Diggin’ Deep on UFC: Arlovski vs Barnett prelims preview Part 1

Am I the only one trying to figure out what in the hell Rustam Khabilov is doing serving as the curtain jerker on a card exclusively on Fight Pass? The dude is talented enough to be on the main card! I’m not sure what he did to find himself in the UFC’s outhouse, but he hasn’t been getting the best treatment in terms of where they have been placing him on cards. Here’s hoping that something changes for the Russian.

While there isn’t really an unusual amount of preliminary fights, they aren’t being broken up in terms of being streamed on Fight Pass and those on FS1. As a result, I’m breaking the prelims into two sections in hopes of avoiding overload. So here are the first three contests of the morning… at least it will be for me.

The prelims start on Fight Pass at 11:45 AM ET/8:45 AM PT.

Jarjis Danho (6-1) vs. Christian Colombo (8-1), Heavyweight

A pair of European monsters who push the heavyweight limit meet in the UFC’s nonstop quest to discover heavyweight depth.

Though Danho showed a little bit of promise in his debut against Daniel Omielanczuk, it was overshadowed by an early end to the fight after he ate a groin strike that looked as though he could probably continue. There is a reason why the UFC is giving him another look as he is incredibly raw and a great athlete for how large he is. From the looks of him, he probably begins his cut down from just under 300.

Colombo is very much a mystery. Coming out of Denmark, he hasn’t faced any opponents of actual repute outside of a loss to current UFC heavyweight Viktor Pesta in 2012. At 36-years old, he doesn’t seem like he would have a huge upside. Then again he is fighting in the heavyweight division where the fountain of youth springs eternal.

This will be a clash of styles. Danho prefers to use his massive size to bully his opponents against the cage or to get them to the ground. He isn’t a very technical wrestler as he showed against Omielanczuk, but if he can get underneath his opponent’s hips, he’ll rip them to the ground with ease. Aside from that, Danho prefers to fight in the clinch with dirty boxing, ripping up both the body and the head. He isn’t anything more than a brawler from a distance, though he has serious power in his punches.

Colombo has fought one time since September 2013 and there isn’t any recent footage of him. He didn’t look like anything special in terms of athleticism, though he showed a competent kickboxing game with some nice short combinations. At 6’5″, he has some good range in which to attack from the outside. What scares me is his poor takedown defense. Anyone with a modicum of wrestling ability has been able to get him to the floor with ease. Danho doesn’t have much wrestling technique, but his natural strength would likely be enough to finish the job.

This is a classic striker vs. grappler match even if the grappler isn’t much of pure grappler. If Danho can get the fight to the ground and unload with his heavy ground and …

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