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UFC Fight Night: Mendes vs. Lamas
By: Freddy Wander - StatFox
Published: 4/4/2015  at  2:05:00 AM
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UFC Fight Night: Mendes vs. Lamas

Saturday, Apr. 4th – 1:00 p.m. ET
Fairfax, VA

Chad Mendes (16-2-0) vs. Ricardo Lamas (15-3-0)

5 Round Featherweight Bout
Line: N/A

Chad “Money” Mendes looks to shake off another failed attempt at grabbing the featherweight belt when he takes on Ricardo “The Bully” Lamas at UFC Fight Night.

Here is the BetDSI Sportsbook betting preview for this matchup:

Mendes has had no issues beating all of his opponents, besides one, Jose Aldo, who has given him both his losses in title fights. Most recently he took on Aldo in another attempt at the belt and the battle lasted the entire five rounds before Mendes lost by decision in what was a very tight fight; eventually being named the fight of the year. Besides Aldo, Mendes has come away victorious in his other 16 fights, getting most of his wins by decision (8), grabbing another six by knockout and also has two by submission. He has leaned more towards the knockout lately, with punches being the end of his opponent in four of his past five wins; doing so in the first round three times. Lamas should be a strong competitor in this one as the former wrestler and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu fighter has won in six of his past seven times in the octagon with the only loss coming at the hands of Jose Aldo. The loss to Aldo was for the featherweight title back in February of last year and since then he has fought twice, earning two victories, one by unanimous decision and most recently by submission (guillotine choke) against Dennis Bermudez at UFC 180. The recent submission was his fourth win by that approach as he primarily has won in a decision (7) and also owns four career knockouts. These men matchup very well so it will be interesting to see who comes away with the win in April.

Mendes has been borderline dominant in his career if it weren’t for Aldo giving him the two losses in title fights and he lands 2.54 significant strikes per minute with a striking accuracy of 47%. He is a master of the takedown, though, getting 4.18 every 15 minutes and had seven in his last win over Nik Lentz. “Money” actually landed a better percentage of his significant strikes when he fought Aldo back in October, but just took on a barrage of hits, getting 80 blows to the head compared to the 50 that he dished out. Where Mendes typically wins fights is with defense as he deflects 70% of significant strikes attempted by his opponent and parlays that into his signature takedowns. He also does not allow the opposition to put him on the mat as no fighter he has faced has successfully completed a takedown against him. Mendes will certainly have the advantage in this aspect and will just need to keep putting Lamas on the ground until he can finish him off.

Lamas is a similar offensive fighter to his opponent in this one as he lands 2.31 significant strikes per minute on a much lower accuracy (39%). He also struggles with the takedowns compared to Mendes and gets opponents on the mat an average of 1.72 times per 15 minutes in the octagon. One advantage that could certainly work out for him if the cards fall into place is his ability to get a submission as he has won via this tactic twice in the past six fights and has averaged 1.3 submission attempts per 15 minutes. What may prove to be his demise is his defense, and while he still is able to deflect 61% of significant strikes, he only manages to defend against the takedown 48% of the time, and against a fighter like Mendes, he will need to do this a ton in a five-round match if it goes the distance. This will be a tough matchup for Lamas to win given that he has a disadvantage in nearly every aspect of the fight, but if he can somehow become the first person to get Mendes on the mat, it could be an upset win.


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