Summary:

In what I consider to be this cards sleeper “Fight of the Night”, Myles Jury makes his return at Featherweight as he draws the always deadly Charles “Du Bronx” Oliveira. With both men coming off hard losses(in different ways), expect each man in top form to re-establish themselves amongst divisions the Top 10. Aside from the common theme of bouncing back from losses, the clear Intangibles heading into this is Jury’s transition from camps, and it’s subsequent lay-off(nearly one year since last fight). Though his past home of Alliance MMA & his new home of Power MMA are both great gyms, we’ve seen even high level fighters take a fight-or-two to adjust and integrate(in hit or miss fashion) with new technique’s and approaches.

Less we not forget, Myles is still very young in his career and given the trend of fight-to-fight improvements, we could see an entirely different “Fury” Jury here. In looking at Myles style, it’s his movement  that stands out as a key tie-in to his game, and I believe will be a key factor in this fight as well. Taking influence from his former training partner Dominic Cruz, Jury possesses similar but dialed down competency of lateral movement and transitions. He will however be forced to work in this fight as Oliveira’s constant forward pressure should be prevalent here(As seen in his fight with Jury’s friend Jeremy Stephens).

If Myles moves away from his movement game, and shows the plotting power adjustments as his teammate Johnny Case did in his last fight(a similarly styled fighter who transitioned at the same time), Jury may make himself more available to the sticky pressure game of “Du Bronx”. Despite Jiu-Jitsu being the strong point of Myles game(as he holds a Black Belt), I don’t suspect plan A will be to take Charles to the ground as I give Oliveira the edge in entanglements. I believe Jury’s last fight with Cowboy opened his eyes(especially on the ground), and I suspect he’ll look to keep this one standing where I believe he holds a better hand.

Not just being able to move on his feet, Jury has also shown he can hit while moving backwards as he wields an accurate check right hook when stepping back to Southpaw. Keeping his head upright(and often lacking movement), Oliveira has shown to be vulnerable to right hands in particular as he’s been hit & hurt by them in 6 of his last 10 fights. When Charles elects for defense, he’ll often revert to a shell defense which may also play to Jury’s arsenal. As Myles will make his afore-mentioned stance switches, he favors a mean body kick or level-change(should he chose to play that game). Body shots should especially  have availabilities as 2/3 of Oliveira’s TKO losses were initiated by body shots(the other being freak injury).

Jury will have to mind his tendency to lean heavily right as “Du Bronx” fires an accurate left hook, but overall I see Myles landing the more quality shots standing. Charles best chances in this fight will be forcing his classic “Sticky-Action” by initiating clinches(where he lands effective knees), or forcing wrestling shots to cage pressure(as he’s shown improved takedowns & crafty guard pulls). Intangibles aside, this one is going to come down to distance management, and from the footage I’ve studied I’m gonna side with Jury to get it done. But rest assured,”Du Bronx” won’t make it an easy night and will be live as long as this one lasts.