Preview: UFC on ESPN 49 ‘Holm vs. Bueno Silva’

Middleweights

Jun Yong Park (16-5, 6-2 UFC) vs. Albert Duraev (16-4, 2-1 UFC) ODDS: Park (-155), Duraev (+135)

Park has quietly put together a successful UFC career, so it is nice to see him get some shine here. A 2019 signee, “The Iron Turtle” came to the UFC as a dedicated counterstriker who quickly found a ceiling in his UFC debut—a loss to Anthony Hernandez that has admittedly aged quite well. To his credit, Park quickly shifted to a more aggressive approach, mostly in the form of leaning on a wrestling game that has become more and more of a focus of what he brings to the table. Since the Hernandez fight, things have gone swimmingly for Park, with six wins in his last seven fights, even as his career has not seemed to have much direction. Even his lone loss to Gregory Rodrigues was a near-miss in an all-out war, so it has been surprising to see Park mostly get handed steps back in terms of competition and profile. However, he gets a bump back up against Duraev, who looks to regain some of the momentum he had coming into his UFC debut. Duraev was clearly ready for a major promotion prior to his dominating win on Dana White’s Contender Series in 2021, and the Russian talked a big game in terms of his willingness to take on all comers. However, his UFC debut a few months later seemed to deflate a lot of that hype. He still won a clear decision over Roman Kopylov but tired badly by the end of what figured to be a showcase fight on paper. Duraev’s two fights since have been a mixed bag. He did not get much done before suffering a doctor stoppage loss to Joaquin Buckley, and a narrow win over Chidi Njokuani in March was both a big victory and a bit of an aimless performance from him. If Duraev does not quickly get to what he does best, there is a pretty solid path for Park to outmaneuver the Russian on the feet and cruise to a clear if uninspiring victory. With that said, the bet is that at some point one of these two looks to wrestle, at which point Duraev should take over. He is the less trustworthy fighter of these two, but the pick is Duraev via decision.

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Holm vs. Bueno Silva
Park vs. Duraev
Dumont vs. Chandler
Prado vs. Azaitar
Sadykhov vs. McKinney
The Prelims