Preview: UFC Fight Night 177 ‘Waterson vs. Hill’ Main Card

Lightweights

Khama Worthy (16-6) vs. Ottman Azaitar (12-0)

ODDS: Worthy (-135), Azaitar (+115)

Worthy’s UFC career, now two fights in, has been a pleasant surprise. When the UFC picked him up to face Devonte Smith on late notice in 2019, not much was expected of him; his patient counterstriking style had some questions as far as how it would translate up a level, and “The Deathstar” had the type of spotty resume that did not portend a great deal of success. However, Worthy immediately announced himself with a quick knockout of Smith and finally got the chance to follow that up with a submission win over Luis Pena in June. Worthy’s patient and upright style does figure to have a ceiling, but far worse fighters have made a career of being the type of dynamic opportunist that can end a fight after one mistake. Worthy looks to keep his run going against a Moroccan prospect looking to live up to his considerable hype. Azaitar showed what he was all about in his UFC debut, where he absolutely melted Teemu Packalen in a brutal first-round knockout. Thus far, “The Bulldozer” has not shown much of a backup plan once his opponents do not go away, However, to his credit, Azaitar is not so much a mentally fragile frontrunner as he is someone who just does not have much of an approach besides continuing to hunt for the knockout. Worthy’s losses are primarily early knockouts before he manages to find his reads, so there is certainly a chance that Azaitar sparks him, but as long as the Pittsburgh native can survive early, he should be able to take over and start accumulating damage as his counterpart tires. The pick is Worthy via third-round stoppage.

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