Middleweights
NR | Dalcha Lungiambula (11-3) vs. NR | Cody Brundage (6-2)Odds: Lungiambula (-120), Brundage (+100)
This might wind up as an ugly bout, but it'll be interesting to see these two middleweights continue to figure things out. Lungiambula's path to victory on the South African scene was simple enough; a powerful athlete, he could rely on his physicality to either quickly knock his opponents out or overpower them in close quarters. But that's been a tougher proposition at the UFC level, as while he's had his moments, he has yet to put together a dominant performance from wire to wire. Heading into 2021, Lungiambula made the surprising choice to cut down to middleweight, which hasn't really paid off to date; whatever further power advantage he may have has been offset by the weight cut absolutely draining his gas tank, making him a two-round fighter at best. After fading badly against Marc-Andre Barriault in September, Lungiambula looks to rebound against Cody Brundage, a raw prospect who's slowly putting things together. Brundage comes from a wrestling background and less than three years into his pro career, that's still his bread and butter; while he's done some solid work to build out a striking game, his results thus far have hinged almost entirely on his ability to out-wrestle his opponent. Thus far that's led to trouble under the Zuffa banner; Brundage was physically overwhelmed trying to out-wrestle William Knight on the Contender Series in 2020, and his September UFC debut saw him put in a game effort but essentially lose a wrestling match to Nick Maximov. Brundage figures to meet Lungiambula head-on, which means there's a chance that this plays out much like his fight against Knight, with Brundage getting stalled out by a stronger opponent and quickly pounded out. But this looks even enough that Brundage should be able to survive any early trouble, after which Lungiambula figures to tire out to the point of ineffectiveness; the pick is Brundage via third-round stoppage.
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