UFC 286: Quick selects and prognostications

MMA Junkie expert Dan Tom breaks down the UFC’s top bouts. Today, we appearance at the primary card for UFC 286.

UFC 286 takes location Saturday at The O2 in London. The primary card airs on pay-per-view listbelow prelims on ESPNews and early prelims on ESPN+.

Welcome to MMAJunkie’s Quick Picks and Prognostications, where I’ll be offering short breakdowns for UFC primary cards.

I hope these articles wear’t come off as curt or dismissive. My objective here is to deal fast selects and analysis in a absorbable format. All chances noted are supplied by Tipico Sportsbook.

If you’d like more comprehensive analysis from me, then feel complimentary to check out my weekly program, The Protect Ya’ Neck Podcast.

Marvin Vettori (-275) vs. Roman Dolidze (+210)

Marvin Vettori

Despite previous matchmaker Joe Silva’s bulletproof method of reservation light-weight or featherweight battles to kick off pay-per-views, the existing UFC matchmakers are when onceagain looking towards the middleweights to get this celebration began.

Marvin Vettori, who is looking to bounce back from a difficult loss to Robert Whittaker, will take on the Georgian wildman, Roman Dolidze.

Dolidze is a harmful submission fighter with knockout power in tow, however Vettori is about as unkillable as Blagoy Ivanov.

I’ll take Vettori to take a grinding choice after enduring a odd veryfirst round.

Casey O’Neill (-185) vs. Jenifer Maia (+150)

Casey O’Neill

Filling out the primary card is an intriguing flyweight match inbetween Casey O’Neill and Jenifer Maia.

O’Neill will be making her return off of a 1year layoff due to injury, while Maia will be looking to safeguard her leading-10 ranking and maybe make another run towards to leading of the department.

Although my confessed Xtreme Couture predisposition has me leaning towards Casey, Maia’s counter boxing and clinch videogame make her a live canine in this area. That stated, I’ll still side with O’Neill’s output and aggressiveness to win the day in what I thinkof will be a competitive battle from start to surface.

Gunnar Nelson (-375) vs. Bryan Barberena (+280)

Bryan Barberena

Quietly serving as one of the muchbetter offerings on the card is an unscripted welterweight encounter inbetween Gunnar Nelson and Bryan Barberena.

Despite Barberena’s last loss leaving a bad taste in mouths while atthesametime supplying a prospective plan for Nelson, I believe this battle might be stealthily moredetailed than the chances are showing.

Barberena generally is much muchbetter about utilizing the cage in combination with wrist controls to stand, and the American likewise provides penalizing elbows that have traditionally wreaked havoc on Nelson.

Don’t get me incorrect: Nelson is the beenworthyof preferred and no one must be shocked if he’s able to get to his videogame early on in this battle. That stated, if Nelson stopsworking to surface by the middle of the 2nd round, then that mostlikely implies something went incorrect for the 34-year-old.

It’s a dangerous choice, however I’ll flight with the underdog in Barberena to come up huge with an distressed blockage in the 3rd round.

Justin Gaethje (+190) vs. Rafael Fiziev (-240)

Justin Gaethje vs. Rafael Fiziev

The co-main occasion for UFC 286 is a wonderful light-weight face-off inbetween Justin Gaethje and Rafael Fiziev.

Even though seeing Gaethje as an underdog in a striking match might surprise some, most individuals in the understand won’t be surprised to see Fiziev as the preferred in this area.

Gaethje hasactually made some marked enhancements under the tutelage of Trevor Wittman, however I believe his body-shot vulnerabilities and tendency to dip difficult to his right side will hurt him in this match.

Not just does Fiziev punctuate mixes with ruthless switch kicks to the body, however the Tiger Muay Thai item likewise hasactually been combating more out of southpaw of late.

The choice is for Fiziev to knock Gaethje out with either a head kick or liver kick in the veryfirst round.