If there’s one fighter to keep your eye out for at UFC Fight Night 32 this weekend, it’s Denver’s Brandon Thatch, who takes on longtime UFC veteran Paulo Thiago in Thiago’s home country of Brazil.
The 28-year-old Thatch had one of the most impressive debuts in Octagon history at UFC Fight Night 27 during the summer, where he absolutely brutalized TUF vet Justin Edwards with a combination of slicing elbows, big knees, kicks, and punches.
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For his 83 seconds of time in the Octagon, Thatch was awarded a $50,000 cheque for Knockout of the Night but more importantly he picked up a huge win in the UFC, proving that he’s not just a prospect anymore. He’s a contender.
Think I’m just hyping this guy up? That’s fine – but if I told you UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre brought Thatch to the Tristar Gym in preparation for Nick Diaz, would it change your opinion of him?
The fact is Thatch has all the skills necessary to make a run up the UFC’s welterweight ladder and with a 10-1 career record with the only loss coming via controversial split decision in Strikeforce, he not only has the talent, but he’s been able to show it every time he has stepped in the cage since he began his MMA career in 2008.
Not only has Thatch been winning, but he’s been destroying his opponents. Of his 10 career wins, Thatch has finished every single one of his opponents in the first round via knockout or submission. Clearly, this isn’t a guy who just goes in the Octagon to get the win – he’s going in there to hurt the man standing across the cage from him, and he’s going in there to hurt them badly.
That spells bad news for Thiago, who has lost four of his last six fights in the UFC. Yes, Thiago is a very talented fighter in his own right and he always performs well fighting in front of his fans in Brazil, but I really believe the UFC made this matchup in order to get Thatch a highlight-reel KO over a name veteran in order to start fast tracking him up the welterweight ladder.
That’s not to say Thatch will do it, though. There’s been so many times in UFC history where the promotion matched up a youngster with a veteran in the hopes of that younger fighter getting a big win and building their name up. Sometimes it works out well, sometimes it doesn’t.
For instance, on the same card that Thatch owned Edwards, the UFC had a matchup between Erik Perez and Takeya Mizugaki booked as well. That fight was clearly one made for Perez to win so the UFC could start promoting him as a star, but he ended up losing the fight via split decision and now the UFC has to build him back up slowly, which is why you see him fighting Edwin Figueroa at UFC 167. And if you really thought the UFC didn’t care who won that fight, then explain to me why Mizugaki is fighting Nam Phan at UFC Fight Night 33 even though he’s won three fights in a row and Phan is coming off a loss in another weight class.
The UFC is counting on Thatch to beat the stuffing out of Thiago this weekend and shoot him up the ladder. Yes, GSP is his friend and he’s the current champ, but I wouldn’t expect Thatch to be in title contention for another year, and you never know what the title picture will look like 365 days from now. Heck, Johny Hendricks may very well beat GSP next weekend at UFC 167 and that would really re-shuffle the deck at 170 and open it up for contenders who are friends of GSP like Thatch and Rory MacDonald to possibly get a title shot.
This is MMA so we’ll have to see what happens this weekend, but if you ask me, Thatch is going to beat Thiago so bad that we may never see the Brazilian fight in the Octagon again. Now, let’s see if Thatch can prove me right because I was very wrong the last time I wrote about a prospect that I hyped up (Andrew Craig) and I would hate to go 0-2 in these articles. But I don’t think I’ll have to worry about that because I don’t see any way Thatch loses this Saturday night in Brazil.
