The UFC comes back to the Apex arena this weekend with a card headlined by a pair of heavyweight contenders in Curtis Blaydes and Alexander Volkov. In the UFC on ESPN 11 co-main event it’s an exciting banger between Josh Emmett and Shane Burgos in the featherweight division. Other notable fighters on the card are Tecia Torres, Jim Miller, Raquel Pennington, Clay Guida, Roxanne Modafferi, and more.
In a lightweight bout, Frank Camacho was supposed to take on Matt Frevola. Unfortunately, one of Frevola’s cornermen, Billy Quarantillo, tested positive for COVID-19 so that removed him from the fight. Now UFC has turned to the regional scene and signed Justin Jaynes.
Justin “Guitar Hero” Jaynes
5’7″
Lightweight
30-years-old
Las Vegas, Nevada, US
Xtreme Couture
15-4
7 KO/TKO
5 Submissions
How will Jaynes fare in the UFC:
Jaynes has been in the sport of MMA for over a decade. He’s actually a coach at Xtreme Couture which has a solid group of fighters like Dan Ige, Beneil Dariush, Giga Chikadze, Sabina Mazo, Marvin Vettori, and more. Jaynes also wrestled four years in college for Olivet College out of Michigan.
Despite his wrestling background, Justin Jaynes is arguably just as good on the feet. Jaynes fights low and stays in your face looking for openings. He’s very good moving his head and rolling with punches countering and throwing a lunging left hook to the body and the head. Jaynes doesn’t throw a lot of output but does pick his shots well. He throws a lot of feints just trying to get his opponents to open up so he can catch them slipping, something he’s quite good at. Jaynes also throws some nasty leg kicks, holding a lot of power as it’s a weapon he’s hurt a number of opponents with. He can decide anytime to have a heavy wrestling attack because he does have solid textbook wrestling and can hit them double legs all fight. His jiu-jitsu is strong as he’s decent at taking the back and even off his back he’s shown the ability to attack with submissions and create a sweep.
There is some worry about Jaynes against pressure fighters and he may not eat shots as well as most other fighters. While Jaynes is a good defensive fighter, if he is landed on too much or just cracked one good time, it may be something he can’t come back from.
How Jaynes matches up Camacho:
At least in this fight we should be seeing a very wrestling-heavy game plan from Jaynes. Camacho doesn’t ever show it but he does have an underrated ground game. Still, if Jaynes has a big advantage it will be his aggressive wrestling and his BJJ. On the feet, it will be very interesting because Camacho has the power to put Jaynes away, but Jaynes could easily counter Camacho. It’s a very tough fight to call because Jaynes is more well-rounded and his cardio advantage could be a factor here — but I don’t think he can deal with the power of Camacho. I’m leaning towards Camacho but ever so slightly.
