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#4 Bantamweight: Ricky Simon vs. Ray Borg

Ricky Simon has dropped his last two fights

Both of these fighters had an interesting 2019; Ray Borg opened the year with a loss in his debut at Bantamweight, then picked up a win there before attempting to return to 125lbs. That went horribly wrong as he missed weight, but he was able to pick up a decision over Rogerio Bontorin to end his year at 2-1.

Ricky Simon meanwhile was strangely vaulted into contention at 135lbs after a solid but unspectacular win over Rani Yahya. However, he ended up being quickly dispatched by Urijah Faber in the veteran’s return fight, and then lost a decision to Rob Font to end the year in a close – and entertaining – brawl.

The outcome of this one will likely depend on who can get the better of the grappling exchanges. Essentially, whenever Borg has been able to outwrestle his opponent in the UFC, he’s tended to win. ‘The Tazmexican Devil’ is a fantastic grappler from the top position, and he’s adept at beating an opponent up from the guard or taking the back to hunt for a choke.

In his four UFC losses, though, he was unable to take his opponent down and dominate them. Naturally, there’s no shame in being unable to outgrapple Demetrious Johnson, but when he fought Casey Kenney – a largely unheralded fighter who was in turn outgrappled in his next fight – he simply didn’t have the size and strength to keep his opponent grounded and wound up losing a decision.

Simon isn’t as proven a grappler as Borg, but he’s definitely a far bigger fighter than the former Flyweight; he’s 2” taller and also has a 6” reach advantage. It’s that range which could be key for Simon to win this fight, as if he can keep Borg at a distance and snipe at him while stopping his takedowns, then it ought to be his fight to lose.

With that said, Simon is a wild, wild fighter who often doesn’t tend to fight to his strengths and will simply go with the flow; on paper, there’s no way he should’ve gone to the ground with Yahya, but he did so on a number of occasions. Granted, he didn’t find himself in any trouble, but the point still stands.

For me, if Simon can follow the smart gameplan of keeping Borg at distance while piecing him up with his strikes, he should be able to do enough to take a decision. If he finds himself grounded for long periods though, he could well be in trouble.

The Pick: Simon via unanimous decision