-Demian Maia: Tough fight to pick just because Ben Askren doesn’t have much of a track record when it comes to fighting elite competition. Askren is 35 years old. 19-1 pro record. 1-1 in the UFC. He fought a few decent prospects outside the UFC but none were able to match his wrestling. And he submitted Robbie Lawler in controversial fashion. But before he beat Lawler, he almost got knocked out. Then got knocked out by Jorge Masvidal. I have Askren’s wrestling graded as only plus due to the lack of competition he’s gone against. Demian Maia is now 41 years old. 12-5 UFC record at 170 lbs. He out grappled Jon Fitch in his prime. Also has wins over Gunnar Nelson, Jorge Masvidal and Rocco Martin. In the past 5 years, he’s lost to only the 3 best fighters in the division, all with elite wrestling. Maia’s grappling is plus. But he’s been sneaky in improving his striking which I’d now grade as being above average with average power. I think Maia wants to keep this fight standing up because he believes he has a striking advantage. I would agree with him. I’m also not sure how Askren’s cardio holds up over 5 rounds. Because of that, I think Maia wins by decision.
-Michael Johnson: I’m happy that Johnson is moving back up to 155 lbs as he didn’t look that healthy at 145 lbs. And he wasn’t that bad at lightweight! He lost 4 out of 5 but the losses were against Khabib, Justin Gaethje, Nate Diaz and a split decision to Beneil Dariush. And the 1 win was a knockout over Dustin Poirier. Johnson is now 33 years old. 9-8 UFC record at 155 lbs. Has wins over Poirier, Edson Barboza and is the last man to beat Tony Ferguson. Skill wise, he still has above average striking paired with plus power. And has above average wrestling. Stevie Ray is 29 years old. 6-4 UFC record. The losses have come against quality fighters. Alan Patrick, Paul Felder, Kajan Johnson, Leonardo Santos. But the wins aren’t that impressive. 3 wins over fighters that didn’t last long in the UFC. A split decision win over Ross Pearson. Majority decision win over Joe Lauzon. And he beat Jessin Ayari by decision. Ray is well rounded but has no standout tools. He’s got average striking and average grappling. I see Johnson using his wrestling to keep the fight on the feet. He has the better striking and his power is the best tool in the fight. 1st round knockout for Johnson.
-Ciryl Gane: It’s still early, but Gane has the looks of a title contender. He’s 29 years old. 4-0 pro record. Submitted a 9-0 striker in his UFC debut. Even more impressive to me is that Gane knocked out a 7-0 striker in his 2nd pro fight and knocked out an 8-1 striker in his 3rd pro fight. Easy plus striking, with a ceiling of the tool becoming plus plus. Also has average grappling. Don’tale Mayes is a quality heavyweight prospect. 27 years old. 6-2 pro record, although 1 loss came from a DQ. The other loss was getting knocked out by Allen Crowder. Mayes does have some solid wins. A knockout over a 10-1 grappler and he knocked out a 4-0 striker. I grade Mayes having striking that’s slightly above average to go along with average wrestling. I like Mayes and am looking forward to seeing how he develops, but Gane is on a whole other level in the striking. If someone like Crowder can knock Mayes out, I know Gane can too. 1st round knockout.
-Sergei Pavlovich: The UFC matching Pavlovich up with Alistair Overeem in his UFC debut tells you how good the brass thinks Pavlovich is. 26 years old. 13-1 pro record. Overeem knocked him out in his UFC debut. No shame there. But then bounced back to knock out Marcelo Golm in his last fight. Before signing with the UFC, Pavlovich beat 4 quality prospects, 3 of them by knockout. Currently I grade Pavlovich as having above average striking with a high ceiling to get better. And he also has average wrestling. Maurice Green is 33 years old. 8-2 pro record. 3-0 UFC record. Lost to Jeff Huges outside the UFC and then bounced back to beat him in the UFC by split decision. Greene has average striking and average grappling. Pavlovich has the best tool in this fight. His striking. And I expect Pavlovich to get the job done knocking Greene out in the 1st round.
-Beneil Dariush: I get the premise of this fight. Frank Camacho is a really good striker. Has decent take down defense. Could beat Dariush. Camacho is 30 years old. 2-3 in the UFC. All 3 losses have been from Camacho being out struck by quality opponents. His split decision win over Damien Brown was blah. His biggest career win was his last fight in stuffing Nick Hein’s take downs and knocking him out. I grade Camacho as having average striking and average wrestling. Dariush is only 30 years old. 10-4-1 UFC record. Has big wins over the likes of Rocco Martin, Diego Ferreira, Jim Miller, James Vick. And 3 of his 4 losses were against ranked fighters. The book on Dariush is he has plus grappling and above average striking but his power is below average. So he losses when it’s a stand up fight and his opponent has knockout power. Thus Camacho poses a little bit of a threat, but I think Dariush’s grappling is good enough to get Camacho on the ground and I’m picking Dariush by 2nd round submission.
-Jeff Hughes: Hughes is 31 years old. 10-2 pro record. 1-1 in the UFC so far. Knocked out a 15-6 striker. Lost a close split decision to Maurice Green. Hughes also lost to a well rounded 13-5 fighter. But he does have a decision win over Greene when they fought the first time. Hughes has average wrestling. Raphael Pessoa is 30 years old. 9-1 pro record. Got submitted by Ciryl Gane in his UFC debut. All wins over cans. Pessoa has average striking. Whether Hughes can take Pessoa down will decide the fight. I say he can and thus Hughes wins by decision.
-Aleksandra Albu: This matchup is a soft landing spot for Albu who’s 29 years old. Top prospect, but she only has 4 pro fights. 3-1 record. 2-1 in the UFC. The 2 wins were against a 5-2 prospect and Kailin Curran. Her last fight she got submitted by Emily Whitmire. Albu is very raw but at this point has average wrestling and average striking with a high ceiling as she develops. Loma Lookboonmee is equally green. 23 years old. 3-1 pro record. She got submitted by a 1-1 grappler. But her last win, she beat a 4-1 striker. Striking is Lookboonmee’s best tool, which is currently close to average. This is a very favorable matchup for Albu who will have no problem taking Lookboonmee down and Albu will pick up the 1st round submission.
-Muslim Salikhov: Salikhov is 35 years old. 14-2 pro record. 2-1 in the UFC so far. Alex Garcia submitted him in his UFC debut. But then he bounced back by knocking out Ricky Rainey and Nordine Taleb. He also has knockouts over 3 quality prospects and knocked out 2 UFC vets. Salikhov’s striking is plus. Laureano Staropoli is 26 years old. 9-1 pro record. 2-0 UFC record. But all his wins outside the UFC were over cans and then he beat Hector Aldana and Thiago Alves in the octagon. He’s got average striking. Easy fight to pick. Salikhov needs to work on his take down defense but Staropoli poses no threat there. Salikhov is going to knock Staropoli out in the 1st round.
-Ashley Yoder: When Yoder almost beat MacKenzie Dern and lost by split decision, in hindsight, it seems that had more to do with Yoder taking a step forward developmentally than it did with Dern not showing up that night. Yoder is 31 years old. 2-4 UFC record. All 4 losses have come against decent fighters. But she turned a corner in the Dern fight. Since then, she’s won 2 in a row beating Amanda Cooper and Syuri Kondo. I’d now grade her wrestling as above average with an average submission game. Randa Markos is 34 years old. 7-7-1 UFC record. She hasn’t really developed and has stayed one dimensional. She wins when she’s able to use her above average wrestling to take her opponent down. But if she’s forced to fight on the feet, she loses. In this fight, I think Yoder has the wrestling to stuff Markos’ take downs. And I think Yoder’s striking is slightly better. Close fight. I’m going with Yoder by split decision.
-Julia Avila: When you look at Avila’s resume, it’s obvious she’s an elite prospect in that she has wins over former champion Nicco Montano and current UFC fighter Marion Reneau. 31 years old. 7-1 pro record, although the 1 loss was a fluke, Avila had a freak finger injury and the fight was stopped. In her UFC debut, Avila cruised in beating Pannie Kianzad. She’s got plus wrestling with above average striking. Karol Rosa is 24 years old. 12-3 pro record. Barely beat Lara Procopio by split decision in her UFC debut, All of Rosa’s other wins were over cans. 2 of the other 3 losses were against UFC fighters Melissa Gatto and Larissa Pacheco. She also lost to a 4-3 striker a couple years ago. Rosa has average striking. Avila is better everywhere, but in this fight, I see her taking Rosa down and getting a ground and pound TKO win in the 1st round.
-Movsar Evloev: Evloev is a top prospect. 25 years old. 11-0 pro record. Easily beat a 7-1 prospect in his UFC debut. He also has wins over 4 other quality prospects. That’s a lot. Evloev has above average striking, above average wrestling, and average submissions. Enrique Barzola has not evolved. 30 years old. 6-2 in the UFC. But he’s very one dimensional with above average wrestling. Lost to Kyle Bochniak and Kevin Aguilar because he couldn’t take them down. And his 6 wins came from him having the superior wrestling over his opponents. Evloev is a bad matchup because he has the wrestling to keep the fight on the feet where he’ll have a big advantage. Evloev will cruise to a decision win here.
-Alex White: White has been a decent lower tier gate keeper in the UFC. 30 years old. 4-5 UFC record. He lost to Clay Collard and Lucas Martin early on, but his last 3 losses have been against quality guys in Rocco Martin, James Krause and Jim Miller. And his 2 wins over Artem Lobov and Mitch Clarke are pretty good. White is well rounded with striking that is slightly above average and average grappling. Rafael Fiziev is 26 years old. 6-1 pro record. All wins over cans. Got knocked out in his UFC debut to Magomed Mustafaev. Has average striking. White and Fiziev’s striking is pretty close but the difference will be in White having the grappling to take Fiziev down and I see White getting the submission win in the 2nd round.