In took long enough, but Cub Swanson is finally favored to win
a fight in the UFC.
The UFC featherweight contender, who rides a three-fight win
streak into his Saturday night co-main event matchup at UFC on FUEL TV 7 against Dustin Poirier, is
currently sitting as a -120 favorite to defeat Poirier,
who is a slight
underdog at even money.
Poirier actually opened as a slight favorite, but the
public immediately came in on Swanson, and thus he’s now the favorite.
That’s called respect.
It’s something that Swanson didn’t get from anyone during his
latest win streak. Against George Roop, he was a solid underdog, yet came
through with shining colours, knocking out Roop with a massive punch that sent
his mouthpiece flying. Against Ross Pearson, no one gave Swanson a chance, and
he knocked him out as a big underdog, too. And against Charles Oliveira
everyone expected Swanson to go into the Octagon and get submitted by the young
Brazilian phenom, but Swanson knocked him out with ease.
It’s a miraculous turnaround for a fighter who started his UFC
career with a submission loss to Ricardo Lamas (as an underdog, mind you) and
who lost in only eight seconds via double flying knee KO when he fought Jose Aldo (as a dog again, of course) back in WEC in what was the biggest fight of
his career up to this point, as that fight was for a shot to fight then-WEC featherweight champion Mike Brown.
On Saturday night though, Swanson can erase his past failures
in big fights with a huge win over Poirier, who is one of the top contenders in
the UFC’s featherweight division. If Swanson can take out Poirier in the same
brutal fashion that he took out Roop, Pearson, and Oliveira, there is no
question that he’ll be in the hunt not for the WEC featherweight title, but
this time for the granddaddy of them all, the UFC Featherweight Championship of
the world.
Sure, Swanson would still be behind Lamas in the title shot
order because he lost to him just over a year ago, but there’s no guarantee
that Lamas wins his next fight, and if he loses and Swanson beats Poirier, then
he’ll be in the driver’s seat along with “The Korean” Zombie” Chan Sung Jung for the next title shot.
But that’s a whole lot of ifs, and Swanson’s first order of
duty is to defeat Poirier in impressive fashion and force himself into “the
mix,” as UFC president Dana White likes to put it.
It’s amazing that this is the same fighter who everyone wrote
off after Aldo destroyed him in mere seconds, but this is mixed martial arts,
and fighters can improve drastically in just a few years, and Swanson certainly
has.
When Swanson steps into the cage on
Saturday night, he will be looking to prove everyone that doubted him
wrong and to vindicate those who are
finally jumping on his bandwagon. Expect fireworks and nothing less.
UFC on FUEL TV 7: Barao vs. McDonald is due to take place on February 16, 2013 at Wembley Arena in London, UK.
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