Leading off the second week of the season for Dana White’s Contender Series is a bantamweight bout between Cameron Smotherman and Charalampos Grigoriou. Given the pace both these men like to fight at and the expectation of increased violence that comes with the DWCS, I’m expecting a high-action bout as both look to impress the boss.
Betting Odds
Smotherman’s set to enter this week’s Contender Series matchup as the betting favorite.
- Cameron Smotherman: -200
- Charalampos Grigoriou: +154
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Fight Breakdown
Cameron Smotherman is 25 years old and holds an 8-3 pro record. Smotherman likes to use a boxing-heavy attack with high-level speed and power. He’s aggressive but not irresponsibly so, which is nice to see from a young prospect; he knows what pace he can keep and still utilizes constant forward movement and strikes to push his opponent to the cage where he can work his boxing but he doesn’t tire himself out by overswinging along the cage.
I’d like to see him utilize more feints in his striking to open up his combos and striking entries more often. He’s also bad about keeping his chin high up in the air, which, paired with his entries not being accompanied by feints, is going to leave him open to get hit with big counter shots. These feints would help him avoid getting taken down in space which is where he has the most trouble defending. He has good takedown defense when he’s able to react and hasn’t had many problems regaining his feet should he get sat down. Feints will draw out these takedown attempts from his opponent and allow him to work offensively with more confidence that he’ll see the shots coming.
His opponent will be the 31-year-old, Charalampos Grigoriou. He’ll boast similar experience inside the octagon but not quite as much as his younger counterpart, coming into this one a 7-3. Grigoriou is a heavy-handed, high-pace fighter who’s gathered five of his seven wins by knockout. He’s powerful and explosive with his hands on the feet and has solid wrestling to pad with the power. Along with the hands, he’s shown great power in his leg kicks to the lead leg, disrupting his opponent’s stance and power. On the ground, he excels at being in the right position to control his opponent, often using his head to prevent them from building a base to return to their feet.
Though his striking is often explosive and powerful in the first, his gas tank begins to deplete after the first round. His punches are looping as is, but as fights drag on, he loses a lot of the speed they came in with earlier on. He begins to rely on takedowns more often and although he’s shown the awareness to attack a plethora of takedowns in succession along the cage, this often wears on him more and leaves him vulnerable once the fight is back in space as he can’t rely as heavily on his power to deter striking coming back at him.
Smotherman is the higher-level striker, but he has holes defensively and is susceptible to getting caught by the power of Grigoriou. I don’t think Grigoriou is going to have a lot of success in the wrestling department due to the takedown defense of Cameron. Smotherman needs to keep a high pace and avoid the big shots in the first round and he’ll find himself being more successful as the fight goes on. For Grigoriou, he needs to make it a dogfight and land big shots past the lacking defense of Smotherman. These will open up takedown opportunities and he’ll look to dump Smotherman and hold top control.
Prediction
Assuming Smotherman is able to negate the grappling attack of Grigoriou with his takedown defense, Charalampos’s best chance is to make this fight a slugfest and get into the pocket where he can land on Smotherman as his chin is often available. Smotherman isn’t wild in his approach and has shown more and more patience in the first round, which will serve him well in this fight. He should be able to read the wild flurry of strikes of Grigoriou and land his own shots or get out of range and reset. Once the fight hits the second round, Smotherman’s pace will increase, and he likely overwhelms Grigoriou with his boxing combos and knees. I like Smotherman to win and the fight to enter Round 2.
Prediction: Smotherman to win
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