Introduction
Saturday, April 18th, Greek middleweight prospect Andreas Michailidis will be in action for Cage Warriors, where he will be fighting opposite Nathias Frederick for the middleweight title. He will be looking to continue his current winning streak, as Michailidis looks to get closer to an eventual UFC contract. He represents EFL Martial Arts Academy, an unknown camp in MMA. Let’s take a closer look at this prospect as this week’s “Prospect Spotlight.”
Strengths
Striking: Michailidis can be a ferocious striker, and that may be an understatement. The Greek likes to stand and bang, as he will throw heavy leather with bad intentions. He mixes it up well, as he throws a plethora of punches and kicks. His most impressive striking stoppage came from a spinning back kick to Marcel Fortuna that Michailidis followed up with fight-stopping punches. He is especially dangerous in the first round when he’s fresh, which is when many of his bouts have ended, including his last three fights. His ground-and-pound from top position is heavy as well, which has forced ground stoppages as well.
Power/Strength: Michailidis is a physical specimen for 185er and it shows in his fights. He is very powerful physically, showing great explosiveness. He can ragdoll guys from in close, especially the clinch. His strikes are very powerful as well, which is why he has scored so many knockouts in the past. He has seven knockouts to date, which have come because of his blistering stopping power. Also, when he gets hold of a neck for a submission, his squeeze is immense. He can be hard to move as well, because he has such as strong base.
Needs Improvement
Fighting Off His Back: One of the things Michailidis could patch up in his game is his ability to fight off his back. In two of his losses, superior grapplers have gotten him to the ground and kept him there. In one of those two instances, he was pounded out, showing a hole in his ground strike defense. Though he’s never been submitted, his inability to get back of the mat hurt him. He is a very physically strong fighter and can sometimes hold off from getting taken down, but he needs to work on getting back up when he does get put down.
Outlook
UFC Prelim Fighter: There is no doubt that Michailidis is an experienced, exciting fighter. Those types of mixed martial artists tend to get more looks from Dana White and co. because they can add to the excitement of any fight night they participate on. There is no doubt that he could compete with fighters on the bottom half of the UFC middleweight division. My concern is he’d have trouble pushing past that. There is no shame in being a fighter that takes multiple fights with the UFC and has the potential to earn fight night bonuses. That’s Michailidis. Until he breaks through and beats a fighter that is of high caliber as the top-25 in the UFC MW division, that’s as far as I can put his peak right now.
MMA Intel 