UFC Fight Night 98 – Preview and Predictions

The UFC returns to our TV screens this week following a three week hiatus with The Ultimate Fighter: Latin America Finale. Headlining the fight card is a pretty important fight in the lightweight division, with former champion Rafael Dos Anjos facing one of the most in-form fighters in the division in Tony ‘El Cucuy’ Ferguson. 

Dos Anjos enters this fight fresh off a KO loss to Eddie Alvarez earlier this year and will be looking to stamp his authority on a division that, prior to the Alvarez fight, looked like he had in a stranglehold since winning the title from Anthony Pettis back in 2015. Dos Anjos is a pressure fighter and rarely lets his opponent have any space to move forward, he possesses underrated wrestling and heavy hands. Against Alvarez, dos Anjos got sucked into a fire fight with one of the most durable men in the weight class and it didn’t pay off, he can’t afford to do that against Ferguson who will seize on any tiny mistake.

Ferguson is currently on an eight-fight win streak at lightweight and has been submitting people for fun with his trademark D’Arce choke. However, during his impressive run of victories, he has shown that he’s susceptible to getting hit, especially in his last fight against Lando Vannata where he was nearly knocked out on a number of occasions before bouncing back and landing a submission win. Ferguson has a crafty submission game, as evidenced by the amount of wins he has in the UFC via this method, but it’s the speed at which he gets in to the positions and snaps them on that shocks people.

Unfortunately for Ferguson, dos Anjos rarely makes the mistakes that the likes of Vannata, Edson Barboza and Josh Thomson have made against him and is a far more composed fighter than a lot of the previous opposition he has faced so far in his career. I don’t expect Dos Anjos to give Ferguson anywhere near the amount of opportunities to finish the fight as others have.

Winner: Dos Anjos via TKO in round four

The Co-Main event is the Ultimate Fighter Finale, and as I’ve not watched an episode, I couldn’t possibly preview the fight. So we’ll just say a Latin American fighter will win. That’ll do.

The last remaining fighter on the roster from the original Ultimate Fighter, Diego Sanchez gets the opportunity to get back in the win column following his loss to Joe Lauzon at UFC 200. He faces former Bellator fighter and submission whizz, Marcin Held.

It’s safe to say that Sanchez is in the twilight of his career at this point and its easy to think that he’s only on the roster for nostalgic reasons, but he has gone 2-2 in his last four fights with wins over Jim Miller and Ross Pearson (although the Pearson win is debatable). You know what you’re getting with Sanchez: he’ll come out firing from the get go and will look to get the KO, unfortunately most people on the roster are aware of this and can weather the early storm before punishing Sanchez as the fight goes on.

Marcin Held is no joke and after a stint in Bellator where he was a title contender, he now gets the opportunity to showcase his superb submission skills in the UFC. Over 50% of Held’s victories in MMA have come via submission and he’s extremely aggressive in hunting for them. Whilst that may be his forte, Held isn’t afraid to stand and bang, although against Diego Sanchez this isn’t the best strategy if he wants to win the fight. Held needs to get this fight to the canvas sharpish and show the UFC fans that he can be a threat at 155lbs.

Winner: Marcin Held via submission in round two

Ricardo Lamas was scheduled to fight BJ Penn in October at the UFC Philippines event that was cancelled following Penn’s withdrawal due to injury… as well as other reported ‘issues’ with the event. Instead, the former featherweight challenger finds himself in a far better fight, at least for the fans of BJ Penn, when he takes on Charles Oliveira.

Lamas will be hoping to bounce back from a loss to the freight train that is Max Holloway in his last outing and attempt to reassert himself as a force to be reckoned with in the division. Lamas is a well rounded fighter and has the skills to finish a fight standing or on the canvas but his nickname ‘The Bully’ should tell you all you need to know about his style of fighting, he likes to rag doll his opponents and put pressure on them throughout the fight, using wrestling to wear them down against the cage before going in for the finish. Against a fighter like Oliveira, that’s not a bad tactic to use as long as he remains vigilant against the submission attacks the Brazilian will attempt.

Charles Oliveira is a rising prospect at featherweight and despite losses to Max Holloway and Anthony Pettis in his recent fights, he’s still only 27-years-old and has shown in previous fights that he’s not far off being championship calibre if he can get a couple of wins over some of the bigger names in the division. Oliveira has some decent striking skills that are generally underrated but that’s due to his sublime submission chops, which have caught the eye on several occasions in his UFC career. His ability to find the submission irregardless of his positioning on the canvas makes him a threat to any fighter who wants to engage in a grapple-heavy fight with him, his guillotines and anaconda chokes are particularly vicious and can be locked on in a flash, which makes this fight particularly intriguing.

Winner: Lamas by decision 

Beneil Dariush has crept up on many fans as a genuine top ten fighter in the UFC, and this weekend he’ll get to showcase yet again why he deserves his place in the rankings when he takes on highly touted prospect, Rashid Magomedov.

Dariush has racked up some impressive wins during his stint in the UFC, including victories over Michael Johnson, Jim Miller and Daron Cruickshank. And, despite losing to Michael Chiesa in April this year, it didn’t take too long for Dariush to get back to winning ways, knocking out James Vick in June. Dariush is an exciting fighter to watch, with good Muay Thai and a slick submission game, he’s got all the tools to succeed at 155lbs and with few of his fights going the full three rounds, expect Dariush to look for the finish at any opportunity.

Magomedov is a juggernaut, plain and simple, and after winning four fights in a row in the UFC, it’s easy to see why he’s being touted as ‘one to watch’. As per every Dagestani fighter in the UFC, Magomedov has excellent wrestling and whilst most Sambo practitioners aren’t known for their striking, Magomedov possesses plenty of power in his game. His ability to wear people down before knocking them out has led to Magomedov going 19-1 in his career, but if he really wants to make an impact in the UFC, he needs to find a way to turn his decision wins in to finishes and with an exciting fighter like Dariush standing across from him, this could be the perfect opportunity.

Winner: Dariush by Submission in round two

A hot prospect at Strawweight, Alexa Grasso will be hoping to keep her undefeated record when she faces Heather Jo Clark in the opening fight of the main card on Saturday night.

Grasso is making her promotional debut after moving across from Invicta FC and faces a wily opponent in Clark. Grasso is an exciting fighter who has the ability to finish fights in seconds with her striking skills, something not a lot of strawweights can claim to do. Her previous fights in Invicta have earned her Fight of the Night bonuses, and she’ll be hoping to make just as much of an impact in her promotional debut for the UFC.

Clark is coming into this fight fresh off a loss to Karolina Kowalkiewicz in her last outing, and facing an opponent who’s riding a wave of momentum and is undefeated could be the worst fight to take to return to the win column. However, Clark is as game as they come and would like nothing better than to stop the Grasso hype train and show her the reality of what it takes to win in the UFC, unfortunately I can’t see that happening.

Winner;: Grasso via KO in round three

Fights to watch on the undercard; Sam Alvey vs. Alex Nicholson, Marco Beltran vs. Joe Soto and Henry Briones vs. Douglas Silva de Andrade