U.Hall Play 73

Uriah Hall was supposed to be fighting Joe Riggs at UFC Fight Night Nashville but a recent injury to Riggs now means that Oluwale Bamgbose is stepping up on less than two weeks notice to face Hall in his UFC debut.

When Uriah Hall lost his last fight against Rafael Natal I vowed to never bet on him again. Afterall, Natal was an easy opponent for Hall and yet he somehow managed to lose a close decision. Two months later and Hall is stepping back into the Octagon to face another easy opponent in Oluwale Bamgbose, except this time his opponent is an inexperienced striker, who poses no threat of a takedown and he’s stepping up to fight Hall on less than 2 weeks notice.

By this point in time it’s pretty clear that the UFC are doing everything that they can to help Hall add more clips to his highlight reel. Time after time they give him easy opponents that he should be able to run through. Since losing the Ultimate Fighter to Kelvin Gastelum, Hall has been matched up against John Howard, Chris Leben, Ron Stallings, Thiago Santos, Rafael Natal and Joe Riggs… All of which were very easy stylistic matchups.

I also find it interesting how the UFC went to the New York regional MMA circuit to find a replacement for Joe Riggs. Normally the UFC will look for local talent that is willing to step up on short notice when a fighter drops out just a few weeks away from an event. New York is nowhere near Nashville and I have a feeling the UFC picked Oluwale Bamgbose as a short notice replacement because he doesn’t have any ground game and he won’t threaten Hall with takedowns. I also feel they selected Bamgbose because his fighting style should play right into the hands of Hall’s devastating counter striking technique.

At this point in Hall’s career I believe we should assess his chances of winning a fight based on all of the strengths and weaknesses he has shown us throughout his time in the UFC. We know that he has the ability to flake out and fight tentatively, but we also know that he has devastatingly accurate counter striking, with the power to finish a fight at any time.

Oluwale Bamgbose has a career record of 5-0, with all 5 wins coming by way of 1st round knockout. His style is very wreckless and very aggressive and he’ll need to tighten up his striking defence and the way he closes the distance if he wants to survive more than a round with Hall. It’s also worth noting that Bamgbose has only faced a very low level of opponent. The guys he has faced so far have had career MMA records of 3-1, 1-3, 1-0, 0-0 and 2-1 when they fought him.

Take a look at Bamgbose’s last few fights…

As you can see. Bamgbose is wild and wreckless and those looping punches aren’t going to fly with an experienced striker like Uriah Hall. Hall should be able to use his high level striking defence and footwork to avoid Bamgbose’s power shots, whilst timing him for a knockout counter. When Bamgbose enter’s his opponent’s striking range, he either ducks down leaving him open to an uppercut or knee, or he wades in with his chin up high. Hall is extremely fast and accurate when it comes to landing counter strikes and Bamgbose’s aggressive style of fighting and poor defence should bring out the best in Hall.

It’s also worth nothing that Bamgbose is taking this fight on less than 2 weeks notice. Fighters that make their UFC debut on short notice very rarely win. I don’t have the exact numbers right now, but a few months back fighters taking a fight in the UFC on less than 2 weeks notice were something crazy like 3-46 in their first fight.

I believe that Uriah Hall is a great bet at the current odds of around 1.30 | -333, because we’re getting around a 30% return on our money for a fighter who should easily win. I know Hall has flaked out and let us down in the past, but Bamgbose’s style will force Hall to engage. He won’t be able to flake out and put in a tentative performance in this matchup. Hall will have to strike to slow Bamgbose down and Bamgbose’s aggression suits Hall’s counter striking style of fighting. This should be a straight up Striker vs Striker matchup, which should bring out the best in Hall. If he losses, he losses, but I feel he’s a good value bet based on all the information we have available.