UFC on ESPN+ 59: Chas Skelly vs Mark Striegl - Prediction - 2/19/22
Chas Skelly vs Mark Striegl
Chas Skelly (18-3 w/ 1 NC) made his octagon debut back in 2014. Although he would drop that decision to Mirsad Bektić, he would quickly bounce back and go 7-2 (w/ 1 NC) in his next 10 UFC fights. You can usually find “The Scrapper” locking up rear naked chokes more times than not. Most recently, he defeated Jordan Griffin by decision back in 2019. This will be his first fight in over 2 years due to a pile of scheduled bouts getting scrapped.
Mark Striegl (18-3) would win the featherweight Universal Reality Combat Championship title back in 2018. In his first defense however, he would kick Shunichi Shimizu so hard in the jewels, it would stop the fight and make it a no contest. That minor setback wouldn’t matter though as he would soon get the call from the UFC. Unfortunately for “Mugen”, the UFC would match him up against Said Nurmagomedov, who would hang and bang Striegl inside the first minute of the fight. That would be the first time Striegl would be finished by strikes in his pro career. The Phillipino does hold a win over Kai Kara France which is aging quite well. Lastly, despite his debut being contested at bantamweight, this fight will take place at featherweight.
Skelly will enjoy 2 inches of reach and 3 inches of height over Striegl.
How They Match Up
I’m sure Chas Skelly is happy to finally get back in the cage after numerous injury setbacks. “The Scrapper” is such a fitting nickname for Skelly because the guy is as scrappy as it gets. Even when exhausted he’s still hanging in there trading hooks. His main strength is grappling however, something he also executes well while tired. I remember thinking that Jordan Griffin had the grappling ability to deal with Skelly last time out and it was not the case.
Whether Striegl is striking or wrestling, he always does so with a high level of aggression. It has led to his success but has also given him heaps of trouble. We saw in the Nurmagomedov debut when he jumped into the pocket and got planted. The explosiveness and athleticism has helped him land double leg takedowns though and I suspect he will go this route against Skelly. However, despite his athleticism, his gas tank has looked a bit suspect. He also threw away a fight he had in the bag against a short notice step-in against Reece McLaren. I mentioned he was only stopped by strikes once, but that last fight could have been easily stopped by strikes as well as he was turtled up eating a pile of shots before the mercy rear naked choke came in.
Skelly’s layoff adds a layer of unknown here but the fact he has announced this to be his retirement fight gives me enough confidence that he’s going to come in ready. With Skelly being the bigger and more effective grappler/submission artist, I have to side with him here. If the younger, more athletic Striegl dominates him on the mat then so be it, but I like Skelly’s chances to at some point get back control. He is incredibly adept at locking in chokes and I think Striegl will be looking for a way out if that happens. Give me Skelly to ride off into the MMA sunset with a win by submission.