Bantamweights
Brad Katona (7-0) vs. Matthew Lopez (10-3): Katona was probably the standout “The Ultimate Fighter 27.” Born in Canada but training out of Dublin and with a confusing accent to match, Katona rode a well-rounded game to becoming the season’s featherweight winner without much trouble. He drops down to his natural class of bantamweight here to take on Lopez, who has scuffled a bit since reaching top prospect status. Wins over Mitch Gagnon and Johnny Eduardo netted Lopez a ranking, but losses to Raphael Assuncao and Alejandro Perez made him look much more limited, particularly on the feet. This is an interesting matchup. While Lopez is a fairly unstructured fighter, he also feels like too much of an athlete for Katona to overcome, particularly if Katona looks to try and take this to the mat. A striking match between the two would be more even, but at some point, these two will start grappling. From there, Lopez looks to be both stronger and better technically. The pick is Lopez via third-round stoppage. ODDS: Katona (-260), Lopez (+220)Advertisement
Welterweights
Chad Laprise (13-3) vs. Dhiego Lima (12-7): Lima looks to be the platonic ideal of a Quadruple-A fighter. he can strike a bit and wrestle a bit, and he is a decent athlete. However, none of those skills translate to the UFC level, and when combined with his lack of durability, the result is Lima looking good on the regional scene only to get turned back once he hits the big time. Lima faces Canada’s Laprise, who won the welterweight tournament on “The Ultimate Fighter Nations” in 2014. After a decent run at lightweight, he moved back to 170 pounds and enjoyed some success. Laprise’s recent loss to Vicente Luque showed he can be dominated by stronger athletes, but in general, his technically sound boxing game works a lot better with the additional speed of fighting up at welterweight. With that in mind, he should be able to find Lima’s chin without much trouble. The pick is Laprise via first-round knockout. ODDS: Laprise (-330), Lima (+270)Lightweights
Carlos Diego Ferreira (13-2) vs. Jesse Ronson (20-8): Ronson went winless in his first UFC run, but in retrospect, his resume looks a lot better. Michel Prazeres, Francisco Trinaldo and Kevin Lee all turned out to be excellent fighters, and two of those losses were via split decision. Ronson has endured an up-and-down run in the years since. Now riding a five-fight winning streak, the Ontario native steps in as a late replacement to face Ferreira. The 33-year-old Ferreira has been a decent lightweight gatekeeper, and after serving a two-year United States Anti-Doping Agency suspension, he came back in strong fashion with a quick knockout against Jared Gordon. Ronson is a durable, well-rounded fighter, but Ferreira figures to be the harder hitter and better athlete. This is the sort of bout where neither man has a huge advantage anywhere, but the pick is Ferreira via decision. ODDS: Ferreira (-345), Ronson (+285)Light Heavyweights
Devin Clark (9-2) vs. Aleksandar Rakic (10-1): Austria’s Rakic suddenly put his name on the map as a top light heavyweight prospect in 2018. Rakic had a perfectly fine debut against Francimar Barroso -- he won the type of slow-paced striking match that the latter typically prefers -- but he absolutely showed out in his last fight against Justin Ledet, mixing an aggressive striking game with some dominating wrestling. It remains unclear how much of that was Rakic evolving and how much of it was Ledet’s flawed game, but this bout against Clark should go a long way towards sorting that out. Clark has been a solid prospect during his two-plus years on the UFC roster, slowly improving fight by fight and fleshing out aspects of his game beyond his power wrestling. That wrestling is Clark’s path to victory. If Clark can take down Rakic, he can grind out a win, but otherwise, Rakic’s aggression and volume should be enough to win rounds, if not score a finish. Rakic being able to get things done is probably the safer bet, so his winning via decision is the pick. ODDS: Rakic (-500), Clark (+400)We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.
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