Preview: UFC Fight Night 156 ‘Shevchenko vs. Carmouche 2’
Barzola vs. Moffett
Featherweights
Enrique Barzola (15-4-1) vs. Bobby Moffett (14-4)Advertisement
Even coming off a loss, Peru’s Barzola is one of the more underrated fighters on the UFC roster. One of the winners of “The Ultimate Fighter: Latin America” Season 2, Barzola is not a particularly dynamic fighter, but he has made a strange and interesting game work, even as the promotion has buried him on the prelims. Barzola’s style centers around pace, as his cardio is his strongest suit. He utilizes a herky-jerky striking game with constant movement, and when the moment is right, he will jump in to either cause some damage or implement some surprisingly effective wrestling. That was enough to effectively win his first six UFC fights -- his decision loss to Kyle Bochniak was quite undeserved -- but Kevin Aguilar finally cracked the Barzola code in March, hitting “El Fuerte” with enough power on the counter that he was not able to get much done in the way of effective offense. Naturally, Barzola finally gets back on the main card now that he has lost, but his fight is still one worth featuring, as it should be a fun scrap against Moffett.
Moffett is a solid fighter, though he looks to have settled quickly into a mid-tier action slot in a deep featherweight division. Coming off of Dana White’s Contender Series, the best part of his game appeared to be his grappling, and so far, that has held true. Even if the stoppage was a bit early, Moffett did well to compete and then submit a tough grinder in Chas Skelly in his UFC debut. For his follow-up, Moffett’s pressure and wrestling hit a wall against Bryce Mitchell, who was just a bit more dynamic in scrambles and exchanges and halted his momentum as a result. The style matchup here is not doing Moffett a ton of favors, but at the very least, he should put on enough of a fun performance to carve out a niche for himself.
Moffett’s traditional strengths have been his pace and his grappling, and that seems like exactly the wrong way to approach a fight against Barzola. It will be interesting to see how Barzola responds to Moffett’s pressure. Even if the end result sees “The Wolfman” successfully clinching with his Peruvian opponent, it does not seem like much of an endgame given that Barzola is probably the stronger fighter. Moffett might be able to catch a submission, but the likelier scenario is that Barzola is faster on the feet and stronger on the mat and against the fence. These two should provide constant action, but this appears to be a clear Barzola decision win.
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