Welterweights
NR | Sergey Khandozhko (26-6-1, 1-1 UFC) vs. NR | Dwight Grant (11-4, 3-3 UFC)Grant has been a frustrating talent thus far in his UFC career. When everything is clicking for “The Body Snatcher,” he is a terror of a knockout artist who looks like enough of a physical force to compete with any opponent, but those moments are few and far between. By default, Grant seems much more content to stay patient and wait for the perfect shot, committing to a low-output style that has led to unnecessarily close fights or outright decision losses. Now 37 years old—and after another such fight resulted in a split decision loss to Francisco Trinaldo in October—it seems unlikely that Grant will change his stripes to any great extent, but perhaps he will press the issue a bit more against Khandozhko. Russia’s Khandozhko is an interesting and creative striker but has not been particularly active during his UFC tenure, as this marks his first fight since 2019; and he has yet to fully show out in either of his UFC bouts thus far. His debut against Rostem Akman was a solid performance in a win, but getting matched against the neutralizing and grinding style of Rustam Khabilov just led to a lackluster decision loss. Khandozhko may not press the pace enough to fully separate himself from Grant on the scorecards, but he does seem like the surer bet in terms of output and should have enough diversity to his offense to frustrate the American and avoid any huge bursts of power. This may be tedious, but the pick is Khandozhko via decision.
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