UFC Fight Night: Thomas Almeida vs. Cody Garbrandt Toe to Toe Preview – Complete Breakdown

Almeida and Garbrandt go toe to toe this May 29, 2016 at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas, Nevada.

One sentence summary:

David: Somebody’s O is gonna go in brutal, gracefully violent fashion.

Phil: MMA Boxing vs Muai Thai: The Next Generation

Stats

Record: Thomas Almeida 21-0 Cody Garbrandt 8-0

Odds: Thomas Almeida -165 Cody Garbrandt +145

History / Introduction to both fighters

David: I didn’t start out that high on Almeida. I loved everything about his game. And it was obvious to everyone how talented he was. But he reminded me too much of Charles Oliveira, and Edson Barboza: fighters who transform their talents into strategies as violent as they are fragile. The Brad Pickett fight seemed to confirm by skepticism. Pickett should not have given him these pugilism scares, but he did. And then the Birchak fight happened, and all was right with the prospect world again. He looked sharper. Leaner. Even quicker. The mark of an elite fighter is the quickness with which they evolve. And Almeida has progressed wonderfully.

Phil: The other pleasing thing about the Pickett fight was that Almeida didn’t fold when he got into trouble. He looked pretty pumped at the close of the first round, where he got hit hard and often. This is a good thing. Many elite prospects tend to falter when they get someone who can match or hurt them, but Almeida seemed like he actually enjoyed getting into a gunfight. Fearlessness, in-fight adjustments and between-fight adjustments are three good ingredients. Ingredients which can obviously be helped with dollops and dollops of extreme highlight reel violence.

David: Cody isn’t the usual fight goulash Team Alpha Male likes to strategically employ. Which isn’t a dig at their camp philosophy. They’ve made a name for themselves as well rounded, high octane fighters. And they’ve been successful. But few if any really employ the traits of a certified technician like Garbrandt. He made good on his hype coming into his fight with Marcus Brimage. After doing what all young violent strikers do to Brimage, Cody rattled off two more wins in impressive fashion. Now he’s got a date with the baddest prospect on the block.

Phil: You said it. He’s one of the most un-Alpha Male fighters at the camp. One of the most obvious points of difference is that he’s a pretty tall, rangy bantamweight, and TAM fighters are almost all short for their division. Dillashaw is/was one of the longest, but he’s still not a big 135er. So, as opposed to having an aggressive wrestling, overhand and scrambling-based game, Garbrandt has mostly put his wrestling pedigree into reverse and stays on his feet as a power punching range boxer. It’s a reasonable assumption that, like Rockhold at AKA, his style has been partially developed as a mirror or a counter to those around him.

What’s at stake?

David: The stakes are higher than some title fights (lately I’d argue “most”). A win for either one guarantees something close to or just like a title fight. A loss is big for either one because both are so young, and will likely have to work their way back up for awhile. It all depends. Nothing about the UFC’s matchmaking makes sense these days even though they’ve put together some doozies. Thankfully, this is all that and a bag of flying fists.

Phil: The stakes are really interesting to me, because this is a fairly experimental card for the UFC. It’s an FS1 card, but it’s a pretty stacked one, and it’s a …

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