After his outstanding performance last time out against Joe Stevenson, it’s hard to bet against George Sotiropoulos in this fight. Sotiropoulos was on fire in his home country of Australia, where he took it to Stevenson every round and put a real pounding on the American lightweight on the feet, on the ground with strikes, in addition to a fantastic attacking with Jiu Jitsu. Armed with the rubber guard and a lot of aggression, Sotiropoulos outclassed the tremendous grappler in Stevenson on the mat. Fueled by the wild Sydney crowd, Sotiropoulos attacked from every position the fight landed.

Pelligrino is a good fighter, but he has a similar skillset to Stevenson in that he’s more of a takedown artist than a striker. I see Sotiropoulos winning the standup battle, avoiding some takedowns, but if Pelligron does put him on his back, Sotiropoulos will be fine in terms of atttacking from the bottom and getting back to the feet, where the Aussie will have an edge.

The one thing about Sotiropoulos that is clear even from his “Ultimate Fighter” reality series days, is that he is a no nonsense type of fighter and is very serious about working his way to the title. He takes his career very seriously and is see him putting together another win Saturday night.

On July 9, 1977 George Sotiropoulos was born  in Geelong, Victoria, Australia. Happy birthday George.

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