UFC Ultimate Fight Night 22 Preview: Ross Pearson vs Cole Miller
Ultimate Fight Nights, free cards put on cable television by the Ultimate Fighting Championships, the world’s largest mixed martial arts promoter, are usually a showcase for mid-level talent in the lightweight division where there’s a wealth of talent but little pay-per-view drawing potential. Ultimate Fight Night 22 is no different, with three of its four main card bouts being contested in the 155lb division. One such bout is Ross Pearson against Cole Miller.
Ross Pearson is fairly well-known name in the MMA community, having won season nine of the reality show tournament The Ultimate Fighter (TUF) by defeating fellow Brit Andre Winner in the finals. That being his first UFC bout, he’s gone on to win two more, bringing his official record to 3-0 in the UFC and 11-3 overall.
After that he destroyed Aaron Riley in next match, and then went on to face German striker Dennis Siver at UFC 21 in March. He was able to avoid Siver’s trademark spinning-back kicks and effectively use his reach to control the distance and earn a unanimous decision.
From a boxing background, Pearson doesn’t have great power in either of his fists and rarely relies on the knockout. A black belt in Tae Kwon Do, he does possess a kicking game but instead is willing to outpoint his opponents on the feet and if pressed go to the ground and attempt to submit his opponents using his Brazilian jiu-jitsu. He has five of his career victories coming by way of submission.
A win for him here would probably mean a step up to the main card of a UFC pay-per-view, whereas now he’s only fought on free-to-air cards. The UFC likes their TUF winners to do well and are generally willing to give them a more forgiving fight schedule to build them up.
Another TUF alumni, his opponent Miller enters the contest with a 5-2 record. Unlike Pearson, Miller was eliminated in quarter-finals in a controversial loss to Joe Lauzon, but earned his shot in the UFC nonetheless, and made the best of it with a quick first-round knockout of Andy Wang.
Though he has five wins in the promotion, all five of his wins have been against marginal competition, with every single one of them having been afterwards released from the UFC, as was the case with his most recent victim, Dan Lauzon. He’s been improving his submission game however, with his last three wins having come by way of submission, including two guillotine chokes.
Betting odds and fight outlook
The difference between these two fighters is that Pearson is a legitimate prospect whereas Miller has only remained in the UFC because of a very forgiving fight schedule that has allowed him to fight far from the cream of the crop of their division.
Pearson is about a 5-2 favourite and should be. Look for him to control the distance as he did in his last fight against Siver en route to a unanimous decision, and another step up the lightweight ladder.
Tags: