Things have not gone well for Wright thus far, but at least it has
been entertaining. Wright’s UFC career has kept up the pattern from
his regional fights, which were all relatively quick and brutal. A
karate stylist, “The Beverly Hills Ninja” crashes into his
opponents in short order for some kill-or-be-killed action. That
earned Wright two wins in his first three trips to the Octagon, but
the situation has gone south since his knockout loss to Bruno Silva
at the tail end of 2021. To his credit, Wright has been making some
adjustments in the form of adding some wrestling to his attack, but
that has not done much to change the dynamics of his fights. Wright
ran headlong into a submission against Marc-Andre
Barriault, and his last fight against Dusko
Todorovic saw him gas out and get finished in the longest fight
of his career, which lasted just a shade over eight minutes. Wright
moves up to light heavyweight to perhaps find some success against
Pauga, the heavyweight runner-up on Season 30 of “The Ultimate
Fighter.” Pauga is a late comer to mixed martial arts, starting his
pro career at age 32 after a few years in football, but he has
looked good as a prospect against a solid level of competition,
showing an ability to fight behind either striking or wrestling as
the situation dictates. On the overall season as a whole, Pauga
probably looked the best of any fighter in the house despite being
a natural light heavyweight, but that size difference became an
issue in the final, where he suffered a sudden knockout loss to
Mohammed
Usman. There is a chance Pauga could get caught again here. He
is not a particularly fast-paced fighter by default, and he has not
really been tested against anything like the all-out aggression
Wright brings to the table. With that said, it is also hard to have
much faith in Wright given how poorly things tend to go after about
four minutes. The pick is Pauga via second-round stoppage.
UFC News & Features
