UFC News & FeaturesPreview: UFC 317 Prelims
Hermansson vs. Rodrigues
UFC 317 may not be the deepest
Ultimate Fighting Championship card, but there’s still plenty
of potential excitement on the prelims this Saturday at T-Mobile
Arena in Las Vegas. The featured spot sees Jack
Hermansson take on Gregory
Rodrigues in an interesting middleweight affair. Hermansson is
always a tough out, while Rodrigues is always more than content to
bring the violence. A women’s flyweight clash between Viviane
Araujo and Tracy
Cortez carries some high stakes for the division, but in terms
of potential violence, a featherweight tilt matching Hyder Amil
with Jose
Delgado and a lightweight spat pitting Terrance
McKinney against Viacheslav
Borshchev are much surer bets. Plus, it’s prospect watch time
deeper down the undercard, where rightly hyped welterweight
prospect Jacobe
Smith looks for a standout performance against Niko
Price.
Now to the preview for the UFC 317 prelims:
ODDS: Rodrigues (-205), Hermansson (+170)
Rodrigues fell short in his first attempt to break into middleweight contention, but he’s still a must-watch fighter nearly every time out. “Robocop” didn’t make the best first impression on the national stage, eating a quick knockout in his 2020 showing on Dana White’s Contender Series, but he found his way into the UFC within a year and immediately marked himself as someone worth monitoring. Rodrigues comes from a grappling background, but you’d never know it from most of his performances, as he’s a dedicated pressure striker who constantly brings the violence—or has it brought to him. Rodrigues’ striking is built around vision at the expense of defense, as he locks in for opportunities to land on his opponents with the hope that he can avoid whatever comes his way; that rarely happens, and as his Contender Series loss and a few other upset defeats have shown, Rodrigues can get caught cleanly enough to suddenly get knocked out. After one of those upset losses to Brunno Ferreira in 2023, Rodrigues started showing a more complete game that actually took advantage of his wrestling and grappling skills, which earned him three straight wins and his first main event against Jared Cannonier in February. That fight saw Rodrigues revert to his more striking-focused style, which nearly worked after a few near-knockouts in the first round. Then it became a much more even slugfest, with Cannonier eventually breaking the fight open to stop it in the fourth. Rodrigues’ attempted rebound against Hermansson isn’t much of a step back, as “The Joker” has been a reliable gatekeeper to the middleweight elite who has mainly been held back by inactivity in recent years.
Hermansson was a solid if unspectacular middleweight for a few years, until wins over David Branch and Ronaldo Souza earned him a breakout in 2019. However, any hopes that he would charge into title contention were quickly dashed by Cannonier, whose superior strength and athleticism quickly stifled most of Hermansson’s best ideas. From there, Hermansson has settled in as a jack of all trades at a high but not elite level. He has an awkward but effective striking game and an underrated, tricky grappling game, keeping him in most fights as long as he can find some level of athletic parity. After missing all of 2023, Hermansson briefly returned to outlast Joe Pyfer in a February 2024 main event. Pyfer handled Hermansson rather easily for two rounds, only to run out of ideas and allow him to find his way back into the fight and score the decision victory. That was before Hermansson disappeared for another year-plus layoff. If this was a five-round fight, it would be easier to see Hermansson coasting out a win once he finds an adjustment, but given that this is only slated for three, he might not have enough time to turn things around once Rodrigues starts to slow down from his usual hot start. The pick is Rodrigues via decision.
Jump To »
Hermansson vs. Rodrigues
Delgado vs. Amil
Cortez vs. Araujo
McKinney vs. Borshchev
McVey vs. Ewert
Diniz vs. Hines
Smith vs. Price
Now to the preview for the UFC 317 prelims:
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Middleweights
Gregory Rodrigues (16-6, 7-3 UFC) vs. Jack Hermansson (24-8, 11-6 UFC)ODDS: Rodrigues (-205), Hermansson (+170)
Rodrigues fell short in his first attempt to break into middleweight contention, but he’s still a must-watch fighter nearly every time out. “Robocop” didn’t make the best first impression on the national stage, eating a quick knockout in his 2020 showing on Dana White’s Contender Series, but he found his way into the UFC within a year and immediately marked himself as someone worth monitoring. Rodrigues comes from a grappling background, but you’d never know it from most of his performances, as he’s a dedicated pressure striker who constantly brings the violence—or has it brought to him. Rodrigues’ striking is built around vision at the expense of defense, as he locks in for opportunities to land on his opponents with the hope that he can avoid whatever comes his way; that rarely happens, and as his Contender Series loss and a few other upset defeats have shown, Rodrigues can get caught cleanly enough to suddenly get knocked out. After one of those upset losses to Brunno Ferreira in 2023, Rodrigues started showing a more complete game that actually took advantage of his wrestling and grappling skills, which earned him three straight wins and his first main event against Jared Cannonier in February. That fight saw Rodrigues revert to his more striking-focused style, which nearly worked after a few near-knockouts in the first round. Then it became a much more even slugfest, with Cannonier eventually breaking the fight open to stop it in the fourth. Rodrigues’ attempted rebound against Hermansson isn’t much of a step back, as “The Joker” has been a reliable gatekeeper to the middleweight elite who has mainly been held back by inactivity in recent years.
Hermansson was a solid if unspectacular middleweight for a few years, until wins over David Branch and Ronaldo Souza earned him a breakout in 2019. However, any hopes that he would charge into title contention were quickly dashed by Cannonier, whose superior strength and athleticism quickly stifled most of Hermansson’s best ideas. From there, Hermansson has settled in as a jack of all trades at a high but not elite level. He has an awkward but effective striking game and an underrated, tricky grappling game, keeping him in most fights as long as he can find some level of athletic parity. After missing all of 2023, Hermansson briefly returned to outlast Joe Pyfer in a February 2024 main event. Pyfer handled Hermansson rather easily for two rounds, only to run out of ideas and allow him to find his way back into the fight and score the decision victory. That was before Hermansson disappeared for another year-plus layoff. If this was a five-round fight, it would be easier to see Hermansson coasting out a win once he finds an adjustment, but given that this is only slated for three, he might not have enough time to turn things around once Rodrigues starts to slow down from his usual hot start. The pick is Rodrigues via decision.
Jump To »
Hermansson vs. Rodrigues
Delgado vs. Amil
Cortez vs. Araujo
McKinney vs. Borshchev
McVey vs. Ewert
Diniz vs. Hines
Smith vs. Price
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