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<\/a><\/p>\nBAKU, AZERBAIJAN – JUNE 21: (L-R) Rizvan Kuniev of Russia punches Curtis Blaydes in their heavyweight fight during the UFC Fight Night event at Baku Crystal Hall on June 21, 2025 in Baku, Azerbaijan. (Photo by Ed Mulholland\/Zuffa LLC)<\/p>\n
Heavyweight: Jailton Almeida (-160)<\/a> vs. Rizvan Kuniev (+124) Almeida is among the most frustrating fighters on the UFC roster, a man clearly gifted with all the tools and skills to be champion (of a crap division)<\/a>. I am fully convinced that I \u2014 nay, most of us \u2014 could train Almeida to UFC gold were we given the opportunity. The training plan would merely require some kind of reward\/pun ishment system and a ground-and-pound training dummy, which we could force Almeida to elbow for two hours a day.<\/p>\n It\u2019s absolutely incredible how the amazing grappler refuses to hit his opponents from top position.<\/p>\n Kuniev, conversely, is still making his name known inside the Octagon, but he\u2019s clearly better than most. The Russian standout did good work in resisting many of Curtis Blaydes\u2019 takedowns in his UFC debut, landing some heavy shots and arguably winning the fight outright. He\u2019s still looking for his first Octagon win, but clearly UFC believes there\u2019s something there based on his immediate introduction into Top 10 opposition.<\/p>\n It is hard to pick against Almeida because his grappling threat is so dominant. His takedowns seem fairly unstoppable, as nobody has found an answer yet for that blast double. It\u2019s a matter of catching the Brazilian with strikes before he lands the takedown or outworking him once on the floor, which is only feasible because of the aforementioned refusal to punch on the floor.<\/p>\n Kuniev is a big lad, but he\u2019s not a massively explosive hitter nor does he have Alexander Volkov\u2019s experience on the bottom. My general thought is that if the 265-pound prospect is taken down and forced to defend, he\u2019s going to be exhausted quickly. Blaydes couldn\u2019t really establish top position, but that\u2019s rarely proven an issue for Almeida and should make the difference.<\/p>\n Prediction: Almeida via decision<\/p>\n CHICAGO, ILLINOIS – AUGUST 16: (R-L) Michal Oleksiejczuk of Poland punches Gerald Meerschaert in a middleweight fight during the UFC 319 event at the United Center on August 16, 2025 in Chicago, Illinois. (Photo by Ed Mulholland\/Zuffa LLC)<\/p>\n Middleweight: Michael Oleksiejczuk (-350)<\/a> vs. Marc-Andre Barriault (+255) Oleksiejczuk has long felt like a fighter who has more potential than success. The 30-year-old veteran has tremendously fast hands and great natural power, but he can really struggle when faced with an opponent who wants to take him down. Since moving to The Fighting Nerds, Oleksiejczuk has won two in a row against an admittedly uninspiring level of competition.<\/p>\n Maybe that team will help him put it all together?<\/p>\n Barriault, conversely, has the look of a fighter slowing down. \u201cPower Bar\u201d is a nasty close range slugger with mean elbows and a relentless work rate, but his historically rock solid durability is beginning to crack after two knockout losses in his last four appearances.<\/p>\n There is certainly a path to victory for Barriault as the bigger and stronger man. If he\u2019s single-minded in pursuit of the clinch, there\u2019s a possibility he shuts down his opponent\u2019s combination punching and is able to bully him. Oleksiejczuk has certainly proven himself capable of underwhelming in the past!<\/p>\n That said, it feels like the Polish fighter is turning a corner, and his speed advantage should be massive. A few digs to the belly will likely halt Barriault\u2019s forward pressure, allowing Oleksiejczuk the speed to build combinations and drop that left hand hammer before too long.<\/p>\n Prediction: Oleksiejczuk via knockout<\/p>\n LAS VEGAS, NEVADA – AUGUST 09: (L-R) Jean Matsumoto of Brazil punches Miles Johns in a bantamweight fight during the UFC Fight Night event at UFC APEX on August 09, 2025 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Jeff Bottari\/Zuffa LLC)<\/p>\n Bantamweight: Jean Matsumoto (+215)<\/a> vs. Farid Basharat (-290) Between the two, Matsumoto feels like the more aggressive fighter. He likes to use big swings to hide heavy low kicks and takedowns alike, and he definitely sets a high pace. The young Brazilian fights with the kind of confidence you would expect from a 26 year old with a 17-1 pro record. Basharat, conversely, is a little more measured but still sets a very high pace. He doesn\u2019t necessarily have the same venom on his shots, but every aspect of his game flows well, and his wrestling has proven dominant five fights into his UFC career.<\/p>\n It feels like Matsumoto has run into a bit of a wall at 135-pounds. He was lucky to get the decision win last time out over Johns in a fight where he was soundly outwrestled. Basharat will likely take advantage of those same openings, and his kickboxing is slicker than Johns as well. It\u2019s always possible that a prospect like Matsumoto will come out much sharper than he looked six months ago, but based on what we\u2019ve seen so far, Basharat should be favored to win the wrestling and take home another decision win.<\/p>\n Prediction: Basharat via decision<\/p>\n LAS VEGAS, NEVADA – MAY 31: Dustin Jacoby reacts after a knockout victory against Bruno Lopes of Brazil in a light heavyweight fight during the UFC Fight Night event at UFC APEX on May 31, 2025 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Chris Unger\/Zuffa LLC)<\/p>\n Light Heavweight: Dustin Jacoby (-200)<\/a> vs. Julius Walker (+154) Jacoby is a former professional kickboxer and likes to keep fights upright. He has better range control than the average Light Heavyweight striker and is capable of picking apart opponents with the jab and low kick, but he\u2019s always fairly content to bite down on his mouthpiece and brawl when given the opportunity.<\/p>\n Surprisingly, Walker has only been a pro since April 2023. He fights like a man who has been training mixed martial arts since day one, pushing a solid pace and doing good work in the transition between clinch work, strikes, and takedowns. He\u2019s still a little raw in all areas individually, but Walker is a good enough athlete to make it work much of the time.<\/p>\n I\u2019ll confess that I find Jacoby fights wildly difficult to predict. This is a man who sprinted onto Dominick Reyes\u2019 best punch and brawled with Alonzo Menifield for some reason then immediately smoked a highly touted prospect in Vitor Petrino. I do not find him trustworthy, so no outcome would really surprise me here.<\/p>\n That said \u2026 Jacoby should win this. He\u2019s the cleaner and more powerful striekr by a significant margin, and he should be able to deny most of the takedown attempts. When his range strikes start to do damage, Walker\u2019s clinch entries and shot attempts will grow slower and easier to deny. As long as Jacoby doesn\u2019t gas horribly \u2014 which generally isn\u2019t his issue \u2014 he should be able to outland and out-damage Walker to a significant degree.<\/p>\n Prediction: Jacoby via decision<\/p>\n Final \u2018X-Factor\u2019 Picks for 2025: 62-35-1<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This weekend (Sat., Feb. 7, 2026), Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) will return home to Meta APEX in Las…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":453492,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[444],"tags":[49,48,641,33601,638,82,139445,17056,17055,8729,4454],"class_list":["post-453491","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-fighting","tag-latest-ufc-mma-news","tag-mma","tag-sports","tag-ufc-on-paramount","tag-ufc-odds","tag-ufc-predictions","tag-ufc-previews","tag-upcoming-ufc-events"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453491","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=453491"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453491\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/453492"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=453491"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=453491"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=453491"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
<\/a>Best Win for Almeida? Derrick Lewis For Kuniev? Anthony Hamilton
Current Streak: Both men lost controversial decisions in their most recent appearances
X-Factor: Almeida took the fight on short-notice
How these two match up: This is a reasonably high-level Heavyweight fight \u2026 for whatever that\u2019s worth nowadays.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n
<\/a>Best Win for Oleksiejczuk? Gerald Meerschaert For Barriault? Eryk Anders
Current Streak: Oleksiejczuk has won two in a row, whereas Barriault lost his last bout
X-Factor: Barriault has a lot of wear on the tires
How these two match up: This is a guaranteed slugfest.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n
<\/a>Best Win for Matsumoto? Miles Johns For Basharat? Chris Gutierrez
Current Streak: Matsumoto won his last bout, while Basharat is undefeated at 14-0 (5-0 UFC)
X-Factor: Basharat\u2019s the tighter defensive fighter
How these two match up: Talented young Bantamweights comfortable wherever the fight goes \u2014 what\u2019s not to like?<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n
<\/a>Best Win for Jacoby? Kennedy Nzechukwu For Walker? Raffael Cerqueira
Current Streak: Jacoby has won two in a row, whereas Walker picked up his first UFC win last time out
X-Factor: Jacoby is a bit of a wild card
How these two match up: This is classic veteran vs. prospect matchmaking.<\/p>\n