This Saturday night, keep your eye out for rising middleweight Andrew Craig, a fighter who can contend for a UFC title in the near future.
The 27-year-old native of Texas takes on TUF 17 contestant Luke Barnatt at UFC Fight Night: Machida vs. Munoz in one of six prelims featured on sportsnet.ca, and with a win over Barnatt, Craig will be knocking right on the door of the top 10 at 185 pounds.
PROGRAMMING ALERT: Watch UFC Fight Night: Machida vs. Munoz Saturday at 3 p.m. EST on Sportsnet 360 and catch the entire preliminary card on sportsnet.ca starting at 12:15 p.m. EST
Since making his MMA debut in 2010, Craig has thus far compiled an excellent 9-1 record, including a stellar 3-1 mark inside the Octagon.
Yet, for some reason, Craig is getting little to no hype and it’s puzzling why there’s not more buzz surrounding him.
Craig made his UFC debut last year at UFC on FX 2, filling in for an injured Jared Hamman against Kyle Noke in the Aussie’s hometown. Despite being dominated in the first round of the fight, Craig stormed back to win the next two and he ultimately picked up a surprise decision win over a veteran on the big stage.
In his second UFC fight, Craig took on Rafael Natal at UFC on FUEL TV 4. After being nearly knocked out by a Natal onslaught, Craig threw a booming head kick out of nowhere with just seconds to go in the second round for his second-straight UFC victory.
He then put his undefeated streak on the line against Ronny Markes earlier this year at UFC on FX 7, but he wasn’t as successful in that fight and dropped a decision to the bigger Markes – which is really saying something since Craig himself is one of the bigger middleweights in the UFC. It was Craig’s first loss as a professional mixed martial artist.
However, he bounced back with a split decision win over Chris Leben at UFC 162, nearly finishing the durable Leben in the process, to get back on track and earn himself another big fight in the Octagon.
To be honest, I was surprised the UFC paired up Craig with Barnatt because Craig is 3-1 in the UFC and Barnatt is only 1-0. Plus, I thought the UFC would view the Leben win highly.
But after researching the matchup, it’s clear to me that UFC matchmaker Joe Silva sees holes in Craig’s clinch game along the fence and is testing him against another big middleweight in Barnatt in order to see just how much work he needs in that aspect of his game, or if he’s ready to make the jump to the next level of competition in the division like I think he is.
Despite the loss to Markes, I believe the UFC is still very high on Craig and should he defeat Barnatt and move to 4-1 in the UFC, I’m thinking they will give him a step up against a fighter like Tim Boetsch or Costa Philippou who are on the bubble of the top 10 in the division. Or they may give him another middleweight on the rise like Brad Tavares. Whoever it is, though, I expect them to be a good fighter.
We won’t know how good Craig really is and how much he has improved since the Markes fight until we see him fight Barnatt – and win — but he has improved quite a bit in the last 10 months and I think Craig is going to stop Barnatt in impressive fashion in Barnatt’s backyard this weekend in England then take the plane back to Texas with another victory under his belt.
If Craig takes out Barnatt in impressive fashion like I think he will, I hope the UFC does indeed give Craig an even bigger step up the next time out because although a win over Barnatt will add another win to his resume, I really want to see “Highlight” tested against someone with a big name and a solid UFC record. Only then will we see if I’m right, because right now I honestly see Craig as a darkhorse contender in the UFC middleweight division, and if he ever does win the title you better be sure I’ll be telling everyone I called it first right here.
