{"id":298822,"date":"2025-11-22T03:20:12","date_gmt":"2025-11-22T03:20:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/298822\/"},"modified":"2025-11-22T03:20:12","modified_gmt":"2025-11-22T03:20:12","slug":"ufc-qatar-predictions-mma-fighting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/298822\/","title":{"rendered":"UFC Qatar predictions | MMA Fighting"},"content":{"rendered":"

There\u2019s only one UFC pay-per-view left this year, but that doesn\u2019t mean there aren\u2019t other remaining cards that could greatly affect the promotion\u2019s 2026 plans.<\/p>\n

UFC Qatar on Saturday features two potential No. 1 contender bouts, as Arman Tsarukyan aims to defend his top lightweight spot against Dan Hooker in the main event, while former welterweight champion Belal Muhammad looks to stop a losing streak before it begins when he takes on \u201cThe Future\u201d Ian Machado Garry. It\u2019s safe to say if any of these gentlemen deliver an impressive performance, they could be next in line to challenge for gold.<\/p>\n

But how impressive do they have to be? Can Tsarukyan grind out a decision over Hooker, or does he have to show that he\u2019s in a different league? Can Hooker leapfrog the contender line if he puts Tsarukyan down for the count? Is Muhammad one win away from fighting for the title again or is he a non-factor in the eyes of the matchmakers? And what does Garry have to do to establish himself as the favorite in a rollicking welterweight division?<\/p>\n

All that, plus the return of Kyoji Horiguchi, Jack Hermansson venturing down to 170 pounds for the first time, and Waldo Cortes-Acosta booking his fifth fight of 2025 on just three days\u2019 notice.<\/p>\n

Where: Ali Bin Hamad al-Attiyah Arena in Doha, Qatar<\/p>\n

When: Saturday, Nov. 22. The eight-fight preliminary card begins at 10 a.m. ET on ESPN+, followed by a six-fight main card at 1 p.m. ET also on ESPN+.<\/p>\n

(Numbers in parentheses indicate standing in the MMA Fighting Global Rankings<\/a> and MMA Fighting Pound-For-Pound Rankings<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Arman Tsarukyan (2, P4P-14) vs. Dan Hooker (7)<\/p>\n

Hey, did you enjoy Islam Makhachev and Valentina Shevchenko sucking the souls out of their opponents? What about Khamzat Chimaev grounding Dricus du Plessis for 25 minutes? Have I got the fight for you!<\/p>\n

Arman Tsarukyan has several paths to victory, but if he believes securing a win in the safest way possible is enough to preserve his No. 1 ranking, then there\u2019s no reason he should deviate from the obvious game plan of taking Dan Hooker down early and often. Now, Hooker isn\u2019t easy to outwrestle, and it takes someone Islam Makhachev to completely dominate him on the ground, but Tsarukyan isn\u2019t far off from that level. If he is determined to grapple, there isn\u2019t a lot Hooker can do to stop him.<\/p>\n

As long as Hooker is standing, he can make this fight interesting, and Tsarukyan could be setting himself up for a huge letdown if he\u2019s even slightly off his game. Again, I believe wrestling is the \u201csafest\u201d way for Tsarukyan to approach this, but that\u2019s not the same as easy. There\u2019s nothing easy about diving into the wood-chipper that is Hooker\u2019s striking game.<\/p>\n

I have Tsarukyan winning a decision and no, I have no clue if this in any way guarantees him a title shot, especially with the UFC\u2019s 2026 plans still up in the air.<\/p>\n

Belal Muhammad (T3, P4P-11) vs. Ian Machado Garry (6)<\/p>\n

Is it really over for Belal Muhammad?<\/p>\n

Wait\u2026 I\u2019m having d\u00e9j\u00e0 vu<\/a>. Right, we just went through a similar dance with Leon Edwards and Carlos Prates last week. And I picked Edwards to win.<\/p>\n

Even so, I\u2019m picking Muhammad to win, too. You thought I was actually going to learn something?<\/p>\n

Ian Machado Garry has a golden opportunity in front of him, as the oddsmakers have him pegged to get past Muhammad and possibly emerge at the top of the welterweight contender pile. He hits hard, uses his physical tools well, and is no slouch when it comes to grappling. It\u2019s that last element that could prove key to holding Muhammad off, because Muhammad should mix the martial arts here and utilize some Cormier wrestling to go along with his \u201cCanelo hands.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mixing it up is what Muhammad is best at and seeing him fight so one-dimensionally against Jack Della Maddalena was frustrating. If he only utilizes his standup with Garry, he\u2019s leaving his fate in the hands of the MMA Gods, and they rarely shown mercy when it comes to aging veterans.<\/p>\n

Garry is saying all the right things about finishing Muhammad and staking his claim to the No. 1 contender spot and if he pulls it off, no one will be surprised. I\u2019m just not ready to count Muhammad out yet (damn, that sounds familiar).<\/p>\n

Volkan Oezdemir (12) vs. Alonzo Menifield<\/p>\n

I see a fighter susceptible to being KO\u2019d, I see them fighting Volkan Oezdemir, I pick Volkan Oezdemir.<\/p>\n

Alonzo Menifield has struggled to pull the trigger in recent years, and that plays perfectly into Oezdemir\u2019s strategy as he takes a minute or two to get a read on his opponents. Once he does, though, it\u2019s typically lights out and I don\u2019t see Menifield having the defense or agility to stay out of the way once Oezdemir locks in and starts throwing. It requires a certain degree of unpredictability to get Oezdemir off of his game and that\u2019s not Menifield\u2019s<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a part of me that\u2019s worried this light heavyweight fight could get real middleweight-y, but I\u2019m trusting Menifield to do the right thing and look for a finish, which will only leave the door open for Oezdemir to cut him off and shut him down.<\/p>\n

Jack Hermansson vs. Myktybek Orolbai<\/p>\n

Jack Hermansson at 170? Don\u2019t love it!<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Joker\u201d looked fine on the scale and you want to believe he\u2019s smart enough to not to do anything deleterious to his health, but a weight class change at this stage of the game feels a little desperate. He isn\u2019t being given a layup either, as Myktybek Orolbai looks make a permanent move up to 170 pounds after wasting his time struggling to consistently make the lightweight limit.<\/p>\n

Orolbai is a durable, well-rounded fighter, and he\u2019s going to push the pace early to see if Hermansson dropping an extra 15 pounds has any effect on his performance. Hermansson will use his length to frustrate Orolbai and likely avoid a brawl if Orolbai attempts to draw him into one. Can Hermansson\u2019s technical strengths stave off Orolbai for there rounds?<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve wanted Orolbai to make the move to welterweight for some time, and I don\u2019t think anyone can say the same for Hermansson. Orolbai by decision.<\/p>\n

Waldo Cortes-Acosta (8) vs. Shamil Gaziev<\/p>\n

The \u201cSalsa Boy\u201d vibes are immaculate! I\u2019m not picking against him!<\/p>\n

Admittedly, this seems like a bad idea for Waldo Cortes-Acosta. He\u2019s taking a fight on three days\u2019 notice, he just fought three weeks ago, and he got kind of lucky that referee Mark Smith intervened to save him from an eye poke-punches knockout combination at the hands of Ante Delija. A wiser fighter might have cashed in their chips and looked ahead to 2026.<\/p>\n

But not Cortes-Acosta! He\u2019s all-in on 2025 and could end the year an astonishing 4-1 if he upsets Shamil Gaziev. It\u2019s a tall order given Gaziev has a truck for a right hand and he won\u2019t hesitate to wrestle with Cortes-Acosta if it comes to it. I\u2019d argue Cortes-Acosta is a significant step up in competition, though, so there could be an adjustment period, especially given Cortes-Acosta\u2019s sometimes unorthodox movement.<\/p>\n

Common sense says pick Gaziev, but did I mention the vibes?<\/p>\n

Tagir Ulanbekov vs. Kyoji Horiguchi (4)<\/p>\n

I\u2019m seeing plenty of takes saying this is a nightmare matchup for Kyoji Horiguchi\u2019s UFC return and to those people, I have one question: How dare you?<\/a><\/p>\n

Horiguchi has been one of the best lighter weight fighters in the world for the better part of the last decade. He also has plenty of experience fighting bigger guys, so even though Tagir Ulanbekov has a clear size advantage, I\u2019m not deterred in my belief Horiguchi will have a victorious start to his second UFC run. Just look at how his two fights with Darrion Caldwell went. Caldwell was huge compared to Horiguchi and, yes, Caldwell spent a lot of those fights working from top position, he also lost both of them because Horiguchi knows how to work out of bad positions and maximize his offense.<\/p>\n

I expect Ulanbekov to tower over Horiguchi and I\u2019m not saying this is an easy win for Horiguchi at all. If anything, Ulanbekov might be the best-kept secret at flyweight and could be just one or two signature wins away from challenging for a top 5 spot. He\u2019s very, very, very, very good at what he does.<\/p>\n

But Horiguchi\u2019s speed and experience will make the difference, not to mention his oft-overlooked finishing ability. Forget just pulling off an upset, I\u2019m predicting a knockout win for Horiguchi.<\/p>\n

Luke Riley def. Bogdan Grad<\/p>\n

Saygid Izagakhmaev def. Nicolas Dalby<\/p>\n

Asu Almabayev (11) def. Alex Perez (T12)<\/p>\n

Abdul Rakhman Yakhyaev def. Raffael Cerqueira<\/p>\n

Bekzat Almakhan def. Aleksandre Topuria<\/p>\n

Ismail Naurdiev def. Ryan Loder<\/p>\n

Nurullo Aliev def. Shem Rock<\/p>\n

Denzel Freeman def. Marek Bujlo<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There\u2019s only one UFC pay-per-view left this year, but that doesn\u2019t mean there aren\u2019t other remaining cards that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":298823,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[444],"tags":[49,48,641,701,638,82,640,702],"class_list":{"0":"post-298822","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mma","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-fighting","11":"tag-latest-news","12":"tag-mma","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-ufc","15":"tag-ufc-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298822","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=298822"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298822\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/298823"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=298822"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=298822"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=298822"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}