Week 5 of this year’s Dana White’s Contender Series run brought with it the return of former DWCS hopeful Aaron Jeffery, looking for a shot at redemption. There was also an intriguing heavyweight scrap as the featured fight. A full five fights this week, and lots of potential.
Let’s get on with our breakdown and picks, shall we?
Light heavyweight: Lukasz Sudolski Vs. Igor Poterya
Tale of the Tape
28-years-old
6’4″
Szczecin, Poland
Berserker’s Team
8-0
Five first-round finishes
25-years-old
6’3″
Kiev, Ukraine
Legat
19-2
8 KO/TKOs, 6 Submissions
Pros and Cons
Lukasz Sudolski
Pros
- Fast starter
- Heavy hands
- Good wrestling
- Excellent ground and pound
- Submission threat
- Good jab
- Heavy top position
- Good hands
Cons
- N/A
Igor Poterya
Pros
- Covers distance well
- Good output
- Good ground and pound
- Diverse attack
- Submission threat
Cons
- Hands low
- Wild striking
- Opened to being countered
- TDD needs work
Who has the advantage?
Striking: Sudolski
Speed: Sudolski
Output/Volume: Poterya
Knockout Power: Sudolski
Chin: Even
Kickboxing: Poterya
Footwork: Poterya
Wrestling: Sudolski
Grappling: Sudolski
Submissions: Poterya
Cardio: Even
Prediction
I didn’t get a lot of footage on Sudolski but from what I’ve watched he’s looked scary. He’s more of someone that likes to take opposing fighters down and either sub or beat on them with ground and pound.
Poterya has an awkward but effective style. Not the most technical guy but he makes up for it with output and blitzes. Both guys like to grapple and Sudolski likes to wrestle a bit more. Poterya is good off his back and I expect that’s where he will be in this fight.
Sudolski has a good physical advantage so if he wrestles I expect him to have a lot of success. It’s going to be interesting on the feet. Poterya has a volume advantage and Sudolski has more power and seems more technical. I like Sudolski in this fight but I’m not confident the longer this fight goes. There is a lot of uncertainty on the part of Sudolski but he is my pick here.
