Can't really say I care who wins. Neither one of these guys seems to have the skills or the talent to make an impression on the featherweight division, let alone the lightweight division.
I feel the same way. Probably the worst Ultimate Fighter ever talent wise. I'm still amazed Chiesa even made it to the finals. I'm still trying to find out what he's good at. Al looks like he has the potential to be good with more training. If he wins this, I expect to see him much improved by his next fight.
Iaquinta might make some waves if he keeps improving. He has good hands with power, and you could see in his fight with Pichel that he also solid kicks in his arsenal which won him that fight. He mixed up his strikes pretty well. His ground game is still a question mark, but he does seem to have decent wrestling. It's too early to make an assumption on whether either of them can make it in the lightweight division. They are both still fairly young.
I think that Iaquinta should be the favorite here, even though I want to see Chiesa win. Iaquinta's stand up is a lot better and his wrestling may not be as good, but it may be good enough to at least help him keep this fight standing. Chiesa also gets tagged a lot which won't help him against a guy like Iaquinta.
Chiesa has his wrestling and heart going for him. The guy probably has the most heart on this season in my opinion which could be a difference maker in this fight, and when he gets the mount position, his ground and pound can be brutal. Iaquinta is gonna want to sprawl and brawl as much as possible. I guess I'm still favoring Iaquinta, but I wouldn't be surprised if Chiesa pulled it off. He seems to be known for that thus far when facing adversity.
This is an interesting fight but I've gone basically all in on Al Iaquinta. Mike Chiesa is more of a grappler than a wrestler, likely the third best of the season behind an injured Mike Rio and Myles Jury(who Al defeated). Mike has three close fights against a last picked fighter, a very green fighter, and a 135/145lber. To me he looks alot more like Kris McCray or Efrain Escudero than Ryan Bader or Jonathan Brookins.
You bring up strong points about Chiesa, John. The only reason I think he will be a bigger threat to Iaquinta than Jury was is because Chiesa doesn't give up. Even if he's getting his ass kicked, he keeps striking and looks to slam his opponents. (I liked his slam against Vick) Jury on the other hand just seemed content on being tentative for 2 rounds. Chiesa will keep pushing forward throwing his awkward strikes (hopefully not against Iaquinta) and look to clinch eventually. This may make it a short night for Chiesa, but at least he will try to win and not give up like Jury seemed too. That makes him potentially more difficult for Iaquinta. Or it could make him easier, that's what's interesting about this fight. I expect Chiesa to be dropped at least once.
Edit: I noticed Iaquinta has a recent first round submission loss to Audinwood, a guy that's 0-2 in the ufc. Chiesa has a fairly active guard, anyone think that could have some significance? I could be looking too much into it.
YES!! So do people give Chiesa props now? He finished both of the number one picks, and just choked out the favorite in the first round. Its time he gets some fans "approval" in a sense of having skills. Who knows where he goes from here, good future in the ufc or not, but it's about time he gets some credit for his hard road he had to take. Such a hard path, and he overcame it. I'm so happy for him, he deserved this win!
He probably had the hardest road emotionally. If I were in his shoes. I would have wanted to drop out of the competition. I'm sure apart of him did as well, but he kept going strong because it's what his father wanted him to do.
I didn't think he had a chance in hell. His last two performances where kinda meh against guys who looked like they had no ground game at all. I thought for sure Iaquinta was going to finish him standing.
Mad props. What a tough road to travel under such intense emotional stress.
Chiesa is the perennial underdog. He has been the underdog in all of his fights and yet somehow always pulls it out in the end. The dude has heart for sure but I don't know what kind of a career he could have in the UFC lightweight division.
Some people might have thought Iaquinta had the wrong plan, being the constant aggressor, but honestly, why? Iaquinta knew Chiesa got hurt a lot in his fights so he felt with his power and superior stand up, he could overwhelm and tag Chiesa and finish him. It wasn't a bad idea in theory. He did tag Chiesa multiple times. Chiesa just weathered the early assault and capitalized on his aggression. Iaquinta found out that Chiesa isn't an easy guy to put away.
Chiesa's career in the UFC is a question mark, but he is only 24. He has lots of time to potentially improve. His ground game is slick.
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