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Francisco Rivera: 11-4 (4-3-0-1 NC UFC)
John Lineker: 25-7 (6-2 UFC)
Lineker made weight four times in 8 UFC fights, meaning he only made weight 50% of the time. Formerly ranked in the FlyW top 5, he was possibly closing in on a title shot but UFC forced him to move up to BW.
Rivera is ranked 12th and just rebounded with a 21 second KO of Caceres. That was coming off an impressive performance against top ranked Faber that ended with a damaging eyepoke before the official submission loss.
Both have lost primarily due to being outgrappled and overpowered. Neither is likely to exploit that here.
I think Rivera takes this in dominant fashion. He has a significant size advantage, has more power, and has the tools to really exploit Lineker being hittable. If it turns into a brawl then Francisco has also shown a stronger chin and likely gets the better of it.
I'm not counting Lineker completely out. If he does win I'm not sure where goes from there. BW has alot of large grapplers that doesn't play to his strengths and UFC doesn't seem like they'll let him drop back down after one fight unlike Gastelum. Missing weight 4 times is unheard of in the UFC. Iirc Rumble only missed weight 3 times before he got the boot following the Vitor fight.
Either way it should be a fun fight. Who do you think takes it?
John Lineker: 25-7 (6-2 UFC)
Lineker made weight four times in 8 UFC fights, meaning he only made weight 50% of the time. Formerly ranked in the FlyW top 5, he was possibly closing in on a title shot but UFC forced him to move up to BW.
Rivera is ranked 12th and just rebounded with a 21 second KO of Caceres. That was coming off an impressive performance against top ranked Faber that ended with a damaging eyepoke before the official submission loss.
Both have lost primarily due to being outgrappled and overpowered. Neither is likely to exploit that here.
I think Rivera takes this in dominant fashion. He has a significant size advantage, has more power, and has the tools to really exploit Lineker being hittable. If it turns into a brawl then Francisco has also shown a stronger chin and likely gets the better of it.
I'm not counting Lineker completely out. If he does win I'm not sure where goes from there. BW has alot of large grapplers that doesn't play to his strengths and UFC doesn't seem like they'll let him drop back down after one fight unlike Gastelum. Missing weight 4 times is unheard of in the UFC. Iirc Rumble only missed weight 3 times before he got the boot following the Vitor fight.
Either way it should be a fun fight. Who do you think takes it?