MMA Fighting Global Rankings<\/a>)<\/p>\nMario Bautista (6) vs. Vinicius Oliveira (14)<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not always pretty, but Mario Bautista understands the science behind winning fights.<\/p>\n
He knows when it\u2019s time to rack up points on the feet, he knows how to grind an opponent against the fence, and he knows when to put up his defenses and ride out a storm. That strategical sense has hindered Bautista when it comes to finding finishes, something he had a knack for as he worked his way up the rankings, which could also work against him as he attempts to defuse Vinicius Oliveira. You give Lok Dog 25 minutes to work, he must might catch you.<\/p>\n
Like Bautista, Oliveira is one of the most difficult style matchups at 135 pounds. While Bautista sometimes looks like he\u2019s working through an MMA algorithm, Oliveira is a machine of a different kind, constantly marching forward and giving his opponents no space to get comfortable. He\u2019ll stand in the pocket, throw on the move, and empty a chunk of his gas tank in an instant if he thinks he has you hurt.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m going with Bautista because he\u2019s so difficult to pressure and he has the kind of footwork that will make it difficult for Oliveira to cut him off. Bautista will muck this up as he has most of his recent fights, frustrating Oliveira and putting his cardio to the test. It will be a struggle early, but Bautista will assert himself in the later rounds to eke out a close decision win.<\/p>\n
Amir Albazi (T8) vs. Kyoji Horiguchi (3)<\/p>\n
To put into perspective why Kyoji Horiguchi is such a considerable favorite here, it\u2019s been 15 months since Amir Albazi\u2019s most recent fight, two and a half years since his last win, and over three years since he won convincingly. It\u2019s under those circumstances that he takes on Horiguchi, one of the 125-pound division\u2019s all time greats.<\/p>\n
Albazi has one super solid skill and that\u2019s taking his opponents to the ground. He\u2019ll have success in this department against Horiguchi, who always gives up size and strength. What Albazi can do once Horiguchi is down is another question. Plenty of wrestlers have tried to smother Horiguchi to no avail, with the Japanese star\u2019s technique, athleticism, and smarts typically getting him out of trouble. It won\u2019t take long for Albazi to become frustrated when he realizes he can\u2019t steal rounds with his wrestling.<\/p>\n
On the feet, the speedy Horiguchi will slice Albazi to bits, and possibly threaten to become the first fighter to finish Albazi. What I said about Horiguchi\u2019s technique and athleticism being assets on the ground goes double in the standup, where he will dazzle the hundreds upon hundreds (?) of fans watching at the Apex as he out-strikes Albazi for three rounds.<\/p>\n
Jailton Almeida (8) vs. Rizvan Kuniev<\/p>\n
Jailton Almeida has a great chance of getting back in the win column if he focuses on, you know, actually hurting the other guy.<\/p>\n
Stepping in on less than a month\u2019s notice for Ryan Spann, Almeida is taking a risk here putting his number up for grabs against Rizvan Kuniev. There\u2019s a reason Kuniev, a two-time Contender Series contestant, has been thrown to the wolves in his first two UFC matchups. He hits hard, he has strong grappling defense, and he\u2019s quicker than his 264-pound mark on the scale would suggest. Almeida could be in serious trouble.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m not ready to hop off the \u201cMalhadinho\u201d bandwagon yet even though there\u2019s plenty of reason to doubt his chances of ever becoming a champion at heavyweight, so I\u2019m comfortable picking him to not just win but return to his finishing ways. Dull performances against Alexander Volkov and Derrick Lewis have drawn well-deserved criticism for Almeida, but his willingness to jump on this opportunity suggests urgency, and that feeling could be exactly what Almeida needs to get his mind right.<\/p>\n
Kuniev won\u2019t make it easy, but eventually Almeida takes him down and finds a submission.<\/p>\n
Michal Oleksiejczuk vs. Marc-Andre Barriault<\/p>\n
Michal Oleksiejczuk is one of the UFC\u2019s most reliable finishers and they\u2019re teeing one up for him. With respect to Marc-Andre Barriault, who has often been counted out in the past only to pull off a gutsy performance, he\u2019s just been hit hard too many times and Oleksiejczuk is expected to serve up more of that Saturday.<\/p>\n
With his 36th birthday around the corner and nearly 30 pro bouts to his name, Barriault has already begun to see diminishing returns in the cage with two first-round knockouts in his past four fights. He fought well enough to not end up in Shara Bullet\u2019s highlight reel last time, but that\u2019s damning him with faint praise as he still ended up with another loss on his record. Though he has the experience and training, Barriault has frequently relied upon having a hard chin to wade through danger and that card has reached its limit and then some.<\/p>\n
So look for Oleksiejczuk to do what he\u2019s supposed to do: Take the fight to Barriault as soon as the bell rings and end this one in the first.<\/p>\n
Jean Matsumoto vs. Farid Basharat<\/p>\n
Technique is the name of this game.<\/p>\n
Farid Basharat has the size and reach advantage here, but that\u2019s only going to take him so far against the skilled-beyond-his-years Jean Matsumoto. The 26-year-old bantamweight has been making it up as he goes along against older opponents like Miles Johns and Rob Font, and the results have been mixed. Sometimes, Matsumoto looks like the class of his Contender Series season; other times, like he\u2019s missing that nebulous killer instinct that separates the great fighters from the merely good.<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t have those doubts with Basharat. Fundamentally, he\u2019s one of the most gifted fighters on the roster. He controls distance beautifully and rarely risks mistakes, so he\u2019s a true puzzle for Matsumoto. He\u2019ll aggressively look for takedowns, but also won\u2019t hesitate to jab Matsumoto\u2019s face off if it comes to that. Basharat\u2019s defense will have to be up to par, though, because Matsumoto has a nasty Muay Thai style.<\/p>\n
Matsumoto\u2019s past two fights have ended in split calls and while I\u2019m expecting a unanimous nod here in Basharat\u2019s favor, both fighters will be sweating the scores until the final bell.<\/p>\n
Dustin Jacoby vs. Julius Walker<\/p>\n
This is the funny kind of matchup that can only materialize on short notice.<\/p>\n
Taking into account his MMA and kickboxing careers, Dustin Jacoby has over times as much professional punching and kicking experience as Julius Walker. Wrestling is the great equalizer and Walker is strong enough to force Jacoby into a few uncomfortable positions. But that\u2019s never been a surefire way to beat Jacoby, especially in the later stages of his career where he\u2019s mastered the art of using his wrestling defensively to set up his classic standup game.<\/p>\n
Sincerely, if this stays on the feet, I see no path to victory for Walker. He hits hard, but so do most of Jacoby\u2019s opponents, and few have been able to put him away inside the distance. This is such a mismatch in my eyes and it\u2019s likely only due to Jacoby\u2019s age (he turns 38 this year) that the odds are as close as they are.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve got Jacoby winning a decision and possibly even putting Walker away inside the distance if he\u2019s feeling frisky.<\/p>\n
Daniil Donchenko def. Alex Morono<\/p>\n
Nikolay Veretennikov def. Niko Price<\/p>\n
Bruna Brasil def. Ketlen Souza<\/p>\n
Javid Basharat def. Gianni Vazquez<\/p>\n
Eduarda Moura def. Wang Cong<\/p>\n
Muin Gafurov def. Jakub Wiklacz<\/p>\n
Klaudia Sygula def. Priscila Cachoeira<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Paramount Era, meet the META APEX. Not exactly giving you goosebumps, eh? The UFC\u2019s 2026 campaign is well…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":464869,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,1347,785,85,787,1396],"class_list":["post-464868","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-fighting","tag-latest-news","tag-mma","tag-sports","tag-ufc","tag-ufc-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464868","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=464868"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464868\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/464869"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=464868"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=464868"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=464868"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}