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#3 UFC Vegas 25: The Main Card
UFC Vegas 25 has four added fights on the main card.
Ion Cutelaba faces Dustin Jacoby in a light-heavyweight clash. Jacoby is a high-level striker, and he’s won his last two UFC outings impressively. But if Cutelaba fights smart, he should have the grappling to deal with Jacoby, who has been outworked on the mat before.
The danger, though, is if Cutelaba gets too wild on the feet as he did against Magomed Ankalaev, and winds up getting knocked out again.
However, Ankalaev carried more of a takedown threat than Jacoby, and so with that in mind, the pick is Cutelaba via decision.
In a middleweight bout, Sean Strickland takes on Krzysztof Jotko. The last time we saw Strickland, he produced a career-best performance to take out Brendan Allen. ‘Tarzan’ is now on a three-fight win streak, and looks very much like living up to his early promise.
Jotko should test him, but it’s hard to imagine his takedowns and somewhat pedestrian striking game having a lot of success against a fighter on such a run. With that considered, Strickland via TKO is the pick.
Merab Dvalishvili faces Cody Stamann in the bantamweight division. Both of these men are highly tough fighters capable of excellence on their day. The likelihood is that it should come down to which man can take the other down.
Given Dvalishvili is on a five-fight win streak and has largely dominated all of his opponents physically, it’s tricky to see Stamann having success. Dvalishvili, via decision, is the pick.
Finally, a strawweight bout will see Luana Carolina take on Poliana Botelho. Both of these women are evenly matched, and both are coming off losses, meaning their UFC careers could be on the line.
Overall though, Botelho’s striking is probably the most dangerous aspect in this fight, and so the pick is Botelho via TKO.
#4 UFC Vegas 25: The Preliminary Card
Picks in bold
UFC Strawweight division: Randa Markos vs. Luana Pinheiro
UFC Featherweight division: Gabriel Benitez vs. Jonathan Pearce
UFC Featherweight division: Kai Kamaka III vs. TJ Brown
UFC Strawweight division: Loma Lookboonmee vs. Sam Hughes
UFC Middleweight division: Andreas Michailidis vs. KB Bhullar
UFC Featherweight division: Felipe Colares vs. Luke Sanders
