Prediction: Youssef Zalal via Submission<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Emmett\u2019s been to the top and had his peak moment against Calvin Kattar, but that fight exposed how limited his style has become. He\u2019s fallen into this trap of relying almost entirely on his power, but for good reason. His right hand is still a bomb and it can put anyone down,but the problem is he\u2019s stopped using the rest of his skill set. He\u2019s not mixing in the wrestling or layering his offense.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Zalal\u2019s biggest weapon is his footwork and timing. From the very first exchanges, he\u2019s bouncing in and out, constantly ready to either angle off, roll a counter, or shell up and stay safe. He doesn\u2019t enter range naked\u2014he\u2019s always prepared defensively, which makes it tough for someone like Emmett who\u2019s banking on guys staying in the pocket long enough to eat the power. Add in the fact that Zalal will be the bigger, longer fighter and knows how to use his size when the grappling exchanges happen, and you\u2019ve got a kid who can neutralize Emmett\u2019s one-note approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What makes Zalal even more dangerous here is that his motivation. He doesn\u2019t want to get cut from the UFC again, and you can see that he\u2019s tightened up his game because of it. He\u2019s offensively skilled, defensively sound, and fights with a composure that\u2019ll make Emmett\u2019s \u201cpower or bust\u201d style look outdated. Unless Emmett somehow reinvents himself mid-fight and starts using tools he hasn\u2019t been relying on, he\u2019s going to get outclassed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Prediction: Youssef Zalal via Submission Emmett\u2019s been to the top and had his peak moment against Calvin Kattar, but that fight exposed how limited his style has become. He\u2019s fallen into this trap of relying almost entirely on his power, but for good reason. His right hand is still a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-589","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ufc-320"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/capmma.com\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/589","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/capmma.com\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/capmma.com\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capmma.com\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capmma.com\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=589"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/capmma.com\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/589\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":590,"href":"https:\/\/capmma.com\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/589\/revisions\/590"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/capmma.com\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=589"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capmma.com\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=589"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capmma.com\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=589"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}