dont forget Luque, i thought the lines should be reversed. Luque is only 32 btw, he's being given old-washed treatment.
He's looked bad and mostly wrestles now, which gives Gorimbo a very good shot at winning. The way he gave up against Buckley was pretty sad.
against Buckley and Geoff neal. Themba doesn't have that kind of power to make him forced to wrestle.
Buckley hits much harder than Themba who has 2 kos in his whole pro career.
Keep in mind washed up, small RDA also forced Luque to wrestle. And that Vicente had the brain bleed.
he keeps a high guard, i'm not at all worried of him getting caught by Themba who is a spammy wrestler with little threat on the feet.
i think he's eating a knee and getting slept. He has a terrible habit of ducking when he panic-wrestles. he got koed with an uppercut and dropped by Mokaev's knee. I think the mma math suggest Cody can win because of the Johnson fight. But Van has better Tdd than Johnson does and knows how to scramble to his feet quicker, he's a more explosive fighter.
the way i see it if his sub prop is 1000+ or 800+ i'll throw one size unit bet, i dont have faith on Luque other than a sub or bust. It's one of those things where i see an opportunistic submission based on Themba's active takedowns and shooting doubles , and getting choked 2x in his career, last against a regional guy Aj Fletcher.
the thing is if Asukura really does manage to cancel his grappling, Pantoja becomes very beatable, seems he's relied too much on his back packing. Almost lost to Erceg who's not as seasoned as Asukura, and Moreno and Royval just didn't have the grappling base to stop him. I dont have enough footage yet to see how good his grappling defense is, it's hard to find. Pantoja has a solid chin but he's got average boxing defense , very hittable to punches. I would not be shocked if we witness an upset where he got wreckless and got stopped early. Just looking at the strike stats, Royval Moreno and Erceg landed a combine 370 significant strikes.
