The Ultimate Fighting Championship on Saturday will make a one-week return to the UFC Apex in Las Vegas with a decent slate of prelims in tow. Much of the interest centers on the featured flyweight tilt, as Joshua Van—arguably the company’s best prospect at 125 pounds—gets his toughest test to date against Tagir Ulanbekov. From there, not much warrants attention in terms of stakes, but like the main draw, matchmakers packed the undercard with fighters at 145 pounds and under, so there figures to be plenty of action to go around.
Flyweights
#12 FLW | Tagir Ulanbekov (15-2, 4-1 UFC) vs. Joshua Van (10-1, 3-0 UFC)ODDS: Ulanbekov (-230), Van (+190)
It’s time for the flyweight division’s most promising prospect to get his first big test. Van came to the UFC in June 2023, and he was already on the elite prospect track. “The Fearless” made his professional debut less than two years prior and had impressed as a consistent and creative power puncher. Three fights into his UFC career, the 22-year-old has looked like an absolute prodigy. The vicious striking is still there, and it has been supplemented by some solid defensive wrestling that Van has seemingly developed from scratch over the last year. There are still some flaws to Van’s game, as he’s a slow starter whose hard-charging style also figures to walk him into a knockout at some point, but he’s on the shortlist of talents with the highest ceiling in the sport at the moment, especially given how much he seems to improve and add skills from fight to fight. To that end, it’s been disappointing to see a few fights fall through for Van, who’s consistently been willing to step in on late notice to try and hone his craft. Now that he’s finally set to be back in action, it’s good to see him get a crack at the UFC’s rankings. Ulanbekov uses the type of style you’d expect from a Dagestani fighter, with some patient striking serving as a setup to what should be a control-heavy wrestling game, even if it’s typically less dominant in practice. Ulanbekov is good at what he does but suffers from being a middling athlete in what might be the UFC’s most athletic division. A two-fight run of fights that were closer than they should’ve been—a split decision win over Allan Nascimento and a split decision loss to Tim Elliott—dulled some of Ulanbekov’s momentum along with some stretches of inactivity, but a one-sided win over Cody Durden in December served as a reminder that he can still crush an opponent from time to time. Ulanbekov does seem to get taken out of his game against an opponent who can march forward and keep him on his toes, which Van should accomplish at some point. Van will probably have his usual rough start and is likely to get outwrestled early, so the main concern is that getting neutralized for a round keeps him from heating up entirely. However, Van looks like the type of prospect who should have a big third round even if things are rough up to that point, so he could score a late finish even if he’s down on the scorecards. The pick is Van via decision.
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