Like most Alhassan fights, this has a clear potential for violence.
A judoka by background, Alhassan came to the UFC about a decade ago
as a pure one-round fighter, hunting for the quick knockout—and
often succeeding in finding it—with little sense for any sort of
energy management or a backup plan. That made for a pretty clear
split for most of Alhassan’s career, with him either winning within
minutes or losing an ugly decision. In recent years, he has at
least found some other ideas. Alhassan’s best weapon is still his
knockout power, but he has learned to pace himself and even wrestle
a bit, mostly as a way to manage time and pick his spots while
carrying his power into multiple rounds. Even with those
progressions, Alhassan’s last fight against Cody
Brundage in July was a throwback for the 37 seconds it lasted,
as he seemingly had the knockout in hand after some wild strikes
before it was ruled that some were illegally to the back of the
head, ending the bout in a no contest. Alhassan looks to get back
in the win column against Fremd, who lost to Andre
Petroski on that same card—part of a UFC career that has seen
him settle in as a middle-of-the-road middleweight.
Fremd is massive for the division and surprisingly well-rounded,
but that size comes with some clear drawbacks. He’s also one of the
slowest fighters in the division, forcing him to outlast rather
than surprise his opponents and usually eat a lot of offense in the
process. Fremd has grimed it up against limited athletes before and
could find some success making this ugly down the stretch, but it’s
far from a safe bet that he can survive that far against someone
with the horsepower and occasional recklessness that Alhassan
provides. The pick is Alhassan via first-round knockout.
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