City Kickboxing worked through the fog and logistical nightmares of 2020 without much fuss, which was a minor miracle considering the efforts CKB's UFC fighters went through to seal a fight compared to many of their UFC peers. Unfortunately 2021 has been just as difficult, perhaps more tricky as there have been five CKB fights in the UFC this year and Kai Kara France grabbed the only win.

Chuck in Brad Riddell's bout against Gregor Gillespie being scratched due to pandy dramas, as well as Junior Fa losing to Joseph Parker and 2021 has kinda seen CKB come back down to Earth after emerging as one of the best fight teams in the world. In recent weeks there was the passing of CKB team member Fau Vake and as the murals in the CKB gym suggest; CKB have felt that pain before and under matua Eugene Bareman's leadership they honour their fallen troops.

These losses have stretched from Carlos Ulberg losing his UFC debut to Israel Adesanya losing to Jan Blachowicz in moving up a weight class. The latter of which brings us to Adesanya's middleweight title defence against Marvin Vettori - who Adesanya defeated on his rise to the championship back in 2018 - while Riddell's also got a flow-on effect from his missed fight earlier this year, swinging back around to fight Drew Dober.

Being a kiwi has made consuming information for the Adesanya vs Vettori fight a bit weird. All the Adesanya discussion is about Africa and the chance to grow UFC in Africa, while Vettori is Italian and a championship win for him would be a boost to the UFC's European section. New Zealand? Well, the best thing for kiwis would have been the Adesanya vs Robert Whittaker rematch that would have sold out another big arena in either Australia or New Zealand.

57,127 folks attended that Adesanya vs Whittaker fight in Melbourne in 2019. Of all the fighters in the UFC and all the nations represented, UFC 243 holds the record for the biggest crowd in attendance ever for a UFC event and as both Aotearoa and Australia may be the most underrated nations in the world for love of fighting - can we do that again?

Whittaker is out injured right now and his win over Kelvin Gastelum was in April so that quick turn-around wasn't going to work. Whittaker has three consecutive wins since losing to Adesanya and all three of those wins were against impressive fighters who are all ranked in the top-10 of the middleweight division; Darren Till (#7), Jared Cannonier (#4), Kelvin Gastelum (#9).

Vettori's last three fights only feature Jack Hermansson (#6) as a top-10 middleweight and his most recent victory was against Kevin Holland who is 14th in the rankings. Rankings serve as a guide and nothing more, although Vettori's five wins since losing to Adesanya aren’t quite as good as Whittaker's wins. Vettori gets the fight and the only weakness Adesanya has shown came against a heavy bloke in Blachowicz using his size advantage to control via grappling.

That's what Vettori does well. In their last fight Vettori landed 2 of 6 takedowns and Blachowicz proved too good for Adesanya with his 3 of 5 takedowns landed resulting in 7:05mins on control time. Adesanya is perhaps the best striker in the UFC and he smoked Vettori by landing more strikes from fewer total strikes than Vettori. This efficiency and accuracy from Adesanya combined with his variety of strikes, plus how he gathers feedback mid-fight are what make him a champion.

82 percent takedown defence is another major factor for Adesanya and all of CKB's fighters. The CKB recipe is world-class striking with job-doing takedown defence and while that becomes less effective in moving up to fight bigger bodies, Adesanya's skill in snuffing takedowns or escaping when Vettori is in an advantageous position will be a key factor in this fight. Vettori will be especially eager to get takedowns in the middle of the octagon where Blachowicz did his best work, while Adesanya's defence is far better with his back against the cage.

Riddell was going to face a similar challenge, probably a greater challenge in his scheduled fight against Gregor Gillespie. Gillespie is currently ranked 3rd for all UFC fighters (minimum five fights) in Control Time Percentage and 6th in Top Position Percentage, while averaging 6.86 takedowns per 15mins (Vettori averages 2.22). That was going to be a fun test for Riddell as he's cut from the CKB cloth of world-class striking with good takedown defence, instead Riddell is lined up to face Drew Dober who is far more similar to Riddell as a striker.

Dober averages 4.33 strikes landed per 15mins and 0.80 takedowns.

Riddell averages 4.36 strikes and 1 takedown.

While Adesanya will face a variety of threats from Vettori, thus presenting a chance to showcase his own wide range of skills, Riddell seems likely to face a striking battle against Dober. Throughout the rise of CKB in the UFC realm, I've considered Riddell as having the most upside of Team CKB other than Adesanya. Riddell has shown rather extreme grit or fighting spirit in his UFC fights, willing to go deeper into the abyss than his opponents while flexing with his own striking wizardry.

Riddell has landed a takedown in all three of his UFC fights while also landing more strikes than his each of his opponents. This is a small example of the ability of Riddell and he is well equipped to be a factor in the lightweight division where he can now step up a level and fight a ranked lightweight.

Adesanya and Riddell are the most technical and tricky CKB fighters. Riddell is as much a coach as he is a fighter and works closely with Australia's featherweight champion Alex Volkanovski. Any time you watch Adesana fight you can see and feel the fakes, twists, twitches and mental mahi that processes what his opponent is up to. That is to say that part of the Adesanya experience is seeing an artist at work and when combined with a Riddell fight on the same card, we have two of CKB's trickiest fighters together to enjoy.

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