Preview: UFC 303 Prelims

Despite a reshuffled main draw, the UFC 303 undercard has remained relatively intact with an interesting blend of prospects and veterans this Saturday at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. The featured fight might be the most interesting of the bunch, as Joe Pyfer looks to rebound from his first Ultimate Fighting Championship loss against an improving under-the-radar middleweight veteran in Marc-Andre Barriault. Meanwhile, Cub Swanson and Andre Fili square off in a match that somehow has not been made until now, and former heavyweight champion Andrei Arlovski returns to add another chapter to one of the promotion’s most prolific careers. Space has also been cleared for some young guns—bantamweight Payton Talbott and flyweight Rei Tsuruya are high-upside prospects—and some pure entertainment. Charles Jourdain almost always provides his share of excitement, and a bantamweight tilt pitting Ricky Simon against Vinicius Oliveira figures to bring guaranteed violence.

Now to the preview for the UFC 303 prelims:

Middleweights

Joe Pyfer (12-3, 3-1 UFC) vs. Marc-Andre Barriault (16-7, 5-6 UFC)

ODDS: Pyfer (-298), Barriault (+240)

Now that he’s hit his ceiling for the time being, it’ll be interesting to see how Pyfer regroups here. Pyfer’s first audition for the UFC went about as poorly as possible. Facing Dustin Stoltzfus on Dana White’s Contender Series in 2020, Pyfer accomplished little before gruesomely breaking his arm. “Bodybagz” made a full recovery and eventually picked up where he left off, finding his way back to DWCS two years later, scoring a quick finish and earning his long-awaited UFC contract. From there, Pyfer’s rise was notable in just how clean it was. He put his gigantic frame to good use, either knocking out or tapping out his opponents in short order, and showed a good sense for picking his spots to strike. That led to Pyfer’s first main event against Jack Hermansson, which wound up clearly being too much too soon, even with an impressive performance. He dominated the first two rounds, only to run out of ideas once Hermansson stuck around, allowing the longtime veteran to stage a comeback and sweep the last three frames for the decision victory. Now comes time for the rebound, and Pyfer doesn’t get a soft touch against Barriault, who has had a surprisingly solid UFC career. Barriault was a standout on the Canadian scene before he signed with the UFC in 2019, but “Power Bar” got by with a mashing style that figured to hit a clear ceiling against better competition. That proved true until Barriault upended his life and training situation, at which point he saw some immediate improvement. There’s now some actual craft to his striking game, which is still backed up by Barriault’s impressive psychology. Barriault might have lost his last fight to Chris Curtis via split decision, but it would’ve been unthinkable a few years ago that he would be able to hang in a striking match against someone as crafty as the former CES MMA champion. Pyfer should be the rare opponent to have Barriault physically outgunned, and while he might only have two rounds worth of ideas, that should be enough in a three-round fight. He might have to hang on late for the win, but the pick is Pyfer via decision.

Jump To »
Pyfer vs. Barriault
Fili vs. Swanson
Jourdain vs. Silva
Talbott vs. Ghemmouri
Robertson vs. Waterson-Gomez
Buday vs. Arlovski
Tsuruya vs. Hernandez
Simon vs. Oliveira