Preview: UFC on ESPN 14 ‘Whittaker vs. Till’

Bear Jew!

Huge knees lead to @PCraigMMA finishing Moreira in round 1! #UFCMexico pic.twitter.com/A9JWaZRKkm

— UFC (@ufc) September 21, 2019

Light Heavyweights

Paul Craig (12-4-1) vs. Gadzhimurad Antigulov (20-6)
Odds: Craig (-115), Antigulov (-105)

This should be quick, one way or the other. Antigulov's UFC tenure -- and most of his career in general -- is pretty clearly well-defined; he either beats his opponents immediately, or loses his fights slightly later than immediately. Through his first two bouts inside of the Octagon, Antigulov looked like a future title contender, running through Marcos Rogerio de Lima and Joachim Christensen for quick submission victories. But his last two bouts showed that the Russian is essentially a runaway train careening wildly off the tracks; Ion Cutelaba survived the initial onslaught to score a sudden victory, while Michal Oleksiejczuk simply let Antigulov run into his fists until the fight was quickly over.

Craig's the next man up to try and score a win over Antigulov, and the Scot has had a surprisingly successful UFC campaign thus far. Craig's an aggressive submission artist and little else in terms of effective offense, but he's managed to steal a few victories over some prospects: he memorably scored a literal last-second win over Magomed Ankalaev, and did much the same trick against Kennedy Nzechukwu early last year. Craig's looking to build off a split draw against “Shogun” Rua, and this fight is basically a coin flip. Craig's taken some beatings en route to those comeback wins, so he could survive here, but he seems confident enough in his own abilities that he's likely to try some sort of high-risk strike that will lead him to a loss, or just try and hang with Antigulov on the ground, which would also be a mistake. The pick is Antigulov via first-round submission.

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