Light Heavyweights
Mingyang Zhang (17-6, 1-0 UFC) vs. Osman Diaz (9-2, 0-0 UFC)This should provide plenty of entertainment, but that also figures to be true of all Zhang fights going forward. It’s unclear exactly what type of ceiling Zhang has, but he’s young enough to improve and can still cause a lot of problems in his current state, which consists mostly of swinging hard and figuring out the rest later. Zhang’s horsepower was enough to run through Tuco Tokkos—the victory earned him a UFC contract—and Brendson Ribeiro in his UFC debut, and it could also prove to see him through against a UFC newcomer in Diaz.
Diaz put together a solid run at middleweight ahead of his 2022 appearance on the Contender Series, which saw him get knocked out by Joe Pyfer in a fun fight. Diaz has since moved up to light heavyweight and turned things around with two wins, though it’s unclear how well he will be able to replicate his recent success. Each of those fights saw Diaz get hit hard early, only to stage an impressive comeback. Diaz could easily pull the same trick here, since there isn’t much to suggest that Zhang has anything past a few minutes of hard offense, but surviving that early adversity also figures to be much more difficult against a slugger of this ilk. The pick is Zhang via first-round knockout.
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Yan vs. Figueiredo
Yan vs. Ricci
Salikhov vs. Song
Wang vs. Fernandes
Ulberg vs. Oezdemir
Zhang vs. Diaz
The Prelims