UFC Fight Night 153: Gustafsson vs. Smith - Predictions and Picks

#6 Daniel Teymur vs. Sung Bin Jo

Daniel Teymur has thus far struggled in the UFC

This one seems like a weird choice for a main card fight, to be honest. Teymur – the brother of UFC Lightweight David – is winless in three attempts in the UFC and has hardly looked great in any of those fights.

A striker by trade, ‘Kid Dynamite’ has shown that his ground game lags miles behind his kickboxing one, and all three of his opponents have exploited that to defeat him.

Jo meanwhile is the latest Korean talent to enter the UFC; he’s bringing in a 9-0 record but judging by how his opponents looked in the footage I’ve seen of him, he’s largely been snacking on overmatched foes thus far. From what I can see of ‘The Korean Falcon’, he’s mainly an aggressive striker – although he does have a pair of submission wins to his name.

Could a striking style play into Teymur’s hands? Perhaps; Jo looks wild even on his highlight reel, and clearly leaves himself open to counters, but with that said, he’s definitely got some power and appears to be an A+ athlete, and that’s seemingly been enough to get him this far.

Realistically Jo may well decide to look for takedowns here due to Teymur’s clearly porous ground game, but I wouldn’t at all be surprised to see him coming to trade. If the fight goes down like that it’s anyone’s really but as I’ve not been convinced by Teymur at all in this run, I’ll take the newcomer.

The Pick: Jo via unanimous decision