Chris Lytle vs. Kevin Burns
In the night’s only featured bout outside of the Lightweight division, skilled grappler Chris “Lights Out” Lytle will take on promising prospect Kevin Burns at 170 pounds. With both men coming off high-profile losses, I would expect this to be a very competitive matchup, especially since the two have quite similar styles.
Lytle is pretty much the textbook definition of a “journeyman”. With nearly 50 professional fights under his belt, Lytle has been around the block, come back, and gone back around again. Despite his wealth of experience, though, Lytle has never managed to break through into the upper crust of the sport.
In fact, he has been defeated each and every single time he has ever tried to take a step up in competition, which makes him a perfect gatekeeper for the division. Anyone who beats Lytle probably has a bright future in the sport, and anyone who loses to him will probably never amount to anything.
Burns, for his part, is certainly trying to amount to something. Thusfar, though, he has not managed to capture a single impressive win. While he did beat Anthony Johnson on paper, the win was the result of an obvious foul and very poor officiating. In the rematch, Johnson put Burns to sleep with a head kick in the third round. Much like Lytle, Burns is a good grappler with decent standup. The biggest difference, clearly, is experience and level of competition.
Despite Lytle’s big fight losing streak, I don’t see him having any problems with Burns, who lacks experience and, dare I say it, ability. Lytle by armbar, round 3.
