Preview: UFC 308 Prelims

Middleweights

Ismail Naurdiev (23-7, 0-0 UFC) vs. Bruno Silva (23-11, 4-5 UFC)

ODDS: Naurdiev (-170), Silva (+142)

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Naurdiev makes his UFC return here, which is a bit of a surprise. “The Austrian Wonderboy” made his UFC debut in 2019 and immediately looked like a potential star at welterweight, scoring a massive upset over Michel Prazeres at just 22 years old. However, Naurdiev then turned around and lost what seemed set up to be an easy win against Chance Rencountre, which set the tone for what wound up as an inconsistent four-fight career. Naurdiev surprisingly parted ways with the promotion after a 2020 loss to Sean Brady. It seemed fairly certain that Naurdiev would wind back up in the UFC after he gathered more experience, but a look at his career in the time since seems to have taken for granted the fact that he would find much success. Naurdiev has been a decent enough fighter as he has slowly moved up to middleweight, but he has still lost three of his last seven fights, mostly thanks to some lacking defense and ability to get finished. At any rate, after ending 2023 on a win, Naurdiev finds himself back in the Octagon against Silva, who could badly use a win after dropping five of his last six.

Silva took the journeyman route to the UFC and immediately settled in as a fairly solid gatekeeper to the top tiers of the division. He’s fairly durable while also being a dangerous knockout artist, though his lack of technical depth has mostly allowed anyone with some precise striking—or effective wrestling and grappling—to find some success. His March loss to Chris Weidman wasn’t a particularly great look even before a controversial ending. It saw Weidman end the fight with a combination of strikes and pokes to the eye, but the Brazilian has still generally only lost to fairly accomplished opposition. Silva is flawed enough that Naurdiev could find some success, but it’s hard to look at the UFC returnee’s spotty record and not see a decent chance for the Brazilian to find a finish. The pick is Silva via first-round knockout.

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