Daniel Cormier will look to defend his light heavyweight title against Volkan Oezdemir, at UFC 220. Who will win?
JOSHUA GARCIA, MMATorch Contributor
Daniel Cormier has the edge in experience and I think that will play the biggest part in this fight. Cormier always seem to have a great game plan and will be able to outwrestle and outwork Oezdemir. Cormier will prove once again that he is the best light heavyweight fighter in the world besides Jon Jones.
FRANK HYDEN, MMATorch Columnist
I think Cormier wins by decision. He should control Oezdemir early and often and be in the position he wants for nearly the entire fight. He won’t want to risk getting stopped by strikes so I think he stays close and grinds out the decision. This probably won’t be the most exciting fight, but Cormier won’t want to take chances so we should get a solid title defense here.
DAVE KOULA, MMATorch Contributor
I had to rewatch the Oezdemir/OSP fight prior to writing this, because in my head all we’ve really seen from him is two flash knockouts, one which was definitely impressive (Manuwa) and one that had all the symptoms of a fluke punch (Cirkunov).
I’m glad I did, because we really see a lot from Oezdemir in that fight. He is definitely an extremely talented striker, and was able to really muscle around an accomplished grappler in OSP against the fence. There’s definitely more there than I thought there was when this fight was first announced. That said, despite Cormier not getting any younger he continues to be just incredible, even in the last defeat to Jones, he’s fought some of the greatest fighters and hardest hitters in the game and Jones aside, he’s beaten them all. I think Oezdemir could absolutely get to a level where he’s one of the very best in the world, but Cormier has so much big game experience that I just don’t think he’s going to let himself get put into a bad position. My hope is we see an extremely confident Cormier come in and start throwing this dude around and really having some fun with it. I’ll take Cormier by third round TKO, but hopefully this fight will be good for Oezdemir’s long term development.
SEAN COVINGTON, MMATorch Contributor
If Volkan catches Cormier it’s all over but when was the last time anyone Jon Jones caught Cormier? Cormier will dominate Volkan on the ground as he usually does. I’ve been over analytical lately so I would not be shocked if Volkan shocked the world with a stunning knockout victory, catching Cormier with a random shot early on. So, give me Volkan for the upset.
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