George Sotiropoulos Climbing the Division Ladder at UFC 110

The Acer Arena in Sydney, Australia on February 21 George Sotiropoulos (11-2) will face “Daddy” Joe Stevenson (31-9) in a lightweight fight. This is a fight that will propel George up the ladder in the 155 division and make a contender.

George is a product of The Ultimate Fighter Season Six where he lost to the runner-up of that season, Thomas Speer (13-4) in the semi-finals. Since then George has gone 4-0 in the UFC and looks to keep that streak alive against Joe Stevenson.

Joe Stevenson worked his way into the number one contender spot and in January of 2008 at UFC 80 he got his chance to try and dethrone Fighters.com and UFC lightweight champion “The Prodigy” BJ Penn (15-5-1). He lost that fight in a what was one of the bloodiest fights ever in the Octagon. Since then he has gone 3-2 with losses to tenth-ranked “Nightmare” Diego Sanchez (21-3)  and seventh-ranked “KenFlo” Kenny Florian (12-4).

He has changed camps and is now with Greg Jackson in an attempt to get back to the top of the division.The problem he has is George is a fighter that is hungry and has the skills to go very far.

Sotiropoulos is a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt and was also an amateur boxer in Australia where he won the Victoria State Amateur Boxing Title. George has trained at some great gyms like Xtreme Couture, Serra Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and 10th Planet. He is currently back with his striking coach, Leonard Gabriel at a Purebred affiliate, Fisticuffs Gym.

Joe will have to try and deal with the ever improving stand up of George to start out with. If that was not enough, Joe’s bread and butter is his wrestling and George is a slick submission fighter.

This fight is one George must win in order to advance to the next tier of fighters in the division and to keep himself on the televised portion of the UFC pay-per-view. I believe a victory here keeps him the spotlight and the casual UFC fan will take notice. George is not as experienced as Joe Stevenson is but I feel he is more well rounded and that this fight is a bad match-up for Stevenson. The only way I see Joe Stevenson winning this fight is by grinding out a decision using his wrestling. However in doing that he will need to avoid the submissions of Sotiropoulus.

George will win this fight putting him in the spotlight and many fans will witness for the first time the man I believe that can give BJ Penn a run for his money.