Preview: UFC Vegas 108 Prelims

Middleweights

Nick Klein (6-2, 0-1 UFC) vs. Andrey Pulyaev (9-3, 0-1 UFC)

Odds: Pulyaev (-160); Klein (+130)

It will be “Dana White’s Saturday Night Contender Series” here when a pair of Season 8 Contender Series signees meet in search of their first UFC win. Klein’s “Blue Collar” nickname is apropos, as the 29-year-old Wisconsinite makes up for modest athleticism with strength, well-rounded skills and a hard-nosed approach.

Klein’s striking isn’t pretty but he does have decent power. His rise to the Contender Series and then to the UFC, however, was driven by a streak of three straight rear-naked choke finishes, including two in under a minute apiece. The last of those, over Heraldo Souza, showed Klein at his best, as he followed up a decent level change with a lightning-quick back take in transition, and the chops to keep his opponent fighting off the choke while he secured the position for the finish. It was an approach that might work against quite a few UFC middleweights.

Klein was largely overwhelmed in his UFC debut by Mansur Abdul-Malik, but as a standout athlete and excellent technical wrestler, Abdul-Malik represented a miserable style matchup on top of simply being the better overall prospect. Whatever else may be said for Pulyaev, he will be about as stark a contrast from Abdul-Malik as UFC matchmakers could imagine.

Speaking of stark contrasts, Pulyaev is a longtime disciple of Alexander Shlemenko despite being different enough physically to look like a pairing in a buddy comedy flick. The lanky Russian occasionally shows the influence of his “all spinning stuff, all the time” mentor, but usually presents as more of a conventional kickboxer. He throws a variety of strikes with good accuracy and decent power but displays typical tall-man issues on defense, including leaning straight back to avoid head strikes.

Pulyaev’s debut loss to Christian Leroy Duncan was not encouraging. “CLD,” despite being a striker by preference himself, had done his homework and spent much of their fight crowding Pulyaev, clinching, mugging him in the phone booth and taking advantage of his miserable takedown defense, seeming to be on the Russian’s hips before he had even begun to sprawl.

Considering that Klein had been doing good work on the ground before running into a lights-out wrestler, that does not portend well for Pulyaev here. While it’s likely to be an entertaining scrap for as long as it goes, the pick here is that Klein gets inside on the taller man, finds ways to get him to the ground and gives him all kinds of trouble there. Klein by Round 2 submission.



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