Introduction
Friday, March 12th, Canadian middleweight prospect Aaron Jeffrey will be in action for CFFC, where he will be looking to continue his winning ways against fellow prospect Collin Huckbody. He will be looking for another win, as Jeffrey looks to impress the UFC brass in an attempt to earn a contract. He represents Para-Bellum MMA, an underrated camp in MMA. Let’s take a closer look at this prospect as this week’s “Prospect Spotlight.”
Strengths
Striking: Jeffrey is a very good kickboxer, and that is seen in every fight he takes part in. When he is able to get space, he is at his most comfortable, throwing great combos and landing with power. His hands are especially lethal when he’s in the pocket and mixing it up. He also has good kicks and elbows, which he uses in different ways. With the kicks, he uses them to land damage and take out the lower half of his opponent’s body. With the elbows, he uses them effectively when fighting off takedowns, aiming for behind the ear to pester his opponent. And, as we will discuss in a second, he has very good knees from short distance…
Clinch: …he uses those knees from the clinch, where he has been able to land on both the head and body. In fact, two of his wins come by way of knockout due to knees in some capacity. He throttled through Jo Vallee with a brutal barrage of knees that scored the knockout. He also hurt Andre Petroski in his latest fight with LFA, leading to ground-and-pound that eventually finished Petroski. All of this shows that Jeffrey is strong in the clinch and can do major damage there.
Needs Improvement
Counter-Wrestling: In both of Jeffrey’s losses, he was outgrappled by his two opponents. On the Contender Series, he was choked out by Brendan Allen, who made it look easy cutting through Jeffrey’s defenses. In his loss to Sean Brady, he was again outwrestled to a clear-cut decision. Opponents are aware of this and try to get Jeffrey to the ground, as seen in his most recent fight with the aforementioned Petroski. Petroski was able to make Jeffrey uncomfortable for a while and controlled him with his wrestling. Luckily, Jeffrey eventually turned the tables on him and put him away.
Outlook
Preliminary UFC Carder: Jeffrey is an exciting fighter with the type of style that Dana White likes, so I have no doubt that we will see him in the UFC in the near-future. That said, with the amount of tenacious grapplers, especially in the middleweight division, I believe there to be a ceiling on Jeffrey. He has plenty of advantageous matchups for himself in the UFC middleweight division, so he will notch a few wins. However, once he starts taking on the wrestlers and grapplers of the division, he will have a tougher time. First up, though, he has to get past Collin Huckbody, who has made a name for himself in his last two fights. A win over Huckbody should undoubtedly get Jeffrey the call for the UFC.
MMA Intel 