UFC 130: Rick Story vs. Thiago Alves

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The Matchup: In a welterweight division basically unproductive of viable challengers for champion Georges St. Pierre, Story and Alves have the chance to change that. Hard-charging Story matches up in contradiction of talented striker Alves, whose physical gifts and skill to land bombs from any situation make him a must-watch charm.

Story’s duty is simple: contradict Alves’ solid takedown defense and take away his variety and viewpoints. Alves is great at hitting hovering knees and striking in different combinations, as he mixes in blows and kicks with remarkable accuracy and seamlessness. Story, an hostile southpaw with a collegiate wrestling thoroughbred, is not frightened to trade and has good conditioning and a stout chin, but the fouler this gets, the better his probabilities are.

The big wild card with Alves is the weight cut and what kind of cardio he will have after plummeting down to the 170-pound limit. The adjustment for being on the exciting end of this kind of dehydration is that Alves enters the cage around 190 pounds, normally with a huge size and strength advantage.

Story must tear a page from Jon Fitch’s book, using pressure, takedowns and continuous effort in grappling attacks to ditch Alves. On the feet, Alves should be undoubtedly superior, but Story is game sufficient to force trades, opening up clinches and takedowns he can ply to his advantage. Watch UFC 130 Live Stream now.

The Pick: This should be an extremely questioned match, with no true neutral combat range. Alves has a big advantage on the feet, Story in the clinches and on the mat. On the other hand, Story’s durability and hard-charging pace would be just sufficient to put Alves in a defensive posture, and if Story gets tacked, he is not going to crinkle. Instead, he will come right back at Alves. He will probably have to take some thoughtful shots to close the gap, but he is going to be all over Alves and wear him down en way to a precise decision win.