Introduction
Tuesday, September 8th, Norwegian-Albanian light heavyweight prospect Arlind Berisha will be in action for Dana White’s Contender Series, where he will be looking continue his winning ways against Quentin Pasley. He will be looking for another win, as Berisha looks to secure a UFC contract. He represents Sarpsborg Chi Kickboxing & MMA, a smaller camp in MMA. Let’s take a closer look at this prospect as this week’s “Prospect Spotlight.”
Strengths
All-Around Striking: Berisha is an all-around threat with his strikes whether on the feet or on the mat. He has good ground-and-pound. He has good kickboxing ability. He lands with power, but can also land in volume. He gets to work quick and finishes fights with a blitz in the first round most of the time. When he does hurt an opponent on the feet, he can also finish them with his hands on the mat.
Size and Distance Control: On top of being a generally good striker, Berisha is also 6’6″ and has long limbs. He’s excellent at distance control and landing his strikes at the end of his punches/kicks. His long limbs also make it easier for him to score submissions, mostly chokes, on the mat. His dimensions are hard to mimic for guys having to game plan for him.
Needs Improvement
Strength of Schedule: The one thing about Berisha that makes him somewhat of a mystery still is the fact he hasn’t really stepped up in competition yet. That could be because it’s hard for him to find guys willing to fight him at this point. His biggest win comes against Nell Ariano as an amateur, actually. He may have some counter-wrestling shortcomings as well, but again, only time will tell of his ceiling once he fights better competition.
Outlook
UFC Midcarder: Berisha is a potential contender in the making in a weight class in desperate need of fresh blood. His size and all-around skill set is something that he will show off in this feature bout, and if he does make the UFC, which I think he will, I think he can be a guy who sniffs the rankings fairly quickly. The competition level will be very different, but I think he’s got the skills to step up.
MMA Intel 