An interesting fight to break down, on one side you have a three time Division I All-America wrestler and on the other side a submission savvy fighter who has notched 11 submissions in 12 victories.

I think it is safe to assume that both fighters want to take it to the mat, but so often in these cases do the fights become a stand up contest.

I am a believer in the would be “Obama Slayer”, Mr. Jacob Volkmann, but it is hard to gauge the ceiling for a fighter who is undefeated, especially when his specialty plays right into the hands of his opponent.

My mind keeps flashing back to that third round against Escudero with Volkmann, where Efrain almost had him beat with that choke to win the fight. It’s possible, I suppose, that Sass can do the same thing. Maybe we saw the first glimmer of a weakness for Volkmann at lightweight in that fight and perhaps Sass is just the man to stop the unstoppable 155 pound wrestling machine.

I don’t know…

If I was a betting man, the safe money still lies with Volkmann. He has taken out the likes of the aforementioned Escudero, Ronys Torres and Antonio McKee and no one has seemed to have the answer to his dominant wrestling skillset.

Again, I hate picking against fighters who are undefeated because there was a time, for example, where Lyoto Machida and Jon Jones where making the climb in the UFC as undefeated prospects and they both rose to be champions. You never know when an undefeated fighter is the real deal or not and only through increased levels of competition do you find out.

Still though, safe money is on the wrestler, until someone can beat this guy at lightweight it’s hard for me to bet against him at least in the lower-mid tier of the division.

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