Mark Eddiva who just won his Ultimate Fighting Championship debut earlier this month is gearing up for another fight inside the UFC cage. Fighting under the Team Lakay banner, Eddiva will be facing Edimilson Souza, a fighter from Brazil who is much more experienced than him.
Of course, the Cordilleran mixed martial artist is no stranger to facing an opponent who has a record that is double or triple that of his own. In his UFC debut earlier this month in Macau, China, he went the full three rounds against Jumabieke Tuerxun, a fighter who has over a dozen professional fights. At that time, Eddiva only had five fights under his belt. Eddiva won that fight in a lopsided manner. The irony of it was the fact that he was a huge underdog going into the fight.
Of course, the Cordilleran mixed martial artist is no stranger to facing an opponent who has a record that is double or triple that of his own. In his UFC debut earlier this month in Macau, China, he went the full three rounds against Jumabieke Tuerxun, a fighter who has over a dozen professional fights. At that time, Eddiva only had five fights under his belt. Eddiva won that fight in a lopsided manner. The irony of it was the fact that he was a huge underdog going into the fight.
For his upcoming tussle against Edimilson Souza, Eddiva will likely be deemed yet again as the underdog. Souza who boasts a record of 14-3 has been on an 8-fight winning streak, the last of which was a decision victory in September of last year in his UFC debut. Seven of these victories were via knockouts, five of which were in the very first round.
With that said, Souza is someone who can strike. A very, very dangerous opponent indeed for Eddiva. Although he is Brazilian, Souza's biggest weakness is when he is on the ground. All three of his defeats were via submission. What's interesting here is that Eddiva is actually really good in grappling. He has after all won two of his fights by submission. So it's likely that part of Eddiva's gameplan for the upcoming fight will be to take the fight to the ground.
Eddiva versus Souza is part of the main undercard for UFC Fight Night: Sonnen vs. Silva on May 31, 2014 at the Ginasio do Ibirapuera in Sao Paulo, Brazil. The event will be headlined by the highly anticipated match between Chael Sonnen and Wanderlei Silva.[Update: the main event has been changed to a match between Stipe Miocic and Fabio Maldonado.]