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#5 UFC Featherweight Division: Hakeem Dawodu vs. Zubaira Tukhugov

Can Hakeem Dawodu get past fellow striker Zubaira Tukhugov this weekend?

To say that this fight sounds like fireworks on paper would be an understatement. Both men are amongst the most explosive and entertaining strikers in the UFC’s Featherweight division, and a big win for either man would propel them into the title picture.

Of the two, Tukhugov has been around for the longest. A teammate of UFC Lightweight champ Khabib Nurmagomedov, ‘The Warrior,’ debuted back in 2014 with a win over Douglas Silva de Andrade. He’s since gone 3-1-1, with the only loss coming via split decision at the hands of the highly-rated Renato Moicano.

Like any Dagestan-based fighter, Tukhugov has an excellent wrestling and grappling game, but it’s with his striking that he truly excels. A heavy hitter with a tremendous grasp of range and distance, ‘The Warrior’ tends to unleash combinations at his foe with venom. He will look to grapple at times, but only when he’s either tired or in trouble standing.

So how does he match with Dawodu? Like Tukhugov, the Canadian is primarily a striker with a number of Muay Thai titles to his name. ‘Mean Hakeem’ didn’t start off his UFC career that well, dropping his debut to Danny Henry in under a minute, but since then, he’s been perfect.

Dawodu hasn’t always been a tremendous finisher – he’s only got one TKO to his name in the UFC – but he’s picked apart all of his opponents on the feet. His closest fight was his most recent against Julio Arce, but even then, it was clear that Dawodu was the better striker.

The key to this fight, I feel, will be Dawodu’s cardio. He hasn’t really gotten tired in any of his UFC outings thus far and even knocked out Yoshinori Horie in the third round of their fight with a vicious head kick. Tukhugov, on the other hand, tired out badly in his fight with Lerone Murphy and ended up missing out on a victory because of it despite picking up a 10-8 first round.

Dawodu will definitely need to be careful; however, as we saw in his fight with Danny Henry that his chin perhaps isn’t the best. He was dropped by the Scottish fighter, and the knockdown led directly to his guillotine choke loss. However, he took plenty of shots from Arce and seemed okay, so perhaps that Henry loss was a red herring.

Overall, I expect a close striking battle here, but I think the cardio advantage will allow Dawodu to outwork his Dagestani foe down the stretch for a decision, giving him his fifth UFC win in a row.

The Pick: Dawodu via unanimous decision