for Ladd, she is undefeated in her MMA career, owning a record of 8-0-0. She’s a promising striker, too, with five knockout wins. She’s won two of her last three fights via knockouts. Ladd is likely to take the fight to the ground where she has superior skills than de Randamie.
Faber will emerge out of his retirement almost three years since his last fight. That was in 2016, when he defeated Brad Pickett via a unanimous decision. A UFC Hall of Famer, Faber will look to pave another road to a title fight by likely by resorting to his excellent ground game. Faber, who is 34-10-0 in his career, has 17 wins by way of submissions. He’s never been submitted, so his offense and defense on the mat are equally great. He’s also got power to fall back on, as he has nine knockout wins against three knockout losses. At 26, Simon is 14 years the junior of Faber. That’s a wide age gap that greatly contributes to Simon being favored in his match. Moreover, Simon is on a solid form, having won all of his last three fights. He’s a dangerous striker with six knockout wins. He is also willing to take the fight to the ground, as evidenced by the fact that he owns a 6.75 takedown average.
Writer’s prediction:
Faber submits Simon.
Josh Emmett (+140) vs Mirsad Bektić (-170)
Featherweight
Emmett made a successful return to the Octagon a year after he got destroyed in a vicious knockout loss to Jeremy Stephens in February of 2018. Emmett, who is 14-2-0, defeated Michael Johnson via knockout in the third round of their fight last March. Emmett averages 3.5 strikes landed per minute but needs to work on his defense against opponents strikes, as he’s absorbing 3.32 per minute. Bektic will look to find those gaps in Emmett’s defense. Bektic (13-1-0) last fought in June of 2018. He was supposed to fight Renato Moicano last December, but got derailed by an injury. Bektic knows his way inside the Octagon, be it with his firsts or ground game. He has six knockout wins and three submission victories.
Writer’s prediction:
Bektic wins via knockout.
TBA (injury fill-in) vs Drakkar Klose
Lightweight
Klose is supposed to fight Beneil Dariush this coming Saturday, but an injury to the latter has left the UFC scrambling for a possible replacement for the Iranian-American. Klose (10-1-1) has won four of his last five fights, including his last two against Lando Vannata and Bobby Green — both via unanimous decision.
Roberson was originally slated to fight John Phillips, but instead got Turman for UFC Fight Night 155. Roberson is coming off a loss to Glover Teixeira last January via arm triangle submission. Roberson is 7-2-0 with two wins coming by way of knockouts and three wins via submissions. Both his losses were off submissions. Turman is on a roll. He’s gone 4-0 in his last four fights, a stretch that saw him defeat Marcio Alexandre Jr. via rear-naked choke lasts August. He’s a submission expert with a 7-0 submission record. Considering Roberson’s seeming weakness against grapplers, Turman could be on his way to a fifth straight victory.
