UFC Fight Night: Hall vs. Stallings

Uriah Hall (10-4) vs. Ron Stallings (12-6)

Uriah Hall looks to pick up his third consecutive victory as he takes on Ron Stallings at UFC Fight Night in Boston on Sunday.

Hall entered the UFC with high expectations after delivering one of the most vicious knockouts in the history of the sport on The Ultimate Fighter when he delivered a spinning hook kick knockout of Adam Cella. However, he struggled early in his career and was potentially on his way to being fired. But Hall has bounced back nicely in his past two fights, including a unanimous decision victory against Thiago Santos at UFC 175 on July 5. Hall is an explosive athlete who has all of the talent in the world, but is not always focused when he is in the octagon. However, these past two matches have shown he may be back to reaching his great potential. Ron Stallings is entering the UFC octagon for the first time in his career, and he will be looking to bounce back from an MMA loss to Tim Williams on November 1, 2014. For the heavily-favored HALL, this is the type of match that he has to come out and take care of business in, and that is exactly he will do.

"Prime Time" Hall has 10 wins in his career, with seven of them coming by way of knockout. He also has two wins by decision and one by submission (heel hook). Hall has a good average when it comes to landing significant strikes (2.94 landed per minute), and he is also extremely accurate when it comes to landing his attempts (49.33%). Hall averages 1.5 takedowns with a 42% accuracy mark. He's a solid defender too with a 60% striking defense and 64% takedown defense. When it comes to athletes in the UFC, Hall is as good as there is in the sport. The 30-year-old who fights out of New York City does a nice job of using that athleticism, and he will have to be prepared against a fighter who can end a fight quickly by knockout.

Stallings has 12 wins in his career, with six of them coming by knockout, and the other six by submission. He is able to submit his opponent in a variety of ways with victories coming by two RNC, two triangle, one guillotine and one armbar submission. Of his dozen victories, five have been won in the first round. The guy they call “ChoirBoy” (because he plays the keyboard at church) is a very similar athlete to his Sunday opponent, which is something that Hall does not usually have to deal with in the sport. Another key thing to look for in this matchup is that this is the first UFC fight for the 31-year-old Stallings, so Hall will have to be 100 percent focused and not overlook his opponent. Stallings is 6-feet, 185 pounds and has very good strength for this weight class as well, and a golden opportunity to go out there and show he belongs in the UFC with a victory against Hall, who is also 6-feet, 185 pounds.