-Fabricio Werdum: I haven’t been that impressed with Alex Volkov. Probably because he barely beat Tim Johnson. Volkov is at his best when he can keep distance and pick his opponent apart with technical strikes and speed. But struggles against fighters that can clinch with him, grapple him, push him against the fence. Something that Werdum can do pretty well. Werdum’s striking has gotten a lot better, but he’s best to go for the easiest path to victory which would be taking Volkov down if he can. But even if he can’t, I see Werdum mixing striking with clinching enough to get a dirty decision win if he has to. I don’t see Volkov posing any threat for Werdum.
-Jimi Manuwa: Pretty cut and dry fight. Probably the only reason this fight was made is because the UFC couldn’t find anyone else to agree to fight Manuwa. He’s 6-3 in the UFC. Only lost to Alex Gustafsson, Anthony Johnson and Volkan Oezdemir. Manuwa beat Jan Blachowicz by decision in their 1st fight. I think same exact thing will happen in the 2nd fight. Decision win for Manuwa. His only 3 losses have come via knockout. So Manuwa is vulnerable on his chin. But Blachowicz is not a knockout artist. He’s more of a ground guy who I doubt will figure out how to get the fight where he wants it.
-Tom Duquesnoy: This should be a pretty similar fight to Ware’s last loss to another elite prospect in Sean O’Malley. Duquesnoy is very similar. Predictable fight. Duquesnoy gets better of stand up. Ware will try and take Duquesnoy down and fail. But Ware is durable and this fight is going to a decision. Duquesnoy is going to cruise here.
-Leon Edwards: Easy fight to pick. Edwards is a rising contender. 26 years old. 6-2 in the UFC so far. He’s not going to have a problem with Peter Sobotta. Edwards will be able to keep the fight on the feet where he has better stand up. Even though Sobotta has gone 4-1 in the his 2nd UFC stint, every single fighter he’s beaten has been released from the UFC. Edwards by 2nd round knockout.
-Charles Byrd: UPSET SPECIAL 1: Not sure why the UFC signed both of these fighters. John Phillips is 32 years old with a 21-6 pro record. Byrd is 34 years old. 9-4 pro record. In my opinion, they immediately become 2 of the worst fighters in the UFC at 185 lbs. But I’m going to pick Byrd mostly because of how inactive Phillips has been. Phillips hasn’t fought in almost 2 years and now he’s going to make his UFC debut?? He’s also only fought 5 times in the last 6 years. Makes me skeptical that he’s going to do well in the UFC. He’s also mainly feasted on tomato cans and loses to better fighters. At least Byrd has been active and beating much better fighters of late. I think Byrd is going to somehow get Phillips to the ground and submit him in the 1st round.
-Danny Roberts: Close fight. Oliver Enkamp has faced decent prospects outside the UFC. 3-0, 5-1 type fighters. 26 years old. Lost to Nordine Taleb in his UFC debut. No shame in that. Roberts is 3-2 in the UFC. Has lost to only upper tier fighters in Mike Perry and Taleb. Finished 2 of his 3 wins. 30 years old and in his prime. But the style matchup causes me to pick Roberts. Enkamp is a submission specialist. And I don’t think his takedowns are good enough to get Roberts on the ground. Roberts is more well rounded, way better standup and I see Roberts outpointing Enkamp for the decision win.
-Jack Marshman: Bradley Scott is just not that good. I think the UFC was about to release him, but because they needed an opponent for Marshman on short notice, he’s getting one more chance. Scott is 3-4 in the UFC. His 3 wins are over fighters that are no longer in the UFC. But the 4 losses are against fighters who are pretty good. Shows Scott could stick as a lower tier gatekeeper if matched up with the right guys. But Marshman is really good. Has a 2-2 UFC record. Lost to rising contenders Thiago Santos and Antonio Carlos Jr. His 2 wins over Magnus Cedenblad and Ryan Janes are impressive. I just like Marshman’s skills more. Both are well rounded. I think fight stays on the feet. Marshman gets better of stand up and takes decision win.
-Hakeem Dawodu: Both are pretty good prospects. Danny Henry won his UFC debut over a quality prospect in Daniel Teymur. Henry is well rounded. 29 years old and in his prime. 11-2 pro record. But I think Dawodu is a better prospect. He’s 26 years old. Undefeated. Beaten lots of solid prospects. And I think Dawodu’s striking is way better. And Henry’s wrestling isn’t that great so I see Dawodu getting the better of the stand up. Henry wanting to take the fight to the ground but not being able to. And I see Dawodu knocking Henry out in the 2nd round.
-Magomed Ankalaev: Pretty easy fight to pick here. Paul Craig is a very one dimensional submission fighter who looked like a fish out of water in his last fight against Khalil Rountree. His striking was that bad. He’s now taking on an elite prospect in Ankalaev who’s a style nightmare for Craig. Ankalaev is 25 years old. Has fantastic wrestling and will be able to use it to keep the fight on the feet where his striking has really improved winning by knockout in 4 of his last 5 fights. Ankalaev is going to knock Craig out in the 1st round.
-Kajan Johnson: UPSET SPECIAL 2: This fight has a funny back story. So Johnson, in 2016, he started bashing the UFC for underpaying fighters and that fighters need to unionize. Since then, the UFC has been trying to squash him and get him out. So they lined up a really bad matchup for Johnson with Adriano Martins. Martins is really good, beat 2 really good fighters in Islam Makhachev and Rustam Khabilov. But to the surprise of everyone, Johnson was way, way improved in the fight and knocked Martins out in the 3rd round. After that, the UFC matched Johnson up with rising contender Mairbek Taisumov. But much to the chagrin of the UFC, Taisumov pulled out of the fight due to injury. So instead of signing a new fighter to make his UFC debut to be an injury replacement, UFC instead booked Stevie Ray who’s got a 5-2 UFC record haha. Which goes to show how much the company does not like Johnson and does not want him doing well. So all that being said, I’m picking Johnson because of how much he opened by eyes in his last fight with Martins. His striking was so much better than I’ve ever seen from him before. And Martins is very legit. Ray… he’s been questionable since his loss to Alan Patrick in 2016. Hasn’t been the same. Barely beat lower tier gate keepers Ross Pearson and Joe Lauzon. And looked really bad when he got knocked out by Paul Felder. And Johnson and Felder are decently similar fighters. I think Felder created a fresh gameplan on how to knock Ray out and should be easy for Johnson to follow it. So I like Johnson by 1st round knockout.
-Dmitriy Sosnovskiy: Bit of a risky pick for me, just because Sosnovskiy is more of an unknown. He’s 10-0. 28 years old. Making UFC debut. 9 of his 10 wins have come against tomato cans. And he has a knockout over veteran Aleksander Emilianenko, who’s still pretty good. So my pick is based largely off that knockout, plus what I think of Godbeer. I think Godbeer is average. Has good power, but his striking is rudimentary. Officially is 1-1 in the UFC. Win over Daniel Spitz is a good look for him but he was losing his last fight against Walt Harris before choosing to not continue his fight after getting struck from an illegal blow. Godbeer was going to lose that fight, had there not been a disqualification. Godbeer did beat Spitz. He did knockout Stuart Austin. Those are 2 decent wins. But I’m picking Sosnovskiy based on projection. In me thinking he’s going to be way faster than Godbeer with better, more sound technical striking. I’ll even be bold enough to pick Sosnovskiy by 2nd round knockout.
-Nad Narimani: UPSET SPECIAL 3: Tough break for Haqparast. First he takes a really short notice fight against Marcin Held. And after the UFC books him in a much favorable match up against Alex Reyes. But Reyes gets hurt and now Haqparast has to fight Narimani on 1 week’s notice. Which this type of thing usually favors the fighter who’s had a full training camp. But Narimani a very good prospect who’s in his prime right now at 30 years old. Coming off the biggest win in his career over a high profile prospect in Paddy Pimblett. Haqparast is mainly a stand up fighter. Narimani is well rounded. Really good on the ground. I think Narimani will fight a way to take Haqparast down and will probably submit him in the 1st round. Haqparast is only 22 years old and has almost zero experience with the type of fighter Narimani is.