Lightweights
Joaquim Silva (11-1) vs. Nasrat Haqparast (10-2)Advertisement
It has taken over a decade, but the UFC may finally have its breakout German talent in Nasrat Haqparast. The Hamburg native improved rapidly from fight to fight prior to his UFC career, and his debut went about as well as possible in a loss. Faced with an extremely tough ask against Marcin Held, Haqparast managed to hang close for the better part of 15 minutes. However, it was not until 2018 that the hype train truly got rolling on Haqparast, as he nailed down his breakout win at the expense of fellow top prospect Marc Diakiese. Haqparast showed off a consistent pressure game that is ridiculously impressive given his young age, as he refused to give Diakiese time to get comfortable and set up his own power. Haqparast got a step back his last time out, but it was a similar story against Thibault Gouti, and the Kelvin Gastelum doppelganger is now back to getting tough tests, this time against Brazil’s Silva.
Silva continues in the fine tradition of Vitor Belfort, continuously extolling the virtues of Brazilian jiu-jitsu while not showing much grappling skill inside the cage. Silva’s submission game may well exist, but he just has not bothered to try and implement it, instead trying to solve all his problems by punching his way through them. To his credit, it has worked more times than not. “The Ultimate Fighter Brazil 4” alum has managed to outlast all of his lightweight castmates, and has a 34-second knockout of Andrew Holbrook and an impressive win over Jared Gordon to his name. At some point, Silva would be better served to be more than an action fighter -- Vinc Pichel managed to stay patient and basically refuse to give Silva a good opportunity to throw haymakers -- but for the time being, it is hard to argue with the results.
This could be a tricky fight for Haqparast, who nonetheless remains the A-side for this bout. Silva’s lone loss came when Pichel slowed things down and did not give him much with which to work, but even if Haqparast is the more skilled fighter, the German has the opposite approach, instead looking to break his opponents with constant pressure. That is not likely to happen here. Silva may be one-dimensional, but he probably will not be cowed in a firefight and is more likely to start throwing bombs than seek refuge. As was the case in the Diakiese fight, Haqparast should be able to win this through aggression, hand speed and sheer volume, even if he may have to take some damage to do so. It is a singularly dangerous fight and represents some excellent matchmaking from the UFC brass to test Haqparast, but the pick is for him to take a clear decision.
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