Preview: UFC Fight Night 205 Prelims

The Ultimate Fighting Championship on Saturday touches down at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas for the second time in as many weeks and does so with an undercard high on potential action. A catchweight tilt pitting former two-division TKO Major League MMA champion Marc-Andre Barriault against Dana White’s Contender Series alum Jordan Wright carries the freight for the UFC Fight Night 205 prelims, along with a welterweight affair matching Dwight Grant with Sergey Khandozhko. The event also marks the long-awaited return of Tyson Pedro, who has not been seen inside the Octagon in more than three years.

Now to the preview for the UFC Fight Night 205 “Lemos vs. Andrade” prelims:

Middleweights

NR | Marc-Andre Barriault (13-5, 2-4 UFC) vs. NR | Jordan Wright (12-2, 2-2 UFC)

BETUS ODDS: Barriault (-180), Barriault (+150)

Barriault’s most recent defeat was a bit worrying. Quebec’s “Power Bar” came to the UFC with some hype after a successful regional career but figured to have a rocky path to UFC success. Even in those regional fights, Barriault got by through winning ugly wars of attrition, often turning things around by wading through his opponents’ offense and outlasting them in a gritty victory. Barriault did indeed start his UFC career with three straight losses, each in grimy affairs, but finally started finding some success in 2021 against opponents he was simply able to wear out. Then came his February bout against Chidi Njokuani, a talented fighter who figured to give Barriault some issues. However, it was a shock to see Barriault quickly get dropped and knocked out just 16 seconds into the fight. It could just be a one-off finish, but if it marks the moment that Barriault’s chin has finally cracked, then this could be a hard fall given how much of his style depends on leveraging his previously near-inhuman durability. That is also a huge concern here in this 190-pound catchweight affair against Wright, whose style depends almost entirely upon scoring a quick knockout. “The Beverly Hills Ninja” adopts a karate style that should be defensively evasive in theory but typically just leads to fights that are races to an early finish. Either Wright can land that quick knockout blow, or his style gets completely torn apart by opponents able to get into close quarters and bully him. Previous to that Njokuani knockout, this would have been an easy call for Barriault, but that result does add some trepidation. Still, the Canadian’s track record is strong enough that the pick is Barriault via second-round knockout.

Continue Reading » Khandozhko vs. Grant

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