Preview: UFC 288 Prelims

The Ultimate Fighting Championship on Saturday will return to Newark, New Jersey, with UFC 288 and a solid slate of nine prelims. It is all about action in the featured slot, as lightweights Drew Dober and Matt Frevola look to continue their respective streaks of bringing high-level violence to the cage. Further down the card is the other gem in this batch of fights: an all-Brazilian strawweight affair between Marina Rodriguez and Virna Jandiroba that should help sort some things out in a division badly in need of some direction. Otherwise, it is the usual mix of well-matched fights and some opportunities for pure entertainment, though newcomers Ikram Aliskerov and Rafael Ramos Estevam stand out as two of the stronger talents from the most recent edition of Dana White’s Contender Series.

Now to the preview for the UFC 288 “Sterling vs. Cejudo” prelims:

Lightweights

#14 LW | Drew Dober (26-11, 12-7 UFC) vs. Matt Frevola (10-3-1, 4-3-1 UFC)

ODDS: Dober (-205), Frevola (+175)

This should be a barnburner. Dober was one of the more anonymous members of the UFC roster for a few years. Debuting in 2013, Dober had just enough success to stay above the cut line but did not show much until a breakout win over Scott Holtzman in 2016, where he impressed as a high-volume striker. That led to a few years where Dober was a reliable middle-of-the-road lightweight, but when he discovered some knockout power in 2019, it was off to the races. Blessed with an indestructible chin, Dober is more than willing to stand and trade; and he is rarely truly out of a fight, only getting handled against the strongest wrestlers on what has become an impressive resume over the years. Dober’s last win over Bobby Green in December drove home that fact. A particularly slick striker, Green managed to frustrate the Elevation Fight Team rep up until the point that he suddenly did not, as the second round saw Dober become one of the few opponents to knock out the former King of the Cage champion. Now riding three straight wins, Dober probably deserves another shot at a ranked opponent, but for the time being, he is back on action-fighter duty here against a fellow madman in Frevola. Long Island’s “Steamrolla” has a lot of the tools necessary to become a contender, fighting behind aggression with both knockout power and an impressive wrestling game that led him to complete performances over Jalin Turner and Luis Pena earlier in his UFC career. The flipside of that is that Frevola often starts cold and immediately charges into a knockout, and rather than learning caution, he has seemingly leaned even more into kill-or-be-killed performances. His longest fight in the last two years has lasted just 3:15. If Frevola settles into this fight, his wrestling could pay dividends, but it likely will not get that far. It will be fun while it lasts, but the pick is Dober via first-round knockout.

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Dober vs. Frevola
Nzechukwu vs. Clark
Williams vs. Bedoya
Rodriguez vs. Jandiroba
Porter vs. Smith
Aliskerov vs. Hawes
Estevam vs. Zhumagulov
Ribeiro vs. Holmes
Santos vs. Munoz Jr.