Geoff Neal is favored against Mike Perry at UFC 245 Saturday, December 14 in Las Vegas, Nevada. This event is one of four fights on the ESPN 2 portion of the preliminary card. Neal is 12-2 in his career, while Perry is 13-5 in his career. There are a total of five fights on the main pay-per-view card at UFC 245, with the headliner a bout between Kamaru Usman and Colby Covington. There are also a total of eight fights on the preliminary card, with four on ESPN2 and four on UFC Fight Pass. Let’s look at the bout between Neal and Perry and UFC picks.
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Geoff Neal (12-2, 4-0 UFC)
Neal came into the UFC with a record of 8-2 and he has four wins and no losses in the UFC. He defeated Brian Camozzi by rear-naked choke submission, Frank Camacho by KO, Belal Muhammad by unanimous decision, and Niko Price by KO. Neal’s last loss was against Kevin Holland by TKO on January 28, 2017. Neal has been a pro since 2012 and he has seven wins by TKO/KO and two by submission. He has five first round finishes.
Neal said this to ufc.com about his upcoming fight against Perry, “Honestly, it makes me train way harder. He’s a guy who I’ve always thought would be fun to fight and I have no idea what to expect in the fight. I could break my hands; I might have cuts on my face. But I’m going to have to push through it and get the job done. His toughness is what separates him from the rest of guys that I’ve fought. He is never going to go away, he’s going to be trying to take my head off and I’m going to try to take his head off. This is going to be the biggest fight of my life and I just can’t wait for December 14th.”
Mike Perry (13-5, 6-5 UFC)
Perry came into the UFC with a record of 7-0 and he has six wins and five losses in the UFC. In his last five fights, he has two wins and three losses. He defeated Paul Felder by split decision and Alex Oliveira by unanimous decision; while losing to Max Griffin by unanimous decision, Donald Cerrone by arm bar submission, and Vicente Luque by unanimous decision. Perry has been a pro since 2014 and he has 11 wins by TKO/KO. He has seven first round finishes.
Perry said this to ufc.com about his upcoming fight against Neal, “I have to show him in the fight that no matter what he does — if he lands a shot, keep coming at him; keep putting that pressure on him. I think I have to go back a little bit to how I came into the UFC before the Jouban fight and really put pressure on guys and not care if a guy is hitting me because I don’t care about getting hit. I don’t feel it and if you hit me, it’s so that I can hit you and my hit is going to be better. It’s who hits last, not who hits first.”
Striking Stats
Strikes landed per minute: Neal 5.86 / Perry 4.28
Striking Accuracy: Neal 48% / Perry 47%
Strikes absorbed per minute: Neal 3.58/ Perry 4.43
Defense: Neal 65% / Perry 58%
Grappling Stats
Takedown average: Neal 0.89/ Perry 0.62
Takedown Accuracy: Neal 50% / Perry 41%
Takedowns defended: Neal 92% / Perry 70%
Submission average: Neal 0.4 / Perry 0.0
UFC Picks
Perry has been struggling lately in the UFC winning just two of his last five fights, but he is still dangerous and has the power to knock out Neal. There is no question that Neal should be favored, but I am hesitant to lay more than 2-1 in this fight. I think the better choice is to just play the rounds to go under the total.
Main Card (Pay-Per-View)
Welterweight - Kamaru Usman -200 vs. Colby Covington
Featherweight - Max Holloway -180 vs. Alexander Volkanovski
Women's Bantamweight - Amanda Nunes -285 vs. Germaine de Randamie
Bantamweight - Marlon Moraes -200 vs. José Aldo
Bantamweight - Petr Yan -500 vs. Urijah Faber
Preliminary Card (ESPN2)
Welterweight - Geoff Neal -250 vs. Mike Perry
Women's Bantamweight - Ketlen Vieira -170 vs. Irene Aldana
Middleweight - Ian Heinisch -145 vs. Omari Akhmedov
Welterweight - Matt Brown -360 vs. Ben Saunders
Early Preliminary card (UFC Fight Pass)
Featherweight - Chase Hooper -120 vs. Daniel Teymur
Flyweight - Kai Kara-France -165 vs. Brandon Moreno
Women's Flyweight - Viviane Araujo -180 vs. Jessica Eye
Middleweight - Oskar Piechota -125 vs. Punahele Soriano
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