UFC Fight Night 163: Magomedsharipov vs. Kattar - Predictions and Picks

#5 Shamil Gamzatov vs. Klidson Abreu

Shamil Gamzatov looks like a potentially dangerous man at 205lbs

I’m not quite sure how this Light-Heavyweight bout has made the main card; Shamil Gamzatov looks like a fascinating prospect at 13-0, but while Klidson Abreu picked up his first UFC win in July over Sam Alvey, he was comfortably beaten by Magomed Ankalaev back in February and Ankalaev is fighting on this show’s undercard against another hot prospect in Dalcha Lungiambula. At any rate, hopefully this fight will be more entertaining than the Ankalaev/Abreu tilt was.

That fight largely saw Ankalaev use his powerful wrestling game to grind Abreu down for a clear-cut decision, and in all honesty, I could easily see the same thing happening in this fight. Gamzatov’s highlight reel appears to show a super-aggressive striker who throws with serious power, but in actuality his background is more based upon his grappling game. Like many of his fellow Dagestani fighters, he’s an expert in Sambo and has as many submission wins (5) to his name as he does knockouts.

Abreu is also a grappler who’s more than willing to strike, but despite coming into the UFC with a strong record – 15-2 – ‘Urso Branco’ just isn’t a great athlete and that’s always likely to hold him back against bigger, more explosive fighters at 205lbs. Against Ankalaev, he simply had little answer to the Dagestani’s powerful takedowns, and he couldn’t really get his grappling game going from his back either.

Even his fight against Alvey wasn’t that impressive; it was classic Sam Alvey fare with ‘Smilin Sam’ looking for the counter right hook and failing to land it in a low-output striking match. There’s definitely the chance that the Brazilian could surprise Gamzatov in this one – Gamzatov is making his UFC debut after all – but based on what I’ve seen of him he’s too similar to Ankalaev for me not to pick him.

The Pick: Gamzatov via unanimous decision